Clinton Fires Tripp: Lawyer

By Stephen M. Silverman

06/04/1998 at 12:00 AM EDT

President Clinton has fired Linda Tripp, whose secret tape recordings of her onetime friend Monica Lewinsky led to his impeachment, on the very last day of his Presidency, her lawyer said Friday, which was Clinton's last day in office. The reason, said attorney Stephen Kohn, was that Tripp refused to resign her position in the Department of Defense at the Pentagon. By tradition, presidential appointees resign their positions whenever a change in administrations takes place. "The termination of Linda Tripp is vindictive, mean-spirited and wrong," Stephen Kohn, along with partners David Colapinto and Michael Kohn, said in a statement. "President Clinton should not have ended his Presidency on such a vengeful note." Neither of the principal parties is commenting. Tripp was said to be out of the country, according to the Associated Press, while Clinton was apparently busy striking a deal to settle the residual legal issues from the Lewinsky affair.