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Literary agent Lucianne Goldberg, who played a pivotal role in the sex scandal surrounding US President Clinton, has died at the age of 87. Goldberg’s board went public with the relationship with Monica Lewinsky, which led to an impeachment proceeding against the president in the late 1990s.
About five years earlier, Goldberg had been approached by Linda Tripp, a former White House aide who was disappointed with the Clinton administration. In exploratory conversations about a revealing book Tripp was planning to write, she said her work friend Lewinsky had confided to her that she was having an affair with the president.
Goldberg’s advice to Tripp was that he should start recording calls with Lewinsky so that he could have proof of what had been discussed. In the more than twenty hours of audio recordings, many intimate details have emerged, such as descriptions of sexual acts, Lewinsky’s doubts about the relationship and his influence on his career.
The tapes also show that Tripp advised Lewinsky to keep a suit that contained traces of Clinton’s DNA. This piece would help Special Adviser Kenneth Starr prove that the President had indeed cheated and lied about it.
A look at the story:
20 jaar na ‘I didn’t have sex with that woman’
Although the recordings were initially intended for Tripp personally, she was forced to hand the tapes over to Starr when it became clear he had illegally recorded Lewinsky. Since Goldberg had mistakenly advised her that secret tapes were not a problem, Tripp had to repay her charge by handing the tapes to Starr.
The Republican-dominated House of Representatives initiated impeachment proceedings against Bill Clinton in December 1998 for his perjury on the affair. It was the first time in a century that an American president had to face this.
In the Senate, where members of his Democratic party held power, Clinton was eventually acquitted. The Tripp book she approached Goldberg for never materialized. Conservative Goldberg later said he was happy that Clinton “got something.”
