As reported by the New York Times, Porter's friend, Philadelphia lawyer Jerome M. Marcus, took over Porter's role in putting Tripp in touch with Starr, because such collusion within a law firm could raise questions about a possible conflict of interest.

Goldberg has frankly called Marcus "a cutout" to obscure Porter's role in forging the Tripp-Starr connection.

N E X T+P A G E+| Who heard the tapes, and when?

While Starr claims he first heard Tripp's tapes on Jan. 12, they were making the rounds of Clinton foes much earlier.

On the Oct. 20 broadcast of "Geraldo," Lucianne Goldberg's son and partner, Jonah, said he had heard some of Tripp's tapes in September 1997 -- even earlier than the Oct. 3 date Tripp has testified she began taping Lewinsky.

Jonah Goldberg also said that he personally delivered copies that he and his mother made of two of Tripp's tapes to Starr deputy Robert Bittmann and had earlier "handed the originals to Starr investigator Coy Copeland in New York."

Also on "Geraldo," anti-Clinton activist Ann Coulter revealed that she had heard one of the Lewinsky tapes at least two weeks before Starr has acknowledged knowing about them.

And on Jan. 18, as the Lewinsky scandal was breaking, William Kristol, editor of the conservative Weekly Standard, told ABC's "This Week" that he'd heard about the Lewinsky affair from a friend who had heard Tripp's tapes, too.

Starr's connections to the Jones lawsuit might also have been closer than has so far been reported. Even after he became independent counsel, there is evidence suggesting that Starr and the Jones legal camp continued to act in concert.

Following the Supreme Court decision to greenlight the Jones trial in May 1997, Starr's investigators were widely reported to be questioning Arkansans about possible Clinton sexual misadventures -- which at that point seemed far afield of the Whitewater real estate deal Starr was authorized to investigate.

Then in October, Jones hired a new legal team, with help from Ann Coulter and John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute, which helped underwrite Jones' battle and hired new attorneys for her.

Then came the mysterious "anonymous" phone call to Rutherford's office from someone who suggested that Jones' lawyers should look into the relationship between Clinton and a White House intern named Monica Lewinsky.

Goldberg says she believes the caller was Tripp.

The Los Angeles Times has revealed that Tripp was put in touch with Jones' lawyers by Goldberg at least by Nov. 21, not Jan. 16, 1998, as had been alleged.

It was in the closing months of 1997 that the links between Starr, Jones and Tripp began to come together. As she began to talk with Jones' attorneys, Tripp began worrying about whether her tapes, which were becoming more known to an ever-growing circle of people, put her in legal jeopardy.

Tripp testified to the grand jury that her first lawyer told her that secret taping was illegal in Maryland, but she still taped Lewinsky twice after that warning.

Goldberg later consulted conservative Washington attorney Theodore Olson, a longtime friend and political ally of Starr, for advice about Tripp's legal vulnerability.

On Jan. 9, Tripp met with lawyer James Moody, a friend of Ann Coulter's with ties to the Scaife-funded Landmark Legal Fund, which had also advised Paula Jones.