GARY CONDIT, DIMOCRAP
House of Representatives, California
Page 3 of Revelations About his Criminality
CONDIT: CHANDRA 'SLEPT AROUND'
July 18, 2001
By STEVE DUNLEAVY, BRIAN BLOMQUIST
and DEBORAH ORIN
WASHINGTON - The smearing of Chandra Levy has begun.
Rep. Gary Condit, who reportedly told cops he had an affair with the missing intern, touched off a furor yesterday when his spokeswoman was quoted as claiming Chandra has "a history of one-night stands."
The charge drew a fierce response from Chandra’s aunt, Linda Zamsky, who told The Post: "It’s tacky and it’s a disgrace, but some people wish to be tacky."
A Levy family spokesman denied that Chandra, 24, has had one-night stands, and Zamsky called the statement a low blow that hurts the family at a particularly sensitive time as D.C. cops search Rock Creek Park for her body.
The furor was touched off by the California Democrat’s damage-control spokeswoman, Marina Ein, when Salon.com quoted her as saying the intern has a history of frequent casual-sex encounters.
Ein sent a letter to Salon claiming the quotes attributed to her were "false and destructive" and demanding a retraction. But Salon’s Washington bureau chief, Kerry Lauerman, said the magazine stands by its story, adding he has "complete faith" in the writer, Joshua Micah Marshall.
The Salon article quoted Ein as implying the rumor came from Talk magazine writer Lisa DePaulo.
"What about the fact that Lisa DePaulo is working on this article for Talk magazine and it turns out Chandra Levy has a history of one-night stands?" Salon quoted Ein as saying.
A spokeswoman for Talk denied the magazine is set to report that Levy had one-night stands or that DePaulo said anything of the sort.
Condit’s lawyer and congressional spokesman didn’t return phone calls.
The sliming of Chandra hit Washington like a bomb, with investigators saying they don’t believe the charge is true, and analysts calling it an act of desperation that will backfire.
"That’s a new one on me. I hadn’t heard that she dated a lot," said D.C. Assistant Police Chief Terry Gainer.
Terry Lenzner, Washington’s best-known private investigator, said, "That side has been shooting themselves in the foot, and now they’re shooting themselves in the head to say this about a girl who’s missing and might be dead. Hasn’t the Levy family suffered enough?"
A Democratic strategist reacted with horror: "My God, the worst thing a male politician can do is slander a woman. This nuts-and-sluts stuff everybody is onto it. It doesn’t work."
Jim Feiger, manager of the Newport apartment building, where Levy lives, said, "I never saw Gary Condit here, and as far as I know, she never brought people into her apartment."
In other developments:
Cops say today they’ll release a list of Web sites Levy visited shortly before her disappearance, showing she looked at sites on Condit’s congressional committees, various news sites and travel sites for airlines and trains.
* Dozens of D.C. police recruits searched an area of Rock Creek Park near the Klingle Mansion, and found running shoes and a utility knife.
Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) raised eyebrows by saying Condit is "guilty of cheating on his wife. At worst, he is guilty of murder."
* The FBI began to assess the independent lie-detector test taken by Condit, which his lawyer claimed exonerated him.
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The
Washington Times
www.washtimes.com
A cynical charade
Thomas Sowell
CREATORS SYNDICATE
Published 7/18/01
Why would you pay hard cash
for something you could easily get free of charge?
That is the question which
exposes the cynical charade by Rep. Gary Condit, California
Democrat, when he paid for a private lie-detector test. The
police had already asked to give him a lie-detector test. Had
he refused, the headlines would have read: "Condit
refuses lie detector." Instead, the headlines read:
"Condit passes lie detector," though who knows
under what conditions or after how many tries or with how
much coaching?
It was a clever ploy by Mr.
Condit and his lawyer. But what does that say about his
purpose? Despite all the talk about "cooperating
fully," it means that, more than two months after
Chandra Levy disappeared, Mr. Condit is still playing games.
One part of these games is the
sickly smile the congressman shows when the media are around.
This is part of an old political spin game. Richard Nixon
used it when he left the White House in disgrace in 1974,
pausing in front of the helicopter to strike a happy,
triumphant pose.
Bad as that was, there was
nobody missing and no one whose life might be hanging in the
balance. But that is the grim reality today, while
Congressman Gary Condit wears his media smile. Clearly he is
someone with no sense of shame, or even decency.
If he had any real concern for
the fate of Chandra Levy, the time to tell all was right
after she disappeared, when there might have been some hope
of finding her before it was too late. Sometimes one person's
clue can be put together with others and lead the police in
the right direction.
Everyone hopes that this young
woman somehow turns up alive and unharmed. But it is a wish
against all the odds. If she were alive, unharmed and free,
can anyone imagine that she would let her parents go through
these months of anguish?
If she were being held
prisoner, would her captors dare to let her live, knowing how
everyone is looking for her? Some have said that perhaps
Chandra Levy has somehow lost her memory and may be wandering
somewhere, not knowing who she is. But everybody else knows
who she is. She would be recognized if she wandered down the
street in the most isolated town in America.
Others say that perhaps she
committed suicide. Then how did she dispose of her body
afterward? Any unidentified body found anywhere in this
country would be quickly recognized if it were Chandra
Levy's.
Miracles can happen. But it
would indeed be a miracle if this is anything other than the
murder of a young intern. Nor is it likely to have been a
random murder. Why would an ordinary, garden variety street
criminal bother to hide the body so well that a police
dragnet has failed to find it? A couple of other young women
interns in Washington have been murdered, but their bodies
were found.
Who would have a motive to go
to so much trouble to conceal the body of someone who was
wholly unknown before her disappearance and who would have
remained unknown if it were not for her connection with Mr.
Condit? That is what brought in the media.
None of this connects Mr.
Condit with her disappearance or with whatever may have
happened to her afterward. But neither does his conduct
inspire confidence that his concern is with helping to have
her found.
His stalling and evasiveness
may reflect nothing more than a politicians' top priority in
keeping his job. But, even at that, what does it say about
some politicians?
If nothing else comes out of
this tragic story, it should give pause to those who speak so
loftily about "public service" as somehow nobler
than business or commerce or other ways of making a living.
Politicians are not larger than life. As human beings they
are often smaller than life and more warped.
Making money is certainly not
the be-all and end-all of life. But wanting to provide for
your family is nothing to be ashamed of. The people who bear
watching are those who are willing to sacrifice their
family's material well-being in order to gain power over
other people.
They are not all like
Congressman Condit. At least we can hope so. But far too many
seem to be. Since we cannot have anarchy, we must have
government officials. But we have no duty to glamorize them.
Or excuse them.
Copyright © 2001 News World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
Levy may have tracked Condit via Web on day she disappeared
Published Thursday, July 19, 2001, in the San Jose Mercury
News
BY ROXANNE STITES AND LORI ARATANI
Mercury News
WASHINGTON -- Chandra Levy bounced from one Web site to another on the day she disappeared, police said Wednesday.
She scanned more than a dozen sites -- including the Modesto Bee, the Drudge Report, the House Agricultural Committee and an Internet superstore -- and wrote e-mail messages to friends and family, police said. She also visited sites for Southwest Airlines and Amtrak.
