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Linda Tripp Dies: Bill Clinton Sex Scandal Whistleblower Was 70

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Linda Tripp died Wednesday at the age of 70, according to her family.

Admitted to the hospital in recent days, the woman who almost brought down the Presidency of Bill Clinton passed from pancreatic cancer. Despite being in an ICU, Tripp did not suffer from the effects of conronavirus, as had been suggested earlier in the day.

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As reports of the former Pentagon staffer’s declining health circulated, Tripp’s once close friend Monica Lewinsky took to social media to offer her best:

“My mommy is leaving this earth,” wrote Tripp’s daughter Allison on a Facebook post late last night as thing took a turn for the worst. “I don’t know myself if I can survive this heartache. Please pray for a painless process for the strongest woman I will ever know in my entire lifetime.”

Having recorded the long confessional conversations she had with former White House intern Lewinsky back in 1997 over the latter’s affair with the 42nd POTUS, Tripp was a vital part of the investigation that led to Clinton’s ultimately unsuccessful impeachment trial a few years later. Tripp was also the one who tipped Special Prosecutor Ken Starr off to the existence of a certain blue dress that Lewinsky had worn to once of her dalliances with Clinton and had left with Presidential stains, so to speak.

Portrayed in the heart of the scandal by John Goodman on Saturday Night Live, Tripp is to be played by Sarah Paulson in the latest impeachment themed installment of the Ryan Murphy-EP’d American Crime Story.

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