Linda Tripp was a civil servant who disliked President Clinton. She had admired her first boss, George H.W. Bush, but suspected that Clinton was mistreating women. In fact, Tripp was even trying to write a book about Clinton's scandalous behavior and extramarital affairs.
Then, in 1996, Tripp met Lewinsky. The two became close friends, and Lewinsky eventually confided in Tripp that she'd had an affair with the president. Confident that she'd struck gold, Tripp began recording her conversations with Lewinsky for literary agent Lucianne Goldberg and even encouraged Lewinsky to save a blue dress stained with Clinton's semen.
Months later, impeachment investigators would obtain that very same blue dress. The soiled piece of clothing would eventually become one of the most infamous pieces of evidence of the Clinton-Lewinsky affair.
By January 1998, Tripp had reached out to Ken Starr. Around the same time, word of Tripp's recordings had made their way to the legal team of Paula Jones — a woman suing the president for alleged sexual misconduct.