``She was all over the place, some for a tenth of a second,'' said Washington, D.C., Executive Assistant Police Chief Terrance Gainer. While Levy's connection to U.S. Rep. Gary Condit, D-Modesto, is no longer a secret, her Web activity is revealing, he said.
``Clearly, she was tracking Condit,'' Gainer said in an interview Wednesday. He would offer no further explanation, but said some sites browsed by the 24-year-old criminal justice major show more than a casual interest in government.
Also on Wednesday, FBI experts and police dismissed the results of Condit's privately administered polygraph as useless and said they may request a fourth interview with the Central Valley congressman.
``We weren't in the room when he took the polygraph,'' said Police Chief Charles Ramsey. ``We can't be sure the answers even go with the questions.''
Abbe Lowell, Condit's attorney, could not be reached for comment. Lowell caught police by surprise late last week when he announced at a press conference that Condit had taken and passed a polygraph.
For now, police are hoping the public release of the Web sites Levy visited will trigger new leads.
In addition to the site for the House Agricultural Committee, which Condit serves on, Levy also clicked on a site that tracks legislation, Gainer said. A more complete rundown of her computer activity is expected to be released by police today.
``Maybe somebody can put a context to those things that our detectives could not,'' Gainer said.
Levy, who grew up in Modesto but most recently lived in Washington, D.C., while interning at the federal Bureau of Prisons, has been missing for nearly three months. She was last seen in person April 30, but police are convinced she spent at least three hours on her laptop on the morning of May 1 before disappearing.
Between the hours of 9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., Levy sent e-mail messages to friends and family but received no replies from them in return. Police said an analysis of the data on her computer's hard drive showed that her Web surfing and messaging on the morning of May 1 was similar to her pattern on other days for the previous month.
``Who knows what these mean?'' said Ramsey, referring to many of the sites. ``Maybe she gets up in the morning and reads newspapers on the computer. Maybe she was checking the weather. The point is we don't know, but somebody might.''
Earlier this week, police released the name of one site that Levy had visited -- Rock Creek Park, which is near her Washington apartment -- but three consecutive days of searching through woods and trails there have yielded nothing. Police recruits and cadaver dogs will continue scouring the park and others for several more weeks.
Meanwhile, dozens of Condit supporters held a noontime rally Wednesday outside the congressman's Modesto district office to show he still has support despite his link to Levy.
However, a CBS News poll released early today of 556 residents in his district showed that a majority of Condit's constituents like the job he has been doing and believe he should finish his term, but would not vote for him for re-election.
Nearly two-thirds of those polled also said his job performance has been affected by his reported affair with Levy. Nearly two-thirds think the 53-year-old married Democrat from Ceres has seriously hurt the investigation, according to the poll. A majority -- 55 percent -- believe he hasn't told police all he knows about her disappearance.
The demonstration Wednesday, just one day after a Fresno-based conservative group held a similar event calling for Condit to resign, was organized by Mary Schatz, 70, a member of Stanislaus County's Democratic Central Committee. Schatz said she was just trying to pay Condit back for his years of service to the district, and said she acted as an individual and not for the party committee.
``Hell no, Gary won't go,'' read one sign. ``God bless America and the Condit family,'' read another. Supporters said Condit has served the district well and should be re-elected.
Jarnail Dosanjh, 71, said it was unfair to link Condit to Levy's disappearance. ``He's being blamed for something he didn't do,'' he said. ``He's a good man, and he stands by his people. We as people want to stand by him.''
Roxanne Stites reported from Washington, Lori Aratani from Modesto.
© 2001 The Mercury News.
Thursday, July 19
Law enforcement sources say
just two or three hours before police began their search of
the congressman's apartment, Condit took something from his
apartment in Adams Morgan, drove to Northern Virginia, and
put the item in the trash can.
Sources say a man walking in the area saw Condit put the item
in the trash and the man called the police.
The unidentified man told investigators he recognized Condit
from television coverage of Chandra Levy's disappearance.
Police went to the trash can, and sources say, retrieved a
small case.
Police won't give out the exact location of the trash can.
The trip to Alexandria happened, according to sources, as
search specialists were preparing to go to Condit's apartment
last week. The search occurred with the Congressman's
permission.
Early in the investigation, investigators had tried to get a
search warrant for Condit's residence but were told by
prosecutors they did not have enough probable cause.
Detectives are now wondering what other items, if any, had
been removed from the congressman's apartment in the time
between Ms. Levy's disappearance and the pre-arranged police
search of the apartment.
Another police source said, "don't you think if we had
conducted the polygraph we would have asked him have you
removed any item or items from your apartment which may be
related to the investigation."
The US Attorney's Office is now reviewing this reported
incident to see if it falls in the category of obstruction of
justice.
There's no word on where the
watch which was in the case is now. Law enforcement
sources say the watch was apparently a gift to Condit -
not from Chandra Levy - but from another woman with whom the
Congressman reportedly had a romantic relationship.
Police apparently were able to trace the watch case to the
store where it was sold and then they found the woman who
purchased it. A detective says while the disposal of the case
may not have a direct bearing on the Levy Investigation he
says "it shows a pattern of deceit."
From the FBI, the US
Attorney's Office and DC Police: "No
Comment!"
We were unable to reach Congressman Condit's attorney Abbe
Lowell.
9 Eyewitness News reporter Greg
Starddard says, DC police were back in Chandra Levy's old
neighborhood Thursday night trying to uncover any new
information that would help them in their investigation.
Investigators are still trying to get
information from Chandra Levy's former neighbors. More than a
half dozen detectives were back at the Newport tonight,
knocking on doors and looking for clues.
DC police arrived back at Chandra
Levy's apartment early this evening, more than a half dozen
re-interviewing residents, and some cases talking with
residents for the very first time.
With detectives converging on the
apartment building still looking for leads, residents have
seen the complex change: more security since Chandra
vanished.
Police have flooded Rock Creek Park
and other locations, searching for the missing intern, and
the fop says dc police have ignored important cases and other
reports involving missing people.
FBI agent Brad Garrett has been
tapped to take on a more aggresive role with the Levy
investigation, but DC Police Chief Charles Ramsey downplayed
his involvement, saying "we continue to have good
relationship with the FBI and everyone is entitled to their
own opinion.,,,,we've done everything we can."
And we're still waiting on DC police
to release those websites that Chandra Levy visited shortly
before she disappeared. We're expecting that information to
be released Friday.
From earlier Thursday:
A fourth day of searching some of the District's largest
parks has failed to produce evidence related to Chandra
Levy's disappearance. Also today, union leaders representing
DC police officers are expressing concern about the amount of
resources being used in the Chandra Levy investigation.
Metropolitan Police Department police academy cadets worked
in two teams while searching around Peirce Mill in Rock Creek
Park and at two parks in Southeast DC near the Maryland state
line.
A police spokesman says searches of Forts Davis and Stanton
Parks were finished around 2:30 this afternoon.
Officer Kenny Bryson says cadets found nothing unusual.
Bryson says crime scene technicians were not called to any of the parks to collect evidence.
