LINDA TRIPP

Monica Lewinsky has released a tempered, compassionate response to the death Tuesday of Ken Starr, the former independent counsel whose investigation of Bill Clinton helped reveal her affair with the president and, she once wrote, made her life a “living hell.”.

Screenwriter Sarah Burgess focused the new series on three of the women at the center of the scandal. And in the process, gives people a story different from what they think they know.

The world also said goodbye to U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a lion of the civil rights movement who died in July. Other former political figures who died this year include Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, New York Mayor David Dinkins, Arizona Gov. Here is a roll call of some influential figures who died in 2020 (cause of death cited for younger people, if available):___JANUARY___David Stern, 77. The guitarist who supplied the scratching, seething sound that fueled the highly influential British punk band Gang of Four. He fused African rhythms with funk to become one of the most influential musicians in world dance music.

(Reuters) - Linda Tripp, the former U.S. civil servant whose secretly taped telephone conversations with a former White House intern documented the sex scandal that led to then-President Bill Clintons 1998 impeachment, died on Wednesday at age 70. FILE PHOTO: Linda Tripp arrives at the U.S. District Court in Washington, July 7, 1998. Tripp became forever linked with the sex scandal that nearly brought down Clintons presidency by way of her whistleblower role in exposing the extramarital affair he had with Tripps acquaintance, Monica Lewinsky, a former White House intern. Tripp recounted that Lewinsky had once shown her the dress, and that Tripp persuaded the former intern to keep the garment without having it dry-cleaned. In the end, Tripp was vilified by Clintons supporters as having betrayed a friend for partisan political motives.

Linda Tripp, whose secretly recorded conversations with White House intern Monica Lewinsky led to the 1998 impeachment of President Bill Clinton, died Wednesday at age 70. In August 1994, Tripp became a public affairs specialist at the Pentagon, where Lewinsky worked after being a White House intern. Tripp made secret tapes of conversations with Lewinsky, who told her she had had an affair with Mr. Clinton. Tripp turned almost 20 hours of tapes over to Kenneth Starr, the independent prosecutor investigating the president, prompting the investigation that led to his impeachment. As news broke Wednesday that Tripp was near death, Lewinsky tweeted that she hoped for her recovery "no matter the past."

Tripp's taped conversations with Lewinsky triggered the sex-and-lies probe dogging US President Bill Clinton. Linda Tripp, the former White House employee who became a key figure in the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, died at age 70. More from NBC News:Diane Spreadbury, a close friend of Tripp, told NBC News that it was great loss and Tripp was "a fantastic friend." Tripp's official cause of death is unknown, but Spreadbury told NBC News it was not coronavirus related. Lewinsky offered well wishes to Tripp on Wednesday after seeing reports that Tripp was ill."no matter the past, upon hearing that linda tripp is very seriously ill, i hope for her recovery," Lewinsky wrote.