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 For Immediate Release
Jan 15, 1999 Contact: Press Office
202-646-5172


Linda Tripp Testimony Confirms Hillary Rodham Clinton Ordered Travel Office Firings

Tripp Testifies in Filegate Suit to Seeing Memo

Tripp Testimony Links FBI Files to Travel Office Firings

Linda Tripp testified Tuesday that she saw a document which proves conclusively that Hillary Rodham Clinton ordered the Travel Office firings. The revelation came during hostile questioning by an attorney for Williams & Connolly, the firm representing Mrs. Clinton in the $90 million Filegate civil lawsuit brought against her, the Clinton White House, the FBI, and others by Judicial Watch on behalf of those former Reagan and Bush staffers and others whose FBI files were illegally obtained and misused by the Clinton White House.

Tripp testified that the "order" to fire the Travel Office staff was seen "in handwriting on a memo in Mrs. Clinton's hand signed HRC, which said, we need our people out, out underlined -- we need these people out, out underlined, we need our people in, in underlined, HRC." Ms. Tripp testified that the writing was on the upper-right hand corner of memo that had the names of the late Vince Foster and former White House Associate Counsel William Kennedy.

Tripp had testified previously in her deposition that she saw a file labeled "Dale" (as in Billy Ray Dale, the former head of the Travel Office) on Foster's desk shortly after a meeting in his office on the Travel Office. She understood this file to be Billy Ray Dale's FBI file. Shortly after Tripp saw the "Dale" file, Dale and the other Travel Office employees were fired.

"Ms. Tripp has tied FBI files to the Travel Office firings. And she has also further confirmed Mrs. Clinton's central role in these related scandals," noted Larry Klayman, Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel. "Her testimony deserves immediate attention from Ken Starr and from Congress, particularly since Mr. Clinton himself must have known and approved of Mrs. Clinton's illegal actions."


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