The park searches which began four days ago have produced animal bones, a pair of running shoes and a small knife. All of those items were turned over to the DC police crime lab.
But investigators don't believe they are connected to any crimes.
Police will announce whether they'll continue searching the parks again tomorrow.
Also today, Union leaders representing DC police officers are expressing concern about the Chandra Levy investigation. Fraternal Order of Police Labor Committee President Gregory Neill says the investigation into Levy's disappearance is taking a lot of police resources.
Neill says reducing the District's homicide closure rate should be the department's greatest single focus. (story continued below)
Levy hasn't been since April 30th. Neill says after nearly three months, the Levy investigation is pulling homicide detectives away from their districts. And he says he wants to talk with Chief Charles Ramsey about his concerns. Another top union official agrees. Union Secretary Gregory Gree says Metropolitan Police Department managers should be concerned about all crimes in the city. He notes the Levy case remains a missing persons matter.
He also says that while he appreciates the Levy's family's concern for their daughter's fate, there are a lot of families in the District that have been touched by the disappearances or murders of family members who also deserve closure.
That report suggested
federal authorities believe too much emphasis is being placed
by DC police on Congressman Gary Condit's possible
involvement.
Ramsey says officials at the FBI have said nothing to him
about that. He also says it's not the DC police paying extra
attention to Condit, but rather the media. Ramsey made some
of his strongest comments yet about the media coverage,
calling it, "beyond anything that I would consider
reasonable."
As for the investigation, Ramsey says police still get 50 to 100 tips a day about the Levy case.
Wednesday, July 18
9 Eyewitness News reporter Greg Starddard says the FBI is
apparently ready to take on a more active role in the Chandra
Levy investigation as DC Police continue looking for a break
in the case. Congressman Gary Condit will not be the primary
focus of the FBI's investigation.
Veteran FBI agents have now been assigned to the Chandra Levy
case. It's the major case squad located at the FBI field
office here in Washington. Congressman Gary Condit will not
be their primary focus.
With the FBI's major case
squad investigating the disappearance of Levy, DC police are
still the lead agency.
It's an increased focus as Levy's parents wait for answers.
Law enforcement sources all tell 9 Eyewitness News that nearly 20 residents at Levy's former apartment building have not been interviewed even though Levy has been missing since April 29th.
As police continue seeking information from Congressman Gary Condit, many of Levy's former neighbors say the interviewing process has become intense.
Investigators are also planning to release travel sites Chandra Levy may have visited on her computer along with other congressional sites involving Congressman Condit.
Thursday police will release several
websites that Chandra Levy visited.
The search in rock creek park will also resume.
From Earlier Wednesday:
DC Police Chief Charles Ramsey says it appears the private
lie detector test given to Congressman Gary Condit won't be
of much use. Ramsey says his researchers have little more
than a graph that can't be associated with any specific
question. Ramsey says they have no way of knowing if the
question was "are your shoes black" or "did
you kill Chandra Levy."
Gainer says the department is analyzing a private polygraph
test California Congressman Gary Condit took to see if police
want to peruse their own test. Gainer tells CBS's "Early
Show," he thinks it's "suspect" Condit picked
his own polygraph examiner.
Also Wednesday, the Chandra Levy reward fund has grown. A
donation from a California bail bondsman nearly doubles the
reward to $90,000. The local tip line for information is
202-727-9099. That's 202-727-9099.
Washington police expanded their search for missing former intern Chandra Levy to include three small city parks.
Fort Davis, Fort Chaplin, Fort Mahan Parks were the subject of a Wednesday search by police and police recruits. Rainy weather hampered the search, said Sgt. Bob Panizari, but police recruits spent the day carefully searching the three parks while looking for signs of Levy at the huge Rock Creek National Park.
Police also said they would release a list of Web sites that Levy had visited before her disappearance, based on authorities' investigation of her home computer.
Levy visited newspaper, restaurant and government sites on her home computer that day, apparently looking for travel information for her planned return home to California.
Meanwhile, the FBI - which has been working with District of Columbia police on the investigation - has transferred the case to a unit that handles long-term investigations. Until now, the case had involved an FBI unit that assists with short-term investigations.
The new unit is expected to take a fresh look at an investigation that so far has produced few clues.
In Modesto, California, Levy's father, Dr. Robert Levy, spoke to reporters gathered Wednesday outside his home. He expressed confidence in the police search for clues. "I think they're doing everything they're able to right now," he said. "We're just trying to keep our hopes up. Levy said he was "really emotionally pretty distraught, unhappy and sad and angry and just everything all at once."
The 24-year-old Levy's disappearance nearly 11 weeks ago is being treated as a missing person investigation because of a lack of evidence indicating foul play or suicide. It has attracted national news media attention because of her connection to Rep. Gary Condit, D-California.
Condit was on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, taking his seat at a hearing involving the House Agriculture Committee, on which he serves.
On Tuesday, police combed two other Washington parks but found no clues they could immediately tie to a case that has frustrated and perplexed authorities for more than two months.
"We'll be there probably for another two to four weeks, given the amount of territory we have to search," Assistant Police Chief Terrance Gainer said Tuesday night.
Police said they don't have any specific information Levy went to Rock Creek, whose sprawling 2,820 acres were searched Tuesday. It's very near her apartment in the Dupont Circle area. The area of the park police are searching is about two miles from Levy's apartment.
Authorities said that on May 1, the day after she was last reported seen, Levy browsed a Web site that included information on the area, which is near the park's Klingle Mansion.
Investigators found a knife and some men's running shoes Tuesday in Rock Creek Park. There was no word on what, if anything, they found in Fort Dupont Park in the southeast quadrant of the city, far from the northwest neighborhood where Levy lived. The searches lasted roughly eight hours.
The sergeant from the special investigations unit described the recovered blade as a box-cutting knife, which was found near the shoes and an empty Nike brand shoe box. He said he expects investigators to find more such discarded items as they continue their search.
The Levy family has said their daughter had a romantic relationship with the 53-year-old married congressman, but police sources said Condit did not admit that until a third interview with law enforcement officials. He has made no public comment on the young woman's disappearance, beyond a written statement weeks ago calling her a "good friend."
Police have said Condit is not considered a suspect in the disappearance.
Two Republicans -- Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia and Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi -- have called on Condit to resign over the matter.
At the invitation of Condit lawyer Abbe Lowell, police have searched the congressman's apartment and took a DNA sample from him. Lowell last week said Condit passed a privately conducted polygraph test, although police have criticized the test because none of the investigating officers were present.
A Lowell spokeswoman said Tuesday all material from the test have been given to police.
On Monday, police briefly cordoned off an area of Rock Creek Park popular with joggers and others after finding a four-inch-long bone near the mansion. Police said it was probably not human and sent it out for further analysis.
Tuesday, July 17
In Rock Creek Park on Tuesday, police found a pair of blue
Nike running shoes, one of which contained a knife. There was
also a box and some bags. Everything was removed by crime
scene technicians.
The park searches will resume in the morning. The entire
process is expected to take at least a week.
Outside his home in Modesto, California, Levy's father Robert Levy said he and his wife were following developments in the case and watching parts of the search on television.
