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The new FX limited seriesImpeachment: American Crime Storythe third in atrue-crime anthologythat started withThe People v. O.J.
She also gets a look at Lewinskys infamous stained blue dress.
The Big Stuff
The major plot and character beats that shapeImpeachments narrative.
And she, as they mentioned in the episode, was a friend of Clintons from Arkansas.
She knew him from when they were teenagers.
And so shes very much in that Arkansas coalition of friends going back a long way.
And she walked out feeling really embarrassed and frustrated.
In the Starr report its called the Northwest Gate Incident.
And thats when she called Currie from a payphone and yelled at her.
So that seems to be where this phone call scene comes from.
It really freaked her out.
So this was definitely a big turning point for Linda Tripp.
Tripp becomes much more focused on protecting herself.
Im not sure specifically about tension between them over theNewsweekstory.
Lewinsky was sympathetic to Tripps fears about losing her job over it.
Obviously one of the cruxes of the whole thing is whether the president was involved in setting this up.
Clinton testified that he knew about it but didnt think he was the precipitating force behind it.
He was on the board of directors at Revlon, as they say in the show.
And she said she believed in him on a fundamental level.
Lewinsky said she thought that was like a wink wink, what will you say if you testify?
question, not an earnest question.
So potentially a miscommunication there.
I dont know if she reacted as angrily and publicly as she does [on the show].
She doesnt get into that much detail, really.
Lucianne Goldberg persuading Tripp to tape her calls with LewinskyIt was definitely Goldbergs idea.
Goldberg has always said that the two-party consent issue was an honest mistake.
Because New York, where she was calling from, was a one-party consent state.
She did not put herself in legal jeopardy.
And Linda Tripp, for her part, seems to have always agreed that that was an honest mistake.
She doesnt seem to have felt there was anything nefarious there.
The extent of Tripps legal jeopardy over the taped callsShe definitely put herself in legal jeopardy by doing this.
And she actually ended up being charged with wiretapping in Maryland, though those charges were later dropped.
They actually interviewed Radio Shack employees at that store that she went to pick up the recorder.
But Linda said she didnt hear any of that at the time.
She felt bad about it, but also felt that it was the right thing to do.
Shes pretty solid on that point.
Was the first recording really that clumsy?No.
This is just like two women chatting about their lives.
Im not doing this.
So youre saying youre going to lie, but Im not going to.
Theres definitely moments in the tapes that are that obvious in retrospect.
Michael Isikoff getting tipped early on the Lewinsky storyThat happened.
They did have this meeting in Jonah Goldbergs apartment, Luciannes sons apartment.
[Yes,thatJonah Goldberg, ofNational Reviewfame.ed.]
And they offered to play the tapes for Isikoff.
And he basically said, I cant do that journalistically.
He was like, I would never tell her to do that.
And then he was like, Well, I cant use this material.
So what are we actually going to do here?
And then Monica said, Why dont you come raid my closet?
And so she came over and then Monica showed her the dress.
Thats when Linda, obviously, realized that she had that physical evidence.
I dont know anything about that.
Lewinsky talks about this a lot and how this relationship really deeply affected her.
She is a liar and shes a manipulator.
Its pretty bleak, looking back.
On Clintons gifts to Lewinsky being uglyThat was funny.
I couldnt find anything specific about that.
The gifts were often just purely positive.
Shed be sitting around worried like, Why isnt he contacting me?
I cant get in touch.
I dont even know what hes thinking or feeling.
I couldnt find a lot of her being anything but positive about the gifts.
She said that after this whole thing went down, her mom apologized to them.
On the bookmark Lewinsky gifted to TrippLewinsky wrote about this later.
She said that she gave her an antique bookmark.
They both loved antiques.
On Clintons walk of shame past portraits of revered former presidents to get to his bedroomThat was really funny.
It looked like he was walking through a private corridor from the office up to the residence.
Thats a great painting of JFK looking like he was really disappointed in him.
