Linda Tripp facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Linda Tripp
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Yearbook photo
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| Born |
Linda Rose Carotenuto
November 24, 1949 Jersey City, New Jersey, U.S.
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| Died | April 8, 2020 (aged 70) |
| Education | Hanover Park High School |
| Occupation | Civil servant, small business owner |
| Known for | Role in Clinton–Lewinsky scandal |
| Spouse(s) |
Bruce M. Tripp
(m. 1971; div. 1990)Dieter Rausch
(m. 2004) |
| Children | 2 |
Linda Rose Tripp (née Carotenuto; November 24, 1949 – April 8, 2020) was an American civil servant who played a prominent role in the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal of 1998. Tripp's action in illegally and secretly recording Monica Lewinsky's confidential phone calls about her relationship with President Bill Clinton caused a sensation with their links to the earlier Clinton v. Jones lawsuit and with the disclosing of intimate details. Tripp claimed that her motives were purely patriotic, and she avoided a wiretap charge by agreeing to hand over the tapes.
She later claimed that her firing from the Pentagon at the end of the Clinton administration was vindictive, but the administration called it standard procedure for a political appointee.
From 2002, Tripp and her husband, Dieter Rausch, owned and ran a year-round holiday store, The Christmas Sleigh, in Middleburg, Virginia.
Early life and career
Tripp was born Linda Rose Carotenuto in Jersey City, New Jersey. She was the daughter of Albert Carotenuto, an Italian-American high school math and science teacher, and his wife, Inge, a German woman whom he had met while he was an American soldier stationed in Germany. They divorced in 1968. Raised in the Whippany section of Hanover Township, she graduated from Hanover Park High School in East Hanover, New Jersey in 1968. She later worked as a secretary in Army Intelligence at Fort Meade, Maryland. In 1971, she married Bruce Tripp, a military officer with whom she had a son and a daughter. They divorced amicably in 1990.
A White House employee in the George H. W. Bush administration, she kept her job when Bill Clinton became president in 1993. Later, she was moved to a position in the White House Counsel's office under Bernard Nussbaum and his deputy Vince Foster During the summer of 1994, senior White House aides wanted Tripp removed from the White House and transferred her to the public affairs office in the Pentagon, which raised her salary by $20,000.
Later years
Tripp married the German architect Dieter Rausch in 2004. The couple lived in Middleburg, Virginia, where they owned and operated a German winter-themed holiday store, called the Christmas Sleigh.
In an appearance with Larry King on Larry King Live on December 1, 2003, Tripp talked about living with breast cancer. On the subject of her successful invasion of privacy lawsuit against the federal government, Tripp said she actually came out behind financially because of attorneys' fees and the derailment of her government career. She also said her violations of Lewinsky's privacy and the Clinton administration's violations of her privacy were not equivalent, as the Clinton administration's leaking of her employment history was illegal. She noted that although her wiretapping was also illegal, she was able to avoid prosecution for such by accepting immunity in exchange for her testimony.
Tripp died after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer at the age of 70 on April 8, 2020.
Portrayals
Tripp was portrayed by John Goodman in recurring Saturday Night Live sketches. Tripp had mixed feelings about the impression, saying she was amused by most of the sketches, but mentioning that at least one had hurt her feelings.
Tripp was portrayed by Sarah Paulson in the television series Impeachment: American Crime Story, which premiered on September 7, 2021, on FX.
See also
In Spanish: Linda Tripp para niños