"It's all upsetting, but they've got to do it," he said. Robert Levy described himself as "hopeful," but added the ordeal was taxing.
"Of course, the longer it goes, the more upset we get about not finding her and not knowing where she is, and it's just taking so long and we don't know when or if we'll find everything out," he said.
Investigators found several bones Monday afternoon, but authorities said they probably were not human remains.
"In my opinion, there will be a lot of bones like that in the park," said Lt. Joseph Cox, a spokesman for the U.S. Park Police. "There is a lot of wildlife in Rock Creek Park, and that wouldn't be uncommon to find something like that."
Nevertheless, Cox said, the bone would be taken to a medical examiner to determine its origin.
Assistant Police Chief Terrance Gainer said police will divide the city into grids and search in culverts and alleys "where someone may have committed suicide" or where a driver may have pulled off the road and dumped a body.
A prior plan to search area landfills has been abandoned, he said. Landfill owners told police it could take one person a year and cost $6 million to search just one landfill. And police have no reason to believe Levy's body could be in a landfill, Gainer said.
About 165 tips on the Levy case emerged after the Saturday night broadcast of "America's Most Wanted," according to the show's host and missing persons' advocate John Walsh.
One caller reported seeing someone in a van near Levy's apartment the day before she disappeared trying to lure women into the van.
"We're going to check our records and see if there were any calls that came in. ... we've talked to other people in that area to find out whether they saw anything suspicious," Ramsey said. "We take it very seriously."
Many clues have led nowhere. Ramsey said someone in Levy's apartment building called 911 around 4:30 a.m. May 1 saying she thought she heard screams outside the building.
But police who responded to the call found nothing and Ramsey discounted the possibility that it could have been related to Levy's disappearance, since later that day -- from approximately 9:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. -- there was "a great deal of activity" on her computer.
The Levy case is one of about 40 open missing persons cases the Washington police are investigating, Gainer said. But it is distinguished by the absence of apparent progress in resolving it, he said. "Most of the people are either found or come back on their own."
Meanwhile today, the FBI is
reportedly trying to locate and interview any woman who has
had a relationship with the Congressman. US News and World
Report and CNN say investigators believe other women, if
there are any, may shed light on what could have happened to
the missing intern.
In a separate report, the Los Angeles Times is reporting that
Condit has been the subject of infidelity rumors since his
days as a State Assemblyman. The newspaper also says Condit
once hired a 21-year old nightclub hostess to join his
Washington Congressional staff, then paid her an inflated
salary. But a Condit friends says the Congressman always puts
his family and his constituents first.
Monday, July 16
On Monday police found close to 25 bones, but Sergeant
Bob Panizari says he believes the bones found are animal
bones. Investigators bagged them and took them to the medical
examiner'The bones were found near Porter Street, about two
mile from where Levy lived. Panizari says police may bring in
dogs to distinguish between animal and human bones during
their search tomorrow.s office for identification.
Police say Levy looked up a
map site for Klingle Mansion on May 1, the last time police
believe she used her laptop.
District police want to talk to cab drivers who may have
come in contact with Chandra Levy. The former federal intern
who has been missing for twelve weeks did not have a car in
the District.
Chief Charles Ramsey says some of the 16-hundred taxi operators who work in the city may have transported a woman matching Levy's appearance on May 1st.
Although it's difficult to get records from taxicab companies, Ramsey says police have to look at every possibility to determine the fate of the missing woman.
The chief also says all rumors and theories presented on Levy's fate also being checked out. That includes the possibility that she may have been the victim of a serial killer cruising the city in a mysterious van.
Ramsey says his investigators want to talk to anyone who may have definite information about such a van, but no one has come forward.
Also today, DC police hope to see the results of Congressman Gary Condit's polygraph test.
His attorney, Abbe Lowell, says Condit passed it.
Ramsey says he'd still like to investigate the possibility of a law enforcement-administered polygraph test with Congressman Gary Condit, though he's doubtful that will occur.
But Ramsey has also said investigators have explored having others take polygraph tests. He would not say whether any of those interviews have occurred.
Meantime, the lawyer for Levy's family said Sunday that the family believes she left her apartment to see someone she knew because she did not take her purse, wallet, identification or credit cards.
Before Levy disappeared, she told her family that her boyfriend demanded she not carry identification when they were together, attorney Billy Martin said.
"Chandra instructed friends and family that when she met with her secret lover and her friend that that was the procedure used.
He said Levy "appears to have been lured, called or brought out of the apartment expecting to return."
Washington Police Chief Charles Ramsey said investigators do not believe Levy would easily be lured from her apartment by a stranger. Levy was "a pretty cautious woman and just wasn't one to just throw her door open to anybody if there was a knock at the door and things like that," he told CBS' "Face the Nation."
"I mean, it just doesn't fit that it would be a stranger or something like that," Ramsey said.
Police have reported finding no signs of foul play in her apartment.
Ramsey said investigators have not ruled out the possibility that Levy may have left her apartment without ID for other reasons, such as to make a quick trip to a nearby store.
Police have four theories about her disappearance: She left of her own accord, committed suicide, has amnesia or is the victim of foul play.
Police say the suicide theory becomes more unlikely with each passing day because a body has not been found. Last week, police released computer-generated pictures of Levy showing how she might look if she changed her hairstyle so people would not recognize her.
Levy was last seen when she canceled her membership at a health club April 30. She was making preparations to return home to attend her graduation ceremony at the University of Southern California.
Ramsey said Sunday that a resident of Levy's building called police at 4:30 a.m. on May 1 to report hearing someone screaming.
He said police went to the building but found nothing.
Also, he said, investigators know Levy was on her computer, making travel plans by searching sites over the Internet and sending e-mail to her parents and friends as late as 1 p.m. on May 1. The trail ends there.
Assistant Police Chief
Terrance Gainer said the timing of the reported scream and
Levy's use of her computer later the same day lead police to
believe the screaming was not relevant to the case. Police
have said they have no reason to doubt Levy was the one
operating her computer. Although computer records show that
she viewed a site that gives people driving directions and
maps, police have no reason to believe she went to any of
those places, Ramsey said.
As the search continues, so does political pressure on
Congressman Gary Condit to resign.
Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott says Condit should resign, no matter what the Levy investigation turns up.
There is no comment from Condit's office.
His publicist issued a statement, quote, "everything substantive we've already said. We have nothing more to say."
Sunday, July 15
As for the polygraph test, DC police continue to dismiss the
privately-administered lie detector test taken by California
congressman Gary Condit.
"First of all we don't know what questions were
asked," police chief Charles Ramsey said Sunday on CBS
News' Face The Nation. "It's unusual
to have an examination like that given where the examiner
doesn't even know the facts of the case. So I'm very
interested in seeing the results and seeing the questions.
But there is no opportunity for follow-up, and we certainly
had no input into the questions that were asked."
Ramsey also revealed that a resident of Levy's apartment
building reported hearing what might have been a scream about
4:30 in the morning of the day that Levy disappeared. An
officer dispatched to the scene found nothing.
And Levy's computer saw heavy use for about three hours later
that morning, indicating she was still alive and well after
the incident.
