Remembering Linda Tripp and the Making of a Case for the Impeachment of President Bill Clinton. April 09, 2020

 What a Character! May Her Soul Rest In Peace.

Miss Monica Lewinsky, the White House Intern who was at the centre stage of President Bill Clinton's impeachment saga, trusted Madam Linda Tripp and confided in her like a Big Sister. She innocently, though naively, succumbed to the manipulations of the elderly Tripp and did not hesitate to unload details of her flirtatious encounter with the President.

Miss Monica Lewinsky related to her as a friend, as a confidant, and as a Mom. She confided in her about the Blue Dress and the Presidential fluid in it. And Madam Tripp counselled the naive Monica to keep the dress - you might need it one day. And she did. (If you were really naive and innocent, why did you keep the dress? A Naija Babe or Akaata would get rid of it immediately. That's by the way.

Meanwhile, Madam was busy secretly recording their conversations, with one goal in mind - to bring down the President. And in the end, she almost succeeded - a popular President was almost removed from office by the Republican House Managers under Article of Impeachment on the allegations of Perjury and Obstruction of Justice, centred on lying under oath. But he was saved by the bell, the Senate.

In hindsight, the allegation of lying under oath and the resultant perjury and obstructions of justice charges against President Bill Clinton were not only diabolical, but they also represent the worst form of judicial ambush ever concerted against any sitting President in American history - something no human being would want to experience.

She confided in her that the President does not believe that foreplay is sex. She told her as a matter of fact that they did not have sex, but there was a physical encounter that did not extend to the penetration of the cavity by natural means as we take sex to be. And most often, she interrogated her and she complied childishly, dishing out every bit of their frolicking, while Madam was busy recording.

Then she went to work on the information at her disposal, fishing for the right process to unload them and create a criminal case out of the cumulative dossier - the innocent disclosure.

Not too long, the waited opportunity came when the President was going to be deposed for another matter involving Paula Jones. Knowing that Mr. President does not consider foreplay or smushing or whatever you want to call it as sex, she called the Attorney who was going to depose the President the next day and upload the details of her recorded phone conversations with Miss Monica.

She told the Lawyer that the President doesn't believe oral sex is sex, and the President is going to argue that there was no sex. And that was the trap. She already knew what the President was going to say based on what she had gathered from Monica Lewinsky. Her plan from the outset was for the President to make that declaration while testifying on oath.

I am not espousing adultery or trying to justify what the President did. If you watch the video of the deposition of President Clinton, as I did so many times, you will weep and vow never to trust anyone again with the story of your sex life. It came to a point that the President had the feeling that the Lawyer interrogating him had first-hand knowledge of his encounter with the Intern. And when the question came as to whether he had sex with the intern, the President answered no. And that was it. The game was over at that point.

The trap set by Miss Linda Tripp works out pretty well - to her, oral sex is sex, whether Mr. President likes it or not. One, if oral sex is sex, it means the President lied under oath when he told the deposing Lawyer that he did not have sex with the woman. Two, if oral sex is sex and the President lied under oath about it, then that amounts to Perjury. And three, if anyone can establish a case of Perjury against the President, then impeachment is within reach.

The next task is to find someone to tighten the loose ends and leverage the final product to institute a case of perjury and impeachment against the President. And that was where Mr. Kenneth Starr came into the picture.

At that time, Independent Counsel, Mr. Kenneth Starr, was investigating the Clintons and the Jim McDougal Family over the Whitewater Land Deal in the state of Arkansas when President Clinton was the Governor of the state. Mr. Kenneth Starr wasted no time, jumping into the sex case. Since he couldn't nail the Clintons over the land deal allegations, this sex scandal is potent enough to destroy the Clintons and torpedo his Presidency. Like a bolt from the blue, Mr. Ken Starr abandoned his original mandate and went on a frolic on the definition of sex and oral sex.

His first task was to prove and convince the people that foreplay is sex. And to sink that into the American consciousness, they went for the Blue Dress. Remember the Blue Dress? Subsequently, they went for the President's DNA. And there was a match. And the President was forced to apologise to the American people. And the rest is history.

With the outcome of the DNA, it is irrelevant whether he actually had sex with the Intern as we know sex to be. And as long as there was a stain on the dress, there was sex, and he lied about it on oath. That was the goal of Miss Linda Tripp, and that was Kenneth Starr's case for impeachment against President Bill Clinton.

And that was how the definition of sex was reinvented in America so that a roguish Independent Counsel could establish a prima facie case for Perjury and obstruction of justice against a very popular President and humiliate him before the global community.

This piece is not about the right and wrong of what President Bill Clinton did, but to show the extent that some people would go - people who you trust - to destroy you and destroy other people and what they work for.

Next time you read about an American President who was impeached for Perjury, please know that it was actually a manufactured crisis. Would I have done what the President did? Not one chance. I am very discreet about my love life. If you don't have an image to protect, if you don't value secrecy or know how to keep it, not even your beauty can persuade me to stay.

As for the late Miss Linda Tripp, she told the American TV audience that she did it out of patriotism. As I said after watching her on Larry King Live on CNN at the time, I want to repeat: Betraying the trust of a young and naive Lady who took you for a friend, a mentor, and a confidant is far from being patriotism-defined. That was the height of callousness and hatred. Your goal was to write a book and profit from the downfall of another human being. None of them happened as you planned. Unfortunately, you permanently destroyed the beauty and innocence of the young girl who trusted you and took you for a Mom.

Thank God Americans refused to let go of their forgiving spirit; they know patriotism when they see it. And they stood by their President. And a few months after the impeachment trial, President Clinton received a standing ovation from the Heads of State and Governments and Presidents of Nations, led by the late Mr. Nelson Mandela, at the UN General Assembly when he stood before the world to address his peers. And that was an unforced display of vindication and forgiveness.

And to those haters who are there, be careful of what you do to those who are vulnerable before you. There is no difference between hackers and those who violate your privacy by secretly recording your telephone conversations. Every one of you will continue to live a miserable life for the misfortune you unleash on the innocent, whose privacy and vulnerability you feed on. Those you want to destroy will bounce back, but you will remain a sad character all your life, feared and resented by the larger society.