There are two good reasons why you haven't seen Linda Tripp mentioned much recently. First, Tripp is lying low, understandably. Second, and more significant, the Clinton muckraking machine has dug and dug and dug for dirt on Tripp and come up empty. Count on it: If there were sleaze in Tripp's past, the Clintonites would have made sure you knew it by now.
Meanwhile Tripp has beefed up her legal team. Her original lawyer, a sole practitioner and agriculture-regulation specialist named James Moody, was overwhelmed by the case of his suddenly famous client and its demands on his time. He has since been joined by two Baltimore lawyers, Anthony Zaccagnini and Joe Murtha, with backgrounds in criminal law. Why criminal law? Fanciful as it may seem, Tripp still faces the prospect of prosecution for taping those infamous Lewinsky phone calls. Tripp lives in Maryland, where such taping is illegal. The law makes exceptions for persons who, like Tripp, tape without knowing that it's illegal to do so, or who are forced to do so by duress or "necessity" of circumstances. For now the Maryland state prosecutor's office has said it will do nothing until the Starr investigation is concluded.
Tripp herself is living in what Zaccagnini calls a "secure location," arranged by her bosses at the Pentagon after threats were made against her. She continues in her Defense Department job, communicating by phone and fax from her "safe house." She's also in frequent communication with Starr's office, preparing for her appearance before the grand jury, which she expects in the next few weeks.
Through her lawyer, Tripp did have one specific request for THE WEEKLY STANDARD: "Take it easy" on the caricatures. "She saw the last one," said Zaccagnini, referring to Kent Lemon's illustration in our Feb. 16 issue, "and she didn't like it a whole lot." It's good to see that she's still able to be censorious.