New Information In Tripp Tapes

This weekend, U.S. News and World Report magazine published excerpts of a conversation that Linda Tripp apparently taped with Monica Lewinsky.

That conversation suggests White House aides were trying to help Lewinsky find a new job long before Paula Jones' lawyers questioned her under oath about her relationship with the President.

CBS Chief Washington Correspondent Bob Schieffer reports that it is significant because the Independent Counsel Ken Starr has been investigating whether White House aides tried to find Lewinsky a job as a reward for her denial of an affair with Mr. Clinton.

Her lawyers told us back in February White House aides were trying to help Lewinsky find a job long before Jones' lawyers began looking for her. These new tapes seem to back that up.

One other point, despite reports to the contrary this weekend, people on all sides of the case say the independent counsel has made no deal yet to give Lewinsky immunity in exchange for co-operation.

But her lawyers and Starr's lawyers are in daily contact now, so that could change.

And, there are signs that Starr may be winding up this part of his investigation. For one thing, Linda Tripp--the woman who taped all those conversations with Lewinsky--may make her first appearance before the grand jury as early as next week.

Our Full Coverage of this Ongoing Story

While Lewinsky and Starr are trying to cut a deal, more tapes have surfaced. U.S. News and World Report got access to two conversations between Lewinsky and her friend and former Pentagon colleague Linda Tripp. Tripp's tapes launched Starr's investigation into the president's relationship with Lewinsky.

The magazine says Lewinsky implied she did have phone sex with the president and that Lewinsky talked about asking Mr. Clinton to help her get a better job - calling him, writing him, even sending an audiotape.

She was hoping for a $90,000-a-year position.

This happened months before she was subpoenaed in the Paula Jones sexual harassment suit against the president. That suit has since been dismissed.

Some say that the timing makes it harder for Starr to prove the president helped Lewinsky to buy her silence. That appears to be one of the things Starr really wanted to show, that President Clinton was making an attempt at a payoff of sorts by getting Lewinsky help to get a job.

Despite his need for her testimony, Starr is not planning to give Lewinsky total immunity. He wants her to plead guilty ta lesser offense. She wants total immunity before she testifies. Click here for an explanation of immunity by CBS News Legal Correspondent Kristin Jeannette-Meyers.

These are opening negotiations. Neither side has a deal at this point, but many think they may have one soon.

One sticking point appears to be the tapes secretly recorded by Tripp. In addition to the 90 minutes of tapes that have been reported in the media, there are more than 16 hours of recordings by Tripp over a period of months. Even Lewinsky can't be certain what is on the tapes, because she wasn't sure she was being recorded at the time.

Lewinsky's attorneys would like to hear all the tapes, but Starr's office is not letting them.