Friday, August 28, 1998 --- New York (APJP) -- Flashback to just over a year ago: Newsweek reported that one Linda Tripp claimed to have seen one Kathleen Willey in the vicinity of the Oval Office "disheveled" after an alleged encounter with Bill Clinton.

Not long after, Clinton's private lawyer, Bob Bennett, said that Tripp "was not to be believed."

As a result, Tripp claims, she was so furious she considered taping her phone conversations, and subsequently did, further claiming that she was unaware that in her home state, Maryland, such tapings are illegal without consent of the other party.

She began taping phone conversations with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, a young woman who considered Tripp a friend she could confide in, especially with respect to her tales of an affair with the president.

But Tripp turned on her "friend," gave the tapes to "independent" counsel Kenneth Starr, and triggered the sleaziest investigation in American history.

Well, if the testimony of two Radio Shack employees before a Maryland grand jury is true, not only is Bob Bennett correct, but new questions arise regarding the Paula Jones civil suit and Starr's probe into the president's personal life.

Yesterday, Radio Shack's parent company, the Tandy Corp., issued press release in response to questions posed by The Baltimore Sun: "Pursuant to a subpoena from the Maryland State Prosecutor, Radio Shack has provided sales records of a recording device purchased by Linda Tripp... A Radio Shack store manager and sales associate were also subpoenaed and did testify before the Maryland grand jury. It is Radio Shack's policy to inform customers who purchase recording devices that it is illegal to record someone without their consent in the state of Maryland."

The two employees of the Mall of Columbia Radio Shack, where Tripp purchased the device, testified before the grand jury over a week ago, and today's issue of The Sun provided details of interviews held with the employees last week. Sales associate Antoine Burrell stated that the illegality of taping phone conversations without the consent of the other party was clearly explained to Tripp: "I know she was told." Artie Peterson, manager of the Columbia store, declined any comment (including whether he testified before the grand jury), though it is believed that he was the specific store manager called to testify.

On top of the employees' testimony, it also bears mentioning that the recorder Tripp bought bears a warning label that reads "It is illegal in some states to record a conversation without the consent of all parties to the conversation. Check the laws in your area before using the Recording Control."

Her claim that she did not know that it was illegal might have let her off the hook in the state of Maryland; a 1995 state appeals court ruled that you have to know of the law in order not to violate it.

But this new evidence damages not only Tripp's claim but her overall believability -- and puts her in clear peril of up to $10,000 in fines and five years in the slammer.

Last November, Tripp received a subpoena from Paula Jones' lawyers. It remains unclear as to what the Jones lawyers knew about specific evidence Tripp had. Did they know about these tapes? If so, how?

And in a move which raises yet more questions about the full extent and legality of cooperation between Kenneth Starr's office and the Jones team, Tripp decided to turn the tapes over to Starr.

As a result, Tripp received a sealed immunity order from a federal judge -- a grant which, however, does not prevent Steven Montanarelli, the Maryland state prosecutor, from bringing charges against her.

The federal immunity deals might limit what is available as evidence to the state prosecutor as he pursues his case -- but probably would not prevent the testimony of the Radio Shack employees from being used.

This new testimony may prove to be the "smoking gun" needed to prove that not only are Tripp's assertions of "innocence" themselves a fabrication but that the Lewinsky tapes are illegally obtained evidence. The tapes would certainly prove unusable as evidence in a prosecution -- and at very least taint the one taping that Kenneth Starr did authorize.

Starr faces the possibility that he will have to come clean about what Tripp had been telling him from the get-go -- and what she told the grand jury during those eight days of testimony.

And you can be sure the White House and Clinton's personal lawyers are going to use the argument that illegal evidence was used to push the president into the figurative corner to their legal and political advantage. Combine this fact with the obvious distaste key members of Congress are showing about the "I" word -- if the report Starr plans to issue to Congress suggests "high crimes and misdemeanors" regarding his personal life, it could collapse like a house of cards.

And as for Linda Tripp -- her statement at the end of her testimony before Starr's grand jury that "I have been vilified for taking the path of truth" is emblematic of her hypocritical sanctimony.

The testimony of two Radio Shack employees indicates she broke the law -- that on top of gossipmongering at the expense of two presidents, abusing and betraying her friend, and manipulating the legal system in what smells like an effort to create scandal and land a lucrative book deal.

Instead of taking the path of truth, she connived and deceived, setting off a chain reaction of events that has diverted our nation, perverted the press into a prosecutorial organ, and undermined faith in government.

The only path Tripp has taken is that of dishonesty, greed, and avarice -- not even self-delusion can account for her conduct, unlawful or otherwise.

-- The Editors