WASHINGTON — A Maryland judge on Friday ruled that the state could proceed with its prosecution of Linda Tripp on charges that she broke the law when she secretly tape-recorded conversations with Monica Lewinsky, the former White House intern who was having a relationship with President Clinton.
But the judge also dealt a severe setback to the prosecution's case by suppressing testimony of Lewinsky and another witness that may be crucial in obtaining a conviction.
Judge Diane O. Leasure of Howard County Circuit Court ruled that the testimony of Lewinsky on one critical point was not credible. Leasure dismissed as implausible Lewinsky's statements to the court last December about why she was certain that a specific conversation secretly tape-recorded by Tripp occurred on Dec. 22, 1997, a crucial date for legal reasons.
"The fact that Ms. Lewinsky has admitted that she lied under oath in a federal proceeding and has stated that lying has been a part of her life does not enhance her credibility as a witness," Leasure wrote in her 41-page opinion.
In addition, Leasure ruled that the testimony of the only other witness to testify as to the date of that conversation, Mary Catherine Friedrich, also could not be used by state prosecutors.
The date of the conversation is pivotal because the Maryland law under which Tripp is charged specifies that a person is guilty only if it can be shown she knew at the time of the taping that it was illegal. Although Tripp tape-recorded more than 20 hours of her telephone conversations with Lewinsky, the one that occurred on Dec. 22, 1997, was the only one that took place after prosecutors believe Tripp was definitively informed by her lawyer that it is illegal to tape-record phone conversations in Maryland without the consent of the other party.
Leasure ruled Friday that prosecutors could not use Friedrich's testimony because they only learned of her through the investigation of President Clinton by Kenneth Starr, the independent prosecutor.
When Tripp became an informant for Starr, telling him of the president's relationship with Lewinsky, she asked for and received a grant of immunity. Although Leasure earlier sharply limited the scope of the immunity agreement, prosecutors still had to demonstrate that they obtained their evidence independently of Starr's activities.
The ruling appears to leave the prosecutors with only the testimony of some of Tripp's partners in a weekly bridge game and a neighbor, all of whom seemed aware she was secretly taping conversations with a woman named "Monica" who was having an intimate relationship with Clinton.
The women testified that Tripp boasted of her secretly taping the woman and even invited Lewinsky to a Christmas party at her Columbia, Md., home so the other women could gaze upon the woman she had told them about.
Leasure ruled Friday that the testimony of those women could be used by the prosecution. But none of them seemed able to recollect exactly when they learned of the taping and none is able to identify the date of the crucial Dec. 22, 1997, conversation.
A copy of the decision is available on the web at www.courts.state.md.us.