"From the e-mail message she sent her mother, from the
surfing of the web, for lack of a better word to describe the
other activity that was taking place, there's nothing that
would be suspicious in nature that would lead us to believe
that, you know, she had been attacked or there was some
problem or whatever," he said. "It could just be
coincidence, but certainly it is something that our
investigators have looked at."
Ramsey said the computer indicates that Levy was looking at
travel sites. "She visited quite a few sites inquiring
about a few cities," he said.
"She was going home, the family was excited and she was
excited, and those appear to be solid plans," family
attorney Billy Martin said on NBC's "Meet The
Press."
They also have cellphone and bank records for her.
What investigators don't have is the piece of information
that would tell them why she then left her apartment, with
only her keys in her hands.
"One thing we do know is she was a pretty cautious woman
and just wasn't one to throw a door open to anybody and
things like that," said Ramsey. "It just doesn't
fit that it would be a stranger or something like that."
Martin agreed Levy probably knew the person with whom she
left the apartment or whom she was meeting.
"We're looking at things way beyond the Congressman.
We're not just focusing on him," the chief said.
"This isn't a one-dimensional investigation here, (there
are) a lot of possibilities here and a lot of people we're
talking to."
Former federal prosecutor David Schertler disagrees.
"They have run out of leads," he told CBS News.
"Obviously they're doing what we would call
investigative steps of last resort. They're trying to search
abandoned buildings. They're trying to redo interviews with
people they've already interviewed and run criminal
checks."
Among the people to whom police are talking are bus and taxi
drivers, in hopes of finding someone who may have seen her on
May 1 or later. Police said they had searched more than 70
vacant buildings in the nation's capital looking for Levy.
Authorities also released simulated images of Levy with
different hair styles.
On the matter of polygraph testing, attorney Abbe Lowell told
reporters Friday the result of the polygraph showed "the
congressman was not deceptive in any way." He said the
raw data from the test is being sent to the FBI and police.
He also said Condit has given a DNA sample to investigators.
Lowell declined to identify all the questions that were
asked, but said Condit was asked the questions that
"really matter" in the case: "Did the
congressman have anything at all to do with the disappearance
of Miss Levy? Did he harm her or cause anyone else to harm
her in any way? Does he know where she can be located?"
Lowell said Condit took the polygraph test under the
supervision of Barry D. Colvert, an expert he says the FBI
has used on some of its biggest cases.
Ramsey said he doubts Condit will submit to a
police-administered polygraph test.
"I mean, we'll ask, but I am not optimistic that we're
going to make any progress," he said on Face The
Nation. "It was voluntary, he didn't have to
submit to that. He doesn't have to submit to one from us. So
we'll just have to move on."
A criminal defense lawyer with experience in lawsuits over
lie detectors also said that a test given by law enforcement
would be more valuable. "A friendly polygraph is less
reliable than an adversarial one because the polygrapher
knows a bad result can end up in the garbage," said
Andrew Schapiro of the law firm Mayer, Brown and Platt in New
York.
Billy Martin, the lawyer for Levy's parents, also criticized
Condit for not submitting to an FBI polygraph expert.
"It seems that the congressman and his attorneys snuck
off to a private polygraph examiner and took a polygraph on
his terms," Martin said.
At his press conference, Lowell reiterated that Condit has
cooperated fully with investigators and chastised the media
for focusing on him despite repeated assertions by
authorities that he was not a suspect.
"The more time you spend on Congressman Condit, his
family, his life and his past, the more you are diverting
attention and resources from the one thing that really
matters here - finding Chandra Levy," said Lowell.
Lowell also dismissed as irrelevant to finding Levy
allegations by flight attendant Anne Marie Smith that Condit
asked her to sign a statement denying a 10-month affair she
says they had.
Condit has denied asking anyone to lie, but federal
prosecutors are conducting a preliminary criminal inquiry to
determine whether Condit obstructed the Levy investigation.
According to a police source, Condit, who is 53 and married,
told investigators in his third interview last week that he
was having an affair with Levy, a 24-year-old intern from the
congressman's Modesto, Calif.-area home district.
Police say they are pursuing four theories about Levy: she
was murdered, she killed herself, she went into hiding or she
has amnesia. However, police say they have all but ruled out
suicide since so much time has passed and no body has been
found.
Meanwhile, just outside the city of Washington, police have
found a body, but they say it was so far beyond recognition
that tests will be needed to show whether it was a man or a
woman. Police in the meantime continued to creep through
abandoned buildings.
Levy's parents discounted speculation that Levy may have been
pregnant at the time she disappeared.
"I doubt it. It would be nice if she was alive and
pregnant somewhere," her father, Dr. Robert Levy, said
from his home in Modesto.
Saturday, July 14
On Friday afternoon they released computer enhanced
images of what she might look like now.
Ramsey issued a statement after Condit's attorney, Abbe
Lowell, said his client took a private polygraph test
arranged by Lowell and conducted by a former FBI expert. The
attorney said the test showed Condit was not deceitful.
Ramsey says the police department was never informed the test
would be conducted or that no active members of law
enforcement would be present during the test.
And he says the questions asked during the private polygraph testing may not have been all the questions the police department would consider pertinent. A lawyer for the Levy family says taking a lie detector test arranged by his own defense attorney shows Condit is releasing information only on his own terms and when he wants. Billy Martin says Condit "snuck off" to a private polygraph examiner instead of taking a police-administered exam.
• Oct. 22, 2000: Chandra Ann Levy, 24, begins an internship at the federal Bureau of Prisons Central Office in Washington, D.C.
• Dec. 23: Levy sends an e-mail to a friend stating, "my man will be coming back here when Congress starts up again, I'm looking forward to seeing him." She did not name the man.
• January 2001: The landlord of the building where Levy lives reports that Levy informed him she might break the lease and move in with her boyfriend.
• Feb. 1: Levy's landlord calls her to ask about her plans. The landlord is quoted later as saying that Levy said she would not be moving in with her boyfriend because "it didn't work out."
• April 23: Levy's last day as an intern at the federal Bureau of Prisons.
• April 28: Levy
e-mails her landlord about her plans, saying: "I am
moving back to California for my graduation during the week
of May 8 and I am moving back there for good." The
landlord never hears from her again. Levy was to graduate May
11 from the University of Southern California.
• April 29: Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif., talks to Levy on
the telephone. He tells police during a June 23 interview
that this was the last time he talked to Levy. This also is
the date Levy's aunt, Linda Zamsky, says she received a phone
message from Levy saying, "I have big news."
• April 30: Levy cancels her membership at Washington Sports Club gym on Connecticut Avenue in Washington at about 7:30 p.m.
• May 1: Levy e-mails her parents about her travel plans but gives no specifics about time or mode of travel. The e-mail time is 10:45 a.m. ET. This is the last known contact with Levy.
• May 5: After three days of calling their daughter's answering machine without an answer, Susan and Robert Levy contact police in Washington and tell them their daughter is missing.
• May 6: Susan Levy,
Chandra's mother, calls Condit at his home in Ceres, Calif.,
and asks him for help in finding Chandra. Police check
Chandra Levy’s apartment in Washington and find two
partially packed bags, clothes in the closet, dishes in the
sink, her cell phone, her running shoes, her driver’s
license, the receipt for her canceled health club membership
and her credit cards. Her apartment keys are missing.
