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for the record, that OIC had no intention of interfering with Tripp’s attorney-client relationship and that OIC did not represent her in any fashion. Tripp replied sarcastically, “Well, you all can just leave, if you want.” The other OIC lawyers glowered at their colleague. They coaxed Tripp to resume her story, which she did as she chain-smoked a dozen more cigarettes. By now, some of the Starr prosecutors viewed her as “smart-alecky” and “manipulative.” Yet the information she was sharing was so incredible, they consumed it like an intoxicating drink and ignored her offensive attitude. Among other things, Tripp was telling them that she possessed a tape recording that would prove “Vernon Jordan had flat-out told the former intern, Monica, to lie in the deposition, and that the president had told her to lie.”

The OIC prosecutors would recall that Tripp was at “her dramatic best.” She also seemed “very credible.” This was not a woman, they concluded, who was “dreaming it.” Now the prosecutors blurted out a question that they couldn’t hold back: Could they listen to the tapes, to verify that these were “legit”?

Tripp took a long drag of her cigarette. “Impossible,” she answered. The prosecutors’ faces turned forlorn. Tripp assured them it was nothing personal—she was in the process of firing her lawyer, Kirby Behre, because he was a White House plant. Her new lawyer, Jim Moody, would not gain custody of the tapes until Behre “cataloged” them. She was stuck with this situation; the tapes were being held hostage.

It was clear to the prosecutors, even without hearing the recordings, that they were likely made in violation of state law. Bennett told her, “Turn over the tapes to us, and we’ll immunize the act of producing those tapes.” That would make it “virtually impossible” for any law enforcement agency to prosecute her for such conduct.

This suggestion seemed to comfort Tripp. She now proposed a different plan to give OIC what it wanted—she had arranged for her new lawyer, Moody, to “wire her up” the next day, to tape-record a lunchtime conversation with Monica. Her goal was to get a fresh recording that contained the “greatest hits” of her myriad phone conversations with the former intern. Bennett quickly interrupted: “You’re not going to do that.… We’ll have the FBI do it.”

As the deputy independent counsel later acknowledged, his decision to have the FBI wire Tripp “was pretty much made on the spot in her living room.” OIC could not afford to have “amateurs” taking this crucial step. If Tripp and her lawyer wanted to record this former intern, Bennett wanted to enlist professionals to do it.

It was nearly 1:30 in the morning when the OIC team piled into the van and headed back toward the darkened District of Columbia, the sound of Wisenberg’s Ralph Stanley tape vibrating the speakers. Wisenberg recalled the mood in the van: “We were incredibly excited.… The ramifications of her story were staggering.” Tripp had seemed credible; what she told them could blow their investigation wide open. It was not every day that a person dished out evidence that the president of the United States was about to perjure himself and was encouraging others to do the same.

There was a shared sense of urgency among the Starr prosecutors. The allegations being leveled by Linda Tripp were “perfectly consistent with the world-view” of many OIC prosecutors; namely, that “the White House would be willing to impede investigations.” Now, for once, the gods seemed to be smiling down on the downtrodden independent counsel’s office. As Bennett would explain, “This was the first time we were ahead of the curve, rather than being behind the curve and having to rely on Clinton loyalists, who were exceedingly dishonest in answering questions. And so, for the first time, we were ahead of it. We could see the thing unfolding a little bit. And there was this very short window. And so what we did was we focused our energies and attentions and our analysis and our judgments on capturing that.”

WHEN the OIC team reentered the office, it was past 2:00