FBI TAPE BOMBSHELL: LEWINSKY OFFERED TRIPP MONEY FOR SILENCE; WARNED TRIPP NOT TO TELL TRUTH

Monica Lewinsky told Linda Tripp in January that she was being urged by President Clinton to be untruthful in the Paula Jones sex case.

Lewinsky even offered to pay for her friend's silence. Lewinsky told Tripp: "I would write you a check" to keep it all quiet.

Lewinsky added: "Telling the truth could get you in trouble."

Lewinsky's stunning claims are found on Audio Tape #30 in Starr's impeachment referral.

Tape #30 is a face-to-face conversation between Ms. Tripp and Ms. Lewinsky, recorded under FBI auspices.

The ASSOCIATED PRESS is first with several quotes:

Lewinsky to Tripp: "Telling the truth could get you in trouble. I don't know why you would want to do that."

At one point Lewinsky tells Tripp: "What he has showed me is there is no way to get caught in perjury in a situation like this."

Just whom Ms. Lewinsky was referring to was not clear from the information provided by the AP's source.

Excerpts of Tape #30 are leaking out of Washington this evening -- ahead of a Friday afternoon release.

Lewinsky to Tripp: "I think if you tell the truth you're going to be a lot more enmeshed and in trouble..."

"And like he also promised me a job anywhere I wanted to work..."

Lewinsky would later switch gears.

"I told her a whole bunch of lies that day," Lewinsky testified to the grand jury eight months later, "clarifying" her conversation with Tripp.

"I think I told her that -- you know, at various times the president and Mr. Jordan had told me to lie. That wasn't true."