EXCLUSIVE: Linda Tripp, the Clinton sex scandal whistleblower who secretly recorded private phone calls with Monica Lewinksy, dies at age 70 ‘after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer less than a week ago’
- Linda Tripp died on Wednesday morning and a close friend told DailyMail.com that ‘she died with a smile on her face’
- Tripp was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer less than a week ago
- Husband Dieter Rausch and their daughter Allison Foley were the only relatives allowed to be in Tripp’s room in the ICU due to coronavirus protocols
- ‘My mommy is leaving this earth. I don’t know myself if I can survive this heartache,’ Linda Tripp’s daughter Allison wrote on Facebook Tuesday
- Linda Tripp’s secret conversations with Monica Lewinski led to the impeachment of Bill Clinton in 1998 after she was a whistleblower
- Lewinski said ‘no matter the past, upon hearing that linda tripp is very seriously ill, i hope for her recovery. i can’t imagine how difficult this is for her family’
Linda Tripp died this morning with her husband and daughter at her bedside, DailyMail.com has learned.
Tripp, whose taped conversations with Monica Lewinsky nearly brought down the Clinton presidency, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer less than a week ago when she took herself to hospital suffering from stomach pains.
Husband Dieter Rausch and their daughter Allison Foley were the only relatives allowed to be in Tripp’s room in the ICU due to coronavirus protocols.
Speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com Diane Spreadbury, one of Tripp’s closest friends for more than two decades, described her as, ‘A wonderful person.’
Linda Tripp died on Wednesday morning and a close friend told DailyMail.com that ‘she died with a smile on her face’
Linda Tripp’s secret conversations with Monica Lewinski (left) led to the impeachment of Bill Clinton (right) in 1998 after she blew the whistle on their affair
She said, ‘We were like sisters. I loved her. I’m heartbroken right now.
‘But I’m glad for her that it was very peaceful. I’ve been told she died with a smile on her face.
‘We had discussed death many times and spoke of it together when she faced breast cancer 18 years ago. It wasn’t something that she was afraid of.’
There will be no funeral due to the pandemic but rather a private internment and a memorial service will be held at a later date
Tripp is survived by her husband Dieter Rausch, her daughter, and a son named Ryan.
Lewinsky, 46, acknowledged Tripp’s fate in her own social media message on Wednesday.
Tripp was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer less than a week ago, DailyMail.com has learned
Lewinsky, 46, acknowledged Tripp’s fate in her own social media message on Wednesday
Lewinsky said shortly after in a court cases regarding privacy that she hated Tripp for betraying her trust
Clinton Library video of a 1997 photo op where Monica Lewinsky is seen with president Bill Clinton
‘No matter the past, upon hearing that linda tripp is very seriously ill, i hope for her recovery,’ Lewinsky tweeted. ‘I can’t imagine how difficult this is for her family.’
In 1999, Lewinsky gave evidence against Tripp after details of their private conversations were revealed to the world.
Tripp had grown close to the then-intern at the White House and secretly recorded their conversations.
She eventually revealed that ‘the president has a girlfriend’ and used the recordings to back her up. She opened up on the condition of immunity.
But one recording handed to the media before she was granted immunity got her in hot water. Tripp faced charges for illegally recording Lewinski and providing the tape to Newsweek.
Linda Tripp was a civil servant at the Pentagon and exposed Bill Clinton’s wrongdoing
At one point Tripp was regarded as one of the most hated women in America
Lewinsky testified again her in 1999 in a privacy case that focused on Tripp giving the media a tape from her conversations with Lewinsky
In court at the time Lewinsky spoke of how she felt betrayed and said: ‘I hate Linda Tripp.’
Tripp’s son-in-law was unable to provide any information about her condition.
‘I think right now it’s a family situation,’ he told the New York Post on Wednesday.
At the risk of her friendship and reputation, Tripp has no regrets about blowing the whistle.
‘It was always about right and wrong, never left and right,’ Tripp said at a National Whistleblower Day event in a 2018. ‘It was about exposing perjury and the obstruction of justice,’ she continued. ‘It was never about politics.’