Tripp cleared for Filegate testimony

WASHINGTON — A federal judge yesterday unstayed the deposition of former
White House aide Linda Tripp, clearing her to testify in a public-interest legal group’s civil lawsuit over Filegate.

Judicial Watch is pursuing a $90 million class-action lawsuit against

the Clinton White House, the FBI, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Bernard Nussbaum, Craig Livingstone and Anthony Marceca over the misuse of FBI files by the administration.

Judicial Watch represents staffers from the Reagan and Bush administrations and others whose FBI files were misappropriated by the Clinton White House. Tripp, a key witness in the Monica Lewinsky impeachment scandal, worked in the White House counsel’s office at the time many of the FBI files were taken.

Larry Klayman, general counsel and chairman of Judicial Watch, said Tripp is prepared to testify that she saw former Associate White House Counsel William Kennedy, Mrs. Clinton’s Rose Law Firm partner, using Republican FBI files.

According to literary agent Lucianne Goldberg, Tripp’s friend and confidante, Tripp also has information about FBI files being loaded into

encrypted computers and copies in the White House counsel’s office, raising the likelihood that information from Republican FBI files is still at the White House.

When Kennedy was deposed before videotape cameras by Judicial Watch recently about whether he had FBI files of Republicans stacked in his office, he literally choked before making a carefully worded denial.

“Linda Tripp apparently has important testimony to offer about Filegate
and related issues,” said Klayman. “We look forward to taking her sworn testimony on Filegate — perhaps the most serious of all the Clinton scandals.”