In the fall of 1997, literary agent Lucianne Goldberg advised White House aide Linda Tripp to secretly record telephone conversations with Monica Lewinsky about Lewinsky’s relationship with President Bill Clinton. Goldberg told Tripp that Maryland law permitted recording a call without the other party’s consent; the source states that advice was incorrect, because Maryland law required consent. Tripp ultimately recorded about 20 hours of conversations. Goldberg arranged for Tripp to speak with Newsweek reporter Michael Isikoff and urged that the tapes be given to independent counsel Kenneth Starr, while also bringing them to lawyers involved in Paula Jones’s sexual-harassment case against Clinton.
After the affair became public in January 1998, the recordings became central to Starr’s investigation into whether Clinton had committed perjury during a sworn deposition. The House of Representatives later impeached Clinton, and the Senate acquitted him. Goldberg was subpoenaed before a Maryland grand jury considering whether Tripp should be indicted; knowledge that the recordings were illegal was required for prosecution, and Goldberg testified that she had given Tripp incorrect legal advice. Charges against Tripp were ultimately dropped. The episode remains a prominent example of politically motivated covert recording producing major legal and constitutional consequences, while also exposing the risks of relying on informal advice about wiretap law.
