Linda Tripp arrives at the the U.S. Courthouse Tuesday. (AP Photo) Related Links Tripp: 'I Did Not Cultivate Monica' (Washington Post, June 30) Key Player Profile: Linda R. Tripp Tripp's Jan. 30 Statement to the Press

By John Solomon
Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, June 30, 1998; 6:05 p.m. EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Linda Tripp, whose tape-and-tell friendship with Monica Lewinsky spurred a White House crisis, spent six hours Tuesday explaining to a grand jury why she secretly recorded the young intern and brought to light allegations of a presidential affair and coverup.

``I find it very easy to truthfully answer the questions posed to me by the prosecutors and the grand jury,'' Mrs. Tripp told her lawyer as she left the grand jury room.

She is to return Thursday for additional testimony, according to her lawyer, Anthony Zaccagnini.

Prosecutor Kenneth Starr summoned Mrs. Tripp, the only cooperating witness among the three key players in the probe, as his investigators sought to crystallize for grand jurors evidence of obstruction of justice often overshadowed by the lurid sexual nature of the case.

Prosecutors also sent a message to Ms. Lewinsky, away in California for a family visit, and the president, on an official trip to China: The investigation is pressing forward with or without their cooperation.

After six months of virtual silence, Mrs. Tripp relished the long-awaited opportunity to try to convince grand jurors she hadn't manipulated an unwitting woman half her age for monetary gain or to embarrass a president.

Rather, she came forward simply because she was witness to possible White House crimes, she insisted. ``I did not cultivate Monica -- she cultivated me,'' Mrs. Tripp said in an interview published in The Washington Post the morning of her testimony.

A public relations specialist at the Pentagon, Mrs. Tripp also sent a message Tuesday to her supporters through the Internet: ``I remain committed to the truth despite all efforts to obscure the facts.''

The president was in China, far removed from developments Tuesday that also included a court decision threatening to rejuvenate leftover lurid details from the now-dismissed Paula Jones sexual harassment suit.

In Little Rock, Ark., U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright ordered most of the court filings in Mrs. Jones lawsuit unsealed, lifting a gag order she had imposed last fall.

Wright kept her order from taking effect for 10 days to give the case's principals time to appeal. She said a transcript of Clinton's sworn deposition would be among the documents made public.

It was the Jones case that produced the disclosure of Mrs. Tripp's tapings -- as well as the allegations that Ms. Lewinsky had engaged in a sexual affair with the president and was later encouraged to lie about it in exchange for help in getting a job.

Starr's office used Mrs. Tripp's cooperation to expand the Whitewater investigation to determine whether Clinton and Ms. Lewinsky lied under oath in the Jones lawsuit when they denied a sexual relationship. They are also investigating whether other presidential friends, including Vernon Jordan, tried to obstruct justice or tamper with witnesses. Clinton and Jordan deny wrongdoing.

With Clinton refusing to volunteer testimony and Ms. Lewinsky unable to reach agreement with prosecutors for her cooperation, Mrs. Tripp's appearance marked a pivotal moment for the 23 grand jurors who must decide whether any criminal charges are warranted.

At the White House, presidential aides kept a watchful eye but steered away from any attacks on Mrs. Tripp, banking on public polls showing uneasiness about her secret tapings and motives. ``We'll let the American people draw their own conclusions about Linda Tripp,'' spokesman Jim Kennedy said.

If Tripp's appearance wasn't enough of a reminder of the perils still facing Clinton, one of Monica Lewinsky's lawyers appeared at the same courthouse Tuesday for an unrelated case, but gave an upbeat assessment of the chances of reaching a deal for immunity in exchange for her cooperation.

``Give us a month,'' attorney Nathaniel Speights said. Asked how the negotiations were going, the lawyer added: ``We're working away. Everything is OK.''

Arriving at the courthouse, Mrs. Tripp held her college-age daughter's hand and was surrounded by three lawyers. A throng of 300 reporters and cameramen greeted her outside.

She left the grand jury room again holding hands with her daughter, Allison. Asked by a reporter if it was easy to tell the truth, she nodded yes. Another asked if it was good to have her children with her. ``It's great,'' she replied.

She then walked out of the courthouse and hopped into a blue minivan with tinted windows, flanked by federal security officers.

Mrs. Tripp, 48, an $88,000-a-year federal employee, once worked in the Clinton White House and peddled an unsuccessful book idea about her experiences there. She first came to Whitewater prosecutor's attention early in their investigation of Vincent Foster's death. She was one of the last in the White House to see him alive.

She later transferred to the Pentagon where in 1996 she befriended Ms. Lewinsky, 24, and became so close that Ms. Lewinsky confided an alleged sexual relationship with the president to her.

Last October, Mrs. Tripp -- at the advice of her former book agent -- began secretly recording 20 hours of conversations she had with Ms. Lewinsky. Her lawyer and agent say she did so simply to protect herself and leave an indisputable record of what she says was an effort by Ms. Lewinsky to get her to lie in the Jones lawsuit.

At the time, her original book idea was long since dead.

In early January, Mrs. Tripp brought the tapes and the information she received from Ms. Lewinsky to the attention of Starr's investigators.

Tripp's testimony was to span far beyond the recording she made to include:

--Her contact with former White House volunteer Kathleen Willey on the day Mrs. Willey claims the president made an unwanted and crude sexual advance against her. Clinton has denied under oath he made such an advance.

--Her discussion with presidential confidant Bruce Lindsey shortly after the Willey story came to light last fall

--The so-called talking points that Ms. Lewinsky allegedly handed her in the last encounter between the former intern and her older confidant -- a visit monitored by the FBI and Starr's prosecutors.