Linda Tripp: Under a Protective Starr

WASHINGTON: Linda Tripp certainly looks as if she's under siege. According to CNN, Monica Lewinsky may well cooperate with Maryland state prosecutor Stephen Montanarelli, who's after Tripp for secretly taping her young ex-confidant. Montanarelli also thinks another set of tapes -- of conversations between Tripp and New York literary agent Lucianne Goldberg -- may be just the thing to make his case. Good luck: TIME Washington correspondent Michael Weisskopf says that Special Prosecutor Ken Starr's interest in Tripp will probably trump any state investigation.

"It's more than likely the grand jury in Maryland will not get hold of any tapes because Starr's is a federal investigation," Weisskopf says. And Montanarelli's chances for reeling in Tripp herself aren't much better. "Tripp received immunity when she agreed to cooperate with Starr. That immunity would likely be relevant to state as well as federal investigations." Tripp capped her fourth day of testimony by declaring that "despite the events which have recently unfolded in Maryland, I continue to focus on my testimony before the federal grand jury." For once, the facts would seem to support the spin.