• May 7: Condit's chief of staff, Mike Lynch, tells The
Washington Post that Condit called the police on this day
about Levy's disappearance. Condit made the call on behalf of
Susan Levy as her congressman. (Sometime early in May, the
D.C. Metropolitan Police interview Condit briefly for the
first time.)
• May 10: Condit
donates $10,000 from his campaign treasury in reward money to
find Levy.
• May 16: Condit releases a statement calling Levy
"a great person and a good friend." Levy's parents
arrive in Washington and meet with police for more than three
hours. Police use cadaver-sniffing dogs to search the banks
of the Potomac and Anacostia rivers.
• May 17: Detectives search the alley behind Condit's condo in Washington. They find nothing.
• May 18: The Washington Post quotes D.C. Assistant Police Chief Ronald Monroe as saying Levy visited Condit's apartment "more than a couple times." The time frame is not made clear. Later, Police Chief Charles Ramsey retracts Monroe's statement and says, "At this time, there is no concrete evidence to confirm these various rumors."
• May 24: Police search the area where Levy frequently jogged.
• June 7: The Washington Post reports that "law enforcement sources" say Levy spent the night at Condit's condominium. No specific night is mentioned. Condit's office denies "any romantic involvement" between Levy and Condit.
• June 11: Condit's attorney, Joseph Cotchett, says Condit did not tell police that Levy spent the night at his condo and demands a retraction of The Washington Post's story. The Post stands by its report.
• June 16-17: Condit holds "crisis meetings" with his staff on how to deal with the mounting questions over Levy's disappearance.
• June 20: Levy's parents return to Washington. Their attorney, Billy Martin, announces that he and a team of private investigators will look into Levy's disappearance.
• June 21: Condit and Susan Levy meet at the Jefferson Hotel in Washington. The meeting is brief , about 20 minutes, and it is reported by the New York Post that attorneys did much of the talking.
• June 22: Condit hires criminal defense attorney Abbe Lowell, counsel for House Judiciary Committee Democrats during the Clinton impeachment hearings.
• June 23: Condit meets with police for the second time regarding Levy's disappearance.
• June 28: Lynch,
Condit's spokesman, says Condit had nothing to do with Levy's
disappearance. The Washington Post reports that
police want to speak with Carolyn Condit, the congressman's
wife. According to a timeline provided by Gary Condit's
office, his wife is said to have arrived in Washington the
evening of April 28 and returned to California on the
afternoon of May 3.
• July 2: United Airlines flight attendant Anne Marie
Smith tells Fox News Channel that she had an affair with
Condit and that the congressman asked her to sign an
affidavit denying that they had a relationship. She also says
Condit encouraged her not to talk to investigators about
Levy's disappearance. Smith also says that Condit called her
on May 5 or 6 and told her he was "in trouble" and
might have to "disappear for a while." Condit
denies the allegations and releases a two-sentence statement
that says, "I have not asked anyone to refrain from
discussing (Levy's disappearance) with authorities, nor have
I suggested anyone mislead the authorities."
• July 4: In California, Condit cancels all his public events for Independence Day.
• July 5: Carolyn
Condit is interviewed by the FBI and the D.C. Metropolitan
Police at the FBI field office in northern Virginia. D.C.
Metropolitan Police Chief Charles Ramsey says that Levy
probably did not kill herself, and that as time passes
suicide seems more unlikely.
Statement from Rep. Condit
Excerpt from Statement from
Condit's Office
• July 6: Washington
police interview Condit for a third time in Washington.
Condit tells police that he had a romantic relationship with
Levy.
• July 9: Chandra Levy's parents call on the
congressman to take a lie detector test.
• July 10:
Condit offers to submit to DNA testing and allow his
Washington apartment to be searched. Police Chief Ramsey says
he will take Condit up on this offer and would also like to
discuss the possibility of him taking a lie detector test.
Police search Condit's apartment for almost three hours.
• July 12: Police begin searching
abandoned buildings in Washington, D.C.
• July 13: Condit's
attorney, Abbe Lowell, announces that Condit has submitted a
DNA sample to police and has passed an independent lie
detector test.
(Sources: USA TODAY, The
Modesto Bee, The Washington Post, Fox News, ABC News, Rep.
Gary Condit's office, the New York Post and the New York
Daily News.)
To read the latest from Condit and Levy's hometown:
www.modbee.com
Levy's Aunt Calls Relationship an Affair:
The day
before she was last seen, Chandra Levy called her aunt and
left a message saying she had "some big news" to
share. Linda Zamsky says she still has no idea what her niece
meant by the message left April 29, but that there's no
reason to believe it was something ominous. "She was
upbeat and full of life. There was absolutely no indication
that she was upset," Zamsky said. Zamsky described the
message in a statement issued Friday that was devoted mainly
to providing details about the affair Zamsky says Levy told
her she had with Rep. Gary Condit. Levy is from Modesto,
Calif., which Condit represents.
Condit, 53 and married, has called Levy, a former intern at
the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, a "good friend." His
aides have denied a romantic relationship.
Zamsky, who lives on Maryland's Eastern Shore, a couple of hours northeast of Washington, said she decided to publicize what Levy confided to her because Condit has not been forthcoming about the relationship.
"We believe that Rep. Condit's lack of candor is hindering efforts to find Chandra," Zamsky said. Her statement was released by the public relations firm that has been hired by Billy Martin, the Levy family attorney in Washington.
Police have characterized Condit as cooperative in two interviews, and have said he is not a suspect in Levy's disappearance. A police official said authorities already had Zamsky's account, and found little in it to help them, including the cryptic message about important news.
Telephone calls to Abbe Lowell, Condit's attorney, and his congressional office were not returned. Marina Ein, a publicist hired by Lowell, said, "None of this stuff is advancing the investigation per se."
Levy was two weeks beyond her 24th birthday when she was last seen April 30, canceling her membership at a Washington health club. A search of her apartment found nothing missing but her keys.
Police have no evidence of a crime, no suggestion that Levy ran off, no similarities between Levy's case and those of other missing persons, Police Chief Charles Ramsey said Thursday. He said police have all but ruled out suicide because so much time has passed and no body been found.
Zamsky said Levy, in several conversations beginning around Thanksgiving, described a secretive relationship with Condit that began last fall, shortly after she arrived in Washington for her internship. Levy was a graduate student at the University of Southern California who was completing her master's degree in public administration with a Washington work-study program.
Zamsky said Levy told her that Condit said he would end the affair if anyone found out about it.
Levy and Condit met often at his apartment and took care not to attract attention when they went out, Zamsky said. "She said they would take a taxi. ... She would come out the door, grab the taxi, and then he would come out, baseball cap, jacket, kind of a little incognito, and he would get in the cab with her," she said.
The last time Zamsky saw Levy was in early April, for the Jewish holiday of Passover. On that visit, Levy showed off her newest present from Condit, a gold bracelet.
On April 29, Levy called Zamsky.
"I'm planning on packing my bags in the next week or 10 days. Heading home for a while," Levy said. "Don't know what I'm going to do this summer. And I really have some big news or something important to tell. Please call."
