BALTIMORE - Maryland prosecutors dropped their wiretapping charges against Linda Tripp on Wednesday, saying they were left with no case after a judge barred most testimony from the star witness, Monica Lewinsky.
Tripp, whose recordings of her rambling and ribald conversations with the former White House intern set in motion the events that nearly brought down the Clinton presidency, was the only major figure in the scandal to face criminal charges.
But State Prosecutor Stephen Montanarelli said the judge's ruling left him unable to prove that Tripp recorded a telephone conversation with Lewinsky without her consent in December 1997.
''There are no other witnesses to the conversation whom the state can call to testify and Tripp cannot be compelled to testify,'' Montanarelli said.
If convicted, Tripp could have faced 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine.
Prosecutors had to build a case against Tripp that did not rely on evidence she gave to independent counsel Kenneth Starr's office while she was under a federal grant of immunity from prosecution.
''Despite the federal grant of immunity, the state of Maryland pursued its selective prosecution of me for more than two years,'' Tripp said in a statement.
She said she was gratified ''that the federal immunity I was given has finally provided the protection it promised.''
Stephen Kohn, a Tripp attorney, said she would ''continue to pursue her witness-intimidation and Privacy Act lawsuit in federal court against the White House, the Pentagon and any other person or entity which participated in the illegal campaign to harass, intimidate and destroy her as a federal witness against the president.''
Earlier this month, Judge Diane O. Leasure disallowed most of Lewinsky's testimony, saying it was not credible and was tainted by the Starr investigation. Leasure ruled that Lewinsky's recollection of the date of the conversation was influenced by her contact with Starr's office.
The prosecutor asked the judge to reconsider, but she refused.
Montanarelli said Lewinsky did not need Starr's office to refresh her memory of the conversation.
''This was an extremely important and memorable event in her life which was, shortly after it occurred, published in detail in the national news media,'' Montanarelli said. ''We believe her, the court does not, and that resolves the matter.''
Lewinsky attorney Plato Cacheris said he agreed with Montanarelli that Lewinsky's recall of the taped conversation was not tainted by Starr's investigation. But he added: ''I'm sure Ms. Lewinsky is glad that she doesn't have to come back to Maryland to testify.''
Tripp was charged for taping her conversation with Lewinsky on Dec. 22, 1997, and then allowing her attorney to play it for Newsweek magazine. Maryland's wiretap law, which is infrequently prosecuted, forbids taping phone conversations without the other party's consent.
Disclosure of the tape and others Tripp secretly recorded gave Starr evidence of a sexual relationship between Lewinsky and President Clinton. That evidence was used as the basis for the impeachment trial against the president.
Tripp and Lewinsky became friends while working together at the Pentagon, and Lewinsky later told Tripp about her sexual encounters with the president.
Tripp said she began taping her friend's phone calls to protect herself, because Lewinsky was pressuring her to deny knowledge of the relationship in an affidavit for Paula Jones' sexual harassment case against Clinton.
Lucianne Goldberg, the New York literary agent who suggested to Tripp that she tape the conversations, said after Wednesday's ruling that she was ''just thrilled for Linda.''
''She has been through such an extraordinary and unfair ordeal,'' Goldberg said. ''This has eaten up two years of her life and her biggest crime was telling the truth.''
On the Net:
Judge's ruling: http://www.courts.state.md.us.
Tripp's site: http://www.lindatripp.com
