WASHINGTON -- Linda Tripp, who ignited the scandal that nearly brought down President Clinton with her secretly recorded tapes, struck back at her enemies yesterday by filing an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit against the White House and the Pentagon.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court, alleges that officials loyal to Clinton sought to embarrass and smear Tripp by "engaging in communications" about her and disclosing the contents of confidential "personnel files, FBI files, security files and other government records" of the former White House, now Defense Department employee.
Tripp is seeking unspecified damages against 11 past and present administration figures. Among them are first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, Deputy White House Counsel Bruce Lindsey, and former Clinton aides Sidney Blumenthal, Harold Ickes and Mickey Kantor.
The complaint also names Pentagon public affairs chief Kenneth H. Bacon and his former aide, Clifford Bernath, who have acknowledged disclosing to the media that Tripp had failed to report in her security file a 1969 arrest in New York.
Tripp, 49, said that, "for partisan political purposes," she was subjected to "harm to [her] reputation and emotional distress and humiliation."
In July, Tripp was indicted by a state grand jury in Maryland on two felony charges related to her secret taping of her telephone conversations with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
Tripp, who said her prosecution was inspired by the Clinton White House, has pleaded not guilty and continues to work at the Pentagon as a $90,000-a-year public affairs specialist.
She occasionally phones in sick because of stress, according to associates.
White House spokesman Jim Kennedy declined to comment on Tripp's suit. Pentagon officials would not comment until a still-confidential inspector general's report on the actions of Bacon and Bernath is made public.
Tripp, once a confidante of Lewinsky, secretly tape-recorded phone conversations in which she encouraged Lewinsky to discuss her affair with Clinton. Tripp took the information to independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr.
Tripp later testified before Starr's federal grand jury.
Tripp's lawsuit is vague about alleged actions by Mrs. Clinton and other current or former White House officials, except to say that they violated federal civil rights statutes and the Privacy Act of 1974 by engaging in conversations and disclosing confidential information to humiliate her and destroy her credibility as a witness in the Lewinsky investigation.