(Copyright 2001 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
9 Eyewitness News Web Poll Results:
July 12 - Do you think the media coverage of Chandra Levy's disappearance has been fair and appropriate?
Yes - 57%
No - 43%
July 9 - Do you think Rep. Condit should take a lie detector test?
Yes-68%
No -32%
© Copyright
2001, W*USA & Gannett Co., Inc.
4100 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington DC 20016
Condit Denies Obstruction, Says He Won't Step Down
July 19, 2001
By John
Bresnahan and Damon Chappie
With the furor
over missing Washington intern Chandra Levy continuing to
swirl around him, Rep. Gary Condit (D-Calif.) has been
quietly telling his colleagues that he has no intention of
resigning.
Condit initiated a brief meeting Tuesday with Majority Leader
Dick Armey (R-Texas), who has been publicly critical of the
California Democrat, and declared that he is not leaving
Capitol Hill.
Armey refused to comment on what he and his colleague talked
about, but Condit later told Members on the floor that he
told the Majority Leader he does not foresee himself handing
in his resignation.
"He is telling Members that he is not planning on going
anywhere," said a senior Democratic staffer.
Condit is also insisting to his colleagues that he has not
obstructed the Metropolitan Police investigation into the
whereabouts of Levy, despite the fact that he did not tell
investigators that he was romantically involved with the
24-year-old until his third interview with them.
"He's saying that he is just looking for fairness,"
said one Democratic aide. "He's just looking for a fair
shake from the police, not for any special treatment."
However, several senior Democratic staffers now say Members
are privately grumbling that Condit has become a distraction
for the party and that he should think about resigning.
"Members are saying that's what he should do," said
one top Democratic aide. "They wish he would, but it's
not like anybody is saying that directly to him. It's still
his decision."
Nevertheless, Condit has also been getting some help from
unexpected quarters. Rep. Max Sandlin (D-Texas), a former
trial attorney, has been speaking to other Members on the
embattled lawmaker's behalf.
Sandlin has been cautioning Democrats not to assume that
Condit's legal position is untenable. He has also been
publicly telling all who will listen that Condit seems OK
physically and is not breaking down under the intense media
scrutiny.
"[Sandlin] is just saying that we shouldn't judge Condit
when the chief of police, Chief [Charles] Ramsey, is saying
he's not a suspect," Danielle Allen, Sandlin's
communications director, said. "There's no reason for us
to jump the gun or something."
Even as Condit tries to publicly maintain a business-as-usual
demeanor, some of his colleagues acknowledge that they can
easily see the toll this is taking on the 53-year-old
Congressman.
"I don't think he looks good," Rep. Ralph Hall
(D-Texas) said Tuesday afternoon after emerging from the
House floor, where he had been engaged in a lengthy
conversation with Condit and Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.).
"He looks like he's going through what he's going
through," continued Hall. "I don't even know how he
lives, the pressure he's been under."
As for Condit, Hall argued that if the case remains
unresolved, "a stigma will be attached to [Condit] for
the rest of his life."
Hall said in their conversation that the longtime California
Congressman had spoken only of the patient's bill of rights.
"If he wants to volunteer something he could. I wouldn't
push him," said Hall, who does not believe Condit should
resign.
Hall declined to say whether he thought the intense press
coverage of Condit was fair or not, but did say that he
thought the media would be best served if they took another
tact.
"I think they ought to be looking for that girl,"
Hall said.
Levy was last seen April 30, and the continuing mystery over
what happened to the intern as well as details over her
relationship with Condit have sparked a media stampede unseen
on Capitol Hill since the impeachment trial of former
President Bill Clinton.
After protesters appeared outside his Modesto office this
week and started calling for him to leave Congress, Condit's
office issued a defiant statement declaring that he would not
bow to "special interests" seeking to swing the
seat to Republicans.
On Wednesday, Condit supporters rallied in support of the
beleaguered seven-term Member. Condit's attorney, Abbe
Lowell, has publicly declared that his client has decided to
run for re-election next year.
Followed by reporters as he left a committee hearing Tuesday,
Condit mostly ignored their questions about the Levy case.
"What attention?" he shot back when one scribe
asked how he was managing to get his work done amid all the
controversy.
Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott (Miss.) and Rep. Bob Barr
(Ga.) have blasted Condit for his alleged affair with Levy
and his handling of the subsequent police investigation of
her disappearance. And both lawmakers have called for
Condit's resignation.
As he finds himself plagued with questions about the Levy
case, other Members of Congress have found themselves dogged
by questions about Condit.
James Robinson, the attorney for United Airlines flight
attendant Anne Marie Smith, has said that Sens. Barbara Boxer
(D-Calif.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) were on the flight
during which Smith first became acquainted with Condit.
Smith alleged that she and Condit carried on a yearlong
affair that ended several months ago. She also contends that
Condit attempted to have her sign a false affidavit declaring
that she had not been romantically involved with him - an
accusation that Condit has denied.
Robinson told Roll Call that both Feinstein and Boxer were on
the plane the day that Condit first met his client.
"They were sitting a couple of rows away, they were
within earshot. They could have heard what he said,"
Robinson said in a telephone interview.
"They would have been aware of him passing her his phone
number," Robinson added.
Smith told prosecutors investigating potential obstruction of
justice charges against Condit that Feinstein and Boxer were
on the same plane, according to Robinsion.
On the day last year that Condit met Smith, the three
lawmakers were flying in the business-class section of the
aircraft, Robinson said.
Robinson added that he wanted to know how many times in the
past Boxer and Feinstein have witnessed attempts by Condit to
pick up women during frequent cross-country trips.
He also said he has learned that Condit used his
frequent-flier miles to purchase airline tickets for Levy and
claimed the pair may have traveled together between
Washington and California.
"Did any Member of the California delegation ever see
him on the plane with Chandra Levy?" Robinson asked.
Levy's aunt, Linda Zamsky, said in a previous statement that
her niece flew to California last November and December and
that Condit may have provided the tickets for those trips.
Unlike the Senate and federal agencies, the House allows
lawmakers and staff to use frequent-flier miles accumulated
on trips paid for with official taxpayer-provided funds for
personal benefit. Members and staffers are not required to
account for how they dispose of those miles. Many House
lawmakers use the mileage to take vacations or provide travel
for spouses and family members.
Sporadic efforts to close the loophole for House Members and
to adopt bans that are in place in the Senate and federal
agencies have met with fierce resistance from leaders of both
parties over the years.
Boxer spokesman David Sandretti said his boss does not recall
the flight and that she has not been contacted by or spoken
to authorities about it.
A spokesman for Feinstein also said the Senator's office had
received no calls from authorities about the matter.
Boxer, who last week called on Condit to cooperate with
authorities regarding the Levy investigation, has been doing
whatever she can to help the Levy family find their daughter.
Visitors to Boxer's official Senate Web site will note that a
pop-up box containing a photo of Chandra Levy and the
headline "MISSING" appears on their computer
screen. The box contains two phone numbers for anyone who
might have information about Levy's whereabouts.
Amy Keller contributed to this report.
Copyright 2001 © Roll Call Inc.
Smith: Condit wanted multiple male partners
Mistress says congressman fantasized about 'bunch of guys'
during phone sex
Friday, July
20, 2001
By Paul Sperry
© 2001 WorldNetDaily.com
WASHINGTON – Anne Marie Smith, the United Airlines flight attendant who claims to have had a yearlong fling with U.S. Rep. Gary Condit, charges that the congressman talked about other men during phone sex, according to her lawyer.
Washington police investigating the disappearance of intern Chandra Levy, who also was seeing Condit, know about the disturbing phone conservations, the lawyer says, and are looking closely at anyone Levy might have been involved with through the married California Democrat.
Levy has been missing since April 30 or May 1, and police have not ruled out foul play.
Smith, who was based in San Francisco before recently going on leave, had several long-distance phone conversations with Condit over the past year in which Condit allegedly urged her to participate with him in sexual acts with "other guys," her lawyer James H. Robinson said.
"What was really unusual was his phone sex, in which he would talk about his sexual fantasies," Robinson told WorldNetDaily. "He said he had friends who he wanted to get involved in strange things."
Robinson says he doesn't know to which "friends" Condit was referring, saying only that they were male friends.
He said Condit once intimated to his client over the phone: "I have a fantasy about a bunch of guys and one woman – you."
Michael Lynch, Condit's chief of staff in Modesto, Calif., did not respond to a request to discuss the phone sex charges.
Robinson, speaking from his Seattle home, where Smith has been staying, asserted that the alleged phone sex was always one-way and that Smith "never participated" in, or egged on, his fantasies.
He adds that Smith, although she says Condit is very "charming" and "controlling," did not entertain any of Condit's alleged fantasies, and says his client does not know if Condit acted out his multi-partner fantasies with Levy or other women.
Robinson, however, says that Smith suspected that Condit may have engaged in bondage-and-discipline activities at his Adams Morgan condo.
On one visit to his condo, Smith noticed "neckties tied together that were tied to the feet of the bed and shoved underneath the bed," Robinson said. "They looked like they'd been there awhile."
When Smith confronted Condit about the ties, he joked it off, Robinson said, saying "Oh, oh, honey, I was just thinking about doing that with you."
"She didn't believe him," Robinson said.
Also, he says that Condit made one closet in his condo completely off limits to Smith, making her suspect he kept bondage-and-discipline equipment in there.
"She had to use a hall closet by the front door for her suitcases," Robinson said.
The lawyer, who's been licensed to practice in Washington state for three years, says he does not know whom Condit had in mind for the alleged orgies.
"I shudder to think," he said.
But he notes that Condit had many Hell's Angels friends, some of whom are ex-convicts.
"He once told Anne that his brother, who's a policeman, would kill him if he found out he was going to a party thrown for a cop-killer," Robinson said.
Condit's brother, Burl, is a Modesto police sergeant.
Smith and her lawyer have accused Condit of pressuring her to sign a false affidavit in the Levy investigation, and have provided evidence to the U.S. attorney's office here. Suborning perjury is a felony.
Related story:
FBI quizzed Smith about Condit in May
Paul Sperry is Washington bureau chief for WorldNetDaily
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July 21, 2001
Condit Should Not Resign
It's rather quaint that
cable TV talk shows have taken up the question as to whether
Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif., should resign because he impeded
the investigation into the missing Chandra Levy and lied to
authorities in denying that they had an affair.
Bill Clinton put the country through the rancor and trauma of an impeachment vote by impeding an investigation and lying about an affair -- and few D.C. solons pronounced that he should resign.
OK, impeachment was not a matter of life and death, but it did divide the country and did set -- actually, lower -- standards of behavior that now make it easier for Condit to stonewall law enforcement and remain in public office.
If the president of the United States could commit perjury and lie to the country, yet face little pressure to resign, why should a lowly member of Congress sacrifice his political career for lying and obstructing?
What is it Clintonistas used to say: that the president should be neither above the law nor below it? Doesn't that mean that if Condit hasn't been convicted of breaking a law that he should not have to forfeit his office? And if Clinton didn't have to put the country before his career, why should Condit put the interests of a missing person first?
Besides, Condit was just lying about sex.
Right?
Of course, it would be wrong to make too many parallels between Clinton and Condit, even if it is clear that Condit is following the Clinton playbook.
One difference is that Condit doesn't have the White House and Democratic National Committee to do his dirty work for him. Condit's team of apologists took some two months to start besmirching Chandra Levy's reputation or the name of pro-law enforcement types. To the rest of America, they're high-priced suits. Next to the Clinton spin machine, they're a ragtag platoon of hapless amateurs.
Add: Mrs. C hasn't appeared on television to blame a right-wing conspiracy.
As with Clinton, some Republicans have called for a resignation. The bad news for Condit is that congressional Dems may follow. They don't have much to lose if he resigns, so they can suggest that Condit has an obligation to tell the truth when talking with law enforcement types -- if they're willing to risk holding Condit to a higher standard than Clinton.
Condit should be glad that, after voting in favor of holding the House Judiciary Committee hearings on impeachment, he voted against impeachment itself.
To the average Joe, the impeachment vote should not make a difference when it comes to his behavior in the Levy case. A young woman is missing; her parents are frantic and anguished. Who cares if Condit supported impeachment?
The answer: New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd. She erroneously wrote that Condit voted for impeachment.
You see, an impeachment vote is supposed to make Condit's conduct worse. It would make Condit a -- boo hiss -- hypocrite. He can be a liar. Aren't all politicians? He can chase every skirt in Washington. Isn't that what men do? Even if he had something to do with Levy's disappearance, that has yet to be proven -- so he gets the benefit of the doubt.
Unless he voted for impeachment. If there's one thing Beltway punditry won't accept it's a liar and skirt-chaser who voted to impeach someone else for perjury. Hypocrisy -- unless it's the hypocrisy of a womanizer who opposes sexual harassment -- is a bigger offense than mistreating women, or, for that matter, foul play.
Lying to criminal justice authorities is a minor offense. Voting to do something about it is the real crime in punditocracy.
©2001 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
Police:
Condit Threw Out Watch Box
From a Lover
Friday, July 20, 2001
Rep. Gary Condit allegedly dumped a watch box into a garbage bin only hours before his apartment was searched last week by police looking for clues to Chandra Levy's disappearance, Fox News has learned.
A man walking his dog in Alexandria, Va., a city along the Potomac River several miles south of Washington, saw the 53-year-old California Democrat "acting suspiciously" and notified police. The box was traced to a woman who told police she had given the congressman a watch as a present and had a romantic relationship with him, a law enforcement source told Fox News.
The U.S. attorney's office is probing this latest possible case of the congressman obstructing the investigation of the missing former Bureau of Prisons intern. After first being interviewed by Fox News, flight attendant Anne Marie Smith told the U.S. attorney's office that Condit urged her not to talk to authorities and asked her to sign an affidavit denying what she said was a yearlong affair.
On Friday, Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., filed a seven-page formal complaint with the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct outlining specific allegations of misconduct against Condit and reiterating his request for an investigation.
The committee previously stated it would defer an investigation due to the ongoing law enforcement investigation.
