WASHINGTON -- The chief state prosecutor of Maryland decided Wednesday to drop criminal wiretap charges against Linda Tripp, the Pentagon employee whose secretly recorded conversations with Monica Lewinsky exposed an affair that led to President Clinton's impeachment.
The prosecutor, Stephen F. Montanarelli, said it would be impossible to successfully pursue a trial, which was to begin on July 10, because a judge this month suppressed testimony by Lewinsky that, Montanarelli said, was crucial to obtaining a conviction.The decision concludes the only criminal case against a major figure in the most serious Oval Office scandal since Watergate. Tripp had faced the possibility of a 10-year prison sentence and a $10,000 fine.
"I had no choice" but to drop the case, Montanarelli said Wednesday, noting that in Maryland, a judge's ruling on suppression of evidence cannot be appealed. "I'm not pleased, but that's the life of a prosecutor."
In a statement posted on her Web site, Tripp called the Maryland case an example of "selective prosecution" and vowed to "continue to fight the shameful smear tactics of this corrupt administration in civil court." Last year she sued the White House and the Defense Department, maintaining that they had used her confidential personnel records to impugn her reputation.
Tripp did not attend a news conference held Wednesday by her lawyer, Joseph Murtha, on the courthouse steps in Ellicott City, the Baltimore suburb where the trial would have been held. "We firmly believe that Tripp did nothing wrong," Murtha said, "and that she did not violate any laws when she exposed the criminal behavior and wrongdoing committed by President Clinton and others."
Laws on taping telephone calls vary from state to state. In Maryland, where Tripp lives, it is against the law for one party to tape a phone conversation without the consent of the other. At a preliminary hearing, Lewinsky testified that she had not given permission for any taping of her conversations with Tripp, who was once her close confidante.
In their conversation of Dec. 22, the two women discussed what they should say about Lewinsky's sexual relationship with the president in the testimony that each expected to give in a sexual misconduct suit filed by Paula Jones, a former Arkansas state employee, against Clinton.
Tripp was also charged with illegally disclosing the details of her conversation with Lewinsky to Newsweek magazine, which published a transcript of the talk in its issue of Feb. 2, 1998. Maryland is dropping those charges as well.