There's Something About Linda

Notes for a book proposal: How to Bring Down Bill Clinton, by Linda R. Tripp. Part 1: Befriend a young woman who has caught the President's wandering eye. "Tripp advised Lewinsky that she was the kind of woman the President would like, and an affair with the President would be a neat thing to tell her grandkids," according to an FBI report prepared for Ken Starr. Then she discovered that Lewinsky and Clinton were already involved. "Tripp kept hounding Lewinsky until Lewinsky finally said, 'Look, I've already had an affair with him and it's over,'" the report said.

Part 2: Fuel Monica's obsession with Clinton--and get the evidence. Tripp coached Lewinsky in her campaign to rekindle the affair, secretly tape-recorded her confessions and got her to document her encounters and preserve crucial evidence. Claiming she was good at identifying "patterns" in relationships, Tripp had Lewinsky create a spreadsheet detailing her visits and phone calls with Clinton. She talked Lewinsky out of having the semen-stained dress cleaned, telling her not to wear it because it made her "look fat," and advising her to lock it in a safe-deposit box because "it could be evidence one day," according to Lewinsky. "And I said that was ludicrous." Tripp helped her compose letters to Clinton and sent her e-mail messages praising a tie she had given him ("stupendous, no kidding, clean, crisp, texture, color, pattern, bright, without being at all over the top") and a valentine Monica placed in the Washington Post.

Part 3: Set the trap. In October Tripp told Lewinsky that a friend at the White House had heard rumors about Monica and thought she should "get out of town" and that Clinton should find her a job. "They create jobs at the White House, you know, six days a week," Tripp quoted the friend as saying. And Tripp apparently planted the idea with Monica that Clinton should get lawyer Vernon Jordan to find the job for her. Lewinsky told FBI agents that Tripp had suggested it. Monica later testified that "I know I had discussed [Jordan] with Linda. Either I had had the thought, or she had suggested Vernon Jordan would be a good person who is a close friend of the President and has a lot of contacts in New York."

Part 4: Push for a quid pro quo. When the job hunt was on, Tripp made Lewinsky promise not to sign a Paula Jones affidavit denying sex until her new position was locked up--"because if you sign the affidavit before you get the job, they're never going to give you the job." Had Lewinsky taken her advice, it would have looked like an explicit deal--lies in exchange for employment--when in fact Lewinsky started asking Clinton for job help months before she knew she was a Jones-team target. But here's a neat plot twist: Lewinsky says she lied to Tripp about the affidavit, pretending not to sign it because she hoped to keep Tripp on her side. Monica also says she lied to Tripp about the alleged cover-up, telling her that both Clinton and Jordan had urged her to lie about the affair--which she now says they never explicitly did.