Linda Tripp, the whistleblower in the infamous Bill Clinton impeachment scandal, has died after battling pancreatic cancer. She was 70 years old.
The New York Times confirmed via Tripp’s former lawyer Joseph Murtha on Wednesday, April 8, that Tripp had passed away. No other details were offered at the time.
Tripp’s daughter, Allison Tripp Foley, confirmed that the civil servant was seriously ill on Tuesday, April 7, noting that she was staying by her mother’s side as her health declined. “My mommy is leaving this earth,” Foley wrote via Facebook. “I don’t know myself if I can survive this heartache. Please pray for a painless process for the strongest woman I will ever know in my entire lifetime.”
The New Jersey native rose to prominence during the Clinton-Lewinsky trial in the 1990s. At the time, Tripp had secretly recorded confidential phone calls in which Monica Lewinksy discussed her relationship with the former president. After being fired from her position at the Pentagon, Tripp maintained that she brought the taped phone calls forward as an act of patriotism. More than two decades after the scandal made headlines, the former federal employee admitted that she only had one regret about her involvement in the scandal.
“Not having the guts to do it sooner,” Tripp said during a public address in Washington D.C. on National Whistleblower Day in July 2018. “It was always about right and wrong, never left and right. It was about exposing perjury and the obstruction of justice. It was never about politics.”
As news of Tripp’s cancer battle made headlines, Lewinsky, 46, put any negative feelings she had harbored toward the whistleblower behind her. “No matter the past, upon hearing that Linda Tripp is very seriously ill, I hope for her recovery,” the anti-bullying advocate tweeted on Wednesday. “I can’t imagine how difficult this is for her family.”
Along with her daughter, Tripp is survived by her husband, Dieter Rausch, and her son, Ryan Tripp. She will be portrayed by Sarah Paulson in the upcoming series Impeachment: American Crime Story.
