Lawyers Challenge Tripp Indictment

Attorneys for Linda R. Tripp, launching a broad-based challenge in Ellicott City, Md., to the wiretapping indictment against her, are questioning whether the state law can be used to prosecute Tripp for tape-recording a telephone conversation with White House intern Monica S. Lewinsky if Lewinsky was not in the state when the recording was made. Tripp was indicted by a Howard County grand jury July 30 on charges that she illegally taped a phone conversation with her former friend on Dec. 22, 1997, and illegally directing her attorney to reveal its contents to Newsweek magazine.