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Goldberg appears before Maryland grand jury investigating Tripp
Updated November 13, 1998
10:45 a.m. ET
ELLICOTT CITY, Md. (AP) — Book agent Lucianne Goldberg blamed herself for encouraging Linda Tripp to secretly record phone conversations with Monica Lewinsky, recordings that may have violated the law.
A Howard County grand jury is considering whether Tripp, a county resident, broke Maryland wiretapping law by taping about 20 hours of conversations with Lewinsky without Lewinsky's knowledge.
Goldberg, after testifying before the grand jury Thursday, said it's her fault her friend is under criminal investigation because she incorrectly told Tripp it would be legal to make the tapes.
``I take all the blame,'' she told reporters.
The tapes led to Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's investigation of the former White House intern's affair with President Clinton.
The maximum penalty for breaking Maryland's wiretapping law is five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. But ignorance of the law is a valid defense.
Goldberg said Thursday that Tripp asked her in September 1997 if recording her calls with Lewinsky would be appropriate. Goldberg said she asked an associate to research the matter on the Internet, then told Tripp -- wrongly -- it would be legal.
She said she told Tripp ``she'd better tape her phone calls or she'd be destroyed.''
 | Publisher Lucianne Goldberg, in dark glasses and coat, was escorted to the courthouse by state troopers.
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Goldberg dismissed reports that Tripp began recording the conversations to gather material for a book on presidential sex scandals.
``If there had been a book, you'd very likely be standing there with it in your hands,'' she said. ``There never was a book -- there very likely will not be a book.''
Goldberg said she gave prosecutors tapes of two conversations she had with Tripp and two other tapes containing conversations between Lewinsky and Tripp between Sept. 28 and Oct. 6 last year -- before Tripp learned the taping was illegal, she said.
State Prosecutor Stephen Montanarelli is seeking evidence Tripp knew the secret taping was illegal before she began in September 1997.
Tripp has told a federal grand jury that she learned in December that recording her calls with Lewinsky was illegal. But her testimony was made under a grant of immunity from Starr, meaning the statement can't be used against her in the Maryland investigation.
—Greg Toppo
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