Judge Rules Tripp Must Stand Trial

A Maryland state judge refused Friday to throw out the prosecution of Linda Tripp on charges of illegal wiretapping, ruling that the woman who instigated the investigation of President Clinton’s relationship with a White House intern must stand trial in July.

However, Howard County Circuit Judge Diane O. Leasure imposed limits on the testimony of former intern Monica S. Lewinsky, whom Tripp taped, which may make it more difficult for prosecutors to prove their case.

Leasure limited Lewinsky’s testimony because she found that her recollection of events in December 1997, when several taped telephone conversations between Lewinsky and Tripp occurred, was based partly on her knowledge of Tripp’s testimony under a grant of immunity to a federal grand jury in Washington in 1998.

When a witness such as Tripp testifies under a grant of immunity from prosecution, nothing she says may be used against her. The fact that Lewinsky’s testimony to Maryland prosecutors was aided by her familiarity with Tripp’s account, as reported in the media and by former independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr, constitutes a misuse of that immunity, the judge said.

Tripp’s secret taping of Lewinsky, her former confidant, triggered Starr’s January 1998 investigation of Clinton and the president’s subsequent impeachment by the House. The president was acquitted after a Senate trial.

Although Tripp could not have been prosecuted in federal court, under Maryland law a case could be brought against her. Maryland law prohibits the tape-recording of phone conversations without the consent of both parties, and Tripp is a Maryland resident.

A county grand jury indicted Tripp last July 30 on two counts of breaking the state’s anti-wiretapping law.

If convicted, Tripp could face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of $20,000. She is the only major figure in the Clinton sex scandal to face criminal prosecution. Lewinsky also appeared before Starr’s grand jury after receiving a grant of immunity.

Leasure said Lewinsky can testify that she never gave Tripp permission to tape their conversations. However, the key tape figuring in Tripp’s indictment was made on Dec. 22, 1997, an important date that prosecutors must establish because Tripp was put on notice the previous month, according to other witnesses, that wiretapping was illegal.

Joseph Murtha, Tripp’s defense lawyer, said he was encouraged by the judge’s ruling. “I believe it really hobbles the state in its ability to go forward,” he said. Prosecutors need a witness to testify that Tripp made the tape after she had been told wiretapping was illegal, Murtha said, adding that “the state will have to be very innovative to present such evidence.”

Lewinsky cannot testify that the tape was made on Dec. 22, 1997, because she obtained that information from Tripp’s testimony, the judge found.

Deputy state prosecutor Mike McDonough said the ruling “is clearly in our favor” in that Leasure refused to dismiss the case, as Murtha had urged. But McDonough refused to say how he will establish the crucial Dec. 22 date without Lewinsky’s testimony.

“Some of this testimony [which has been ruled out] was fairly significant evidence,” he said. “We are reviewing all the evidence to see where the ruling leaves us. We are looking at our options.”

Leasure said she was not dismissing the entire case because “the government has not presented the grand jury with immunized testimony,” even though it presented some evidence obtained indirectly “through the use of some testimony.”

Tripp, in a separate statement, said: “This case is being prosecuted solely because I blew the whistle on President Clinton’s attempt to fix a court case.” She apparently was referring to Paula Corbin Jones’ sexual harassment lawsuit against the president.