InternGate: The Book
How Far Will an Agent go For a Bestseller?

Dateline: 1/26/98

Lucianne Goldberg is a New York Literary Agent, author (People Will Talk), and ghostwriter. Now she finds herself in the center of a scandal. On CNN's "Larry King Live" on Saturday, the author of an article for The New Yorker, Jane Mayer, explained the relationship: "Lucianne Goldberg is not just a neutral bystander in this. She is a literary agent, but she is quite a bit more also. She is a political enemy of Clinton's, a conservative woman who had done dirty tricks for the Nixon White House."

According to the Washington Post

In New York, Lucianne Goldberg, the conservative author who encouraged Linda Tripp to tape Ms. Lewinsky, held an impromptu news conference outdoors. She said she told Tripp, ``I can't make people believe you unless we have some kind of evidence, unless we have something they can hear or see.'' She said she taped her own telephone conversations with Tripp because, ``I'm a little more savvy than she is.'' Asked by reporters if she was involved to write a book, Goldberg replied, ``This isn't about money. This is about no controlling moral authority.''

Agent Told Tripp to Tape Lewinsky
(Washington Post / Associated Press)

Goldberg accepts credit for advising former Whitehouse staffer Linda Tripp to tape Monica Lewinsky's conversations about Lewinsky's alleged affair with President Clinton. While Goldberg claims she advised Tripp to tape Lewinsky as a friend and not as a literary agent, and she isn't squeamish about blasting Clinton openly. "What I'm glad about is he's getting caught," she told the Washington Post. "At something. If it took this to get him, fine."

Goldberg has long been associated with Republican causes. She posed as a reporter in 1972 to spy on Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern's campaign on behalf of President Nixon. She wrote a gossip column for the local paper and worked for Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. (Of L.B.J., she told PEOPLE in 1992, "He used to twist your nipple in the elevator and think it was a sexy move.")

Mark Furhman's Vince Foster Book Proposal (Publisher's Weekly)

One of Ms. Goldberg's most colorful clients is (was?) former Los Angeles police Detective Mark Fuhrman of the O.J. trial. Ironically Ms. Goldberg tried to sell a book about the death of Clinton colleague Vince Foster, to be penned by Fuhrman, last summer. The publisher of Fuhrman's OJ bestseller, Murder in Brentwood, Alfred Regenery passed on the book and an irate Goldberg called it "high school stuff." Regenery told Publisher's Weekly that he felt Fuhrman lacked the political-insider access needed to write a Foster book, so he rejected the proposal. He said he would still like to publish another book by Fuhrman, but Goldberg scoffed at that suggestion.

Lucianne Goldberg: In Pursuit Of Clinton
(Time Magazine)

During the Clinton years, Goldberg has been involved in publishing efforts attempting to discredit the President. She represented Dolly Kyle Browning, another woman alleging a Clinton affair who has been debunked by critics. Goldberg also tried to get a book deal for the Arkansas state troopers who said they procured women for then Governor Clinton.

Tripp Tried To Write A Clinton 'Tell-All' Book
(All Politics)

The New Yorker magazine reports in the issue published Monday 1/26/98 that Goldberg and Ms. Tripp had spoken several years ago about the possibility of Ms. Tripp writing a book about her time in the White House. Tripp, according to The New Yorker, planned to title the book, Behind Closed Doors: What I Saw Inside the Clinton White House. Proposed chapter headings included, "Shock Therapy: My Introduction To the Mores and Manner of the Clinton White House," "Mrs. President" and "The President's Women," the article says.

Ms. Tripp ``was heartsick about this (Clinton) crowd that had taken over,'' Goldberg told the magazine. ``The White House was the most glamorous thing that had ever happened to Linda, and then she sees this mob come in ... she sees George Stephanopoulos slopping peanut butter on crackers, with his feet on the desk and his dirty hair.'' In Monica news: 1) A profile of Tripp ally/book agent Lucianne Goldberg describes her as adventurous, aggressive, and rather amoral--a "seasoned Bond girl." Why did Goldberg get involved? "Because it's fucking fascinating. I love dish!" (Slate)

Goldberg told U.S. News & World Report that Lewinsky talked about having sex in the Oval Office and the small room connected to it. "It is very much a young girl in love with a married man," says Goldberg. Imitating a teenage voice, Goldberg recalls Lewinsky saying, "Why won't he call me. I think he's going to call me. He said he's going to call me. Why doesn't he call me?" Lewinsky reportedly complained that Clinton has never thanked her for a tie she sent him, although he has worn it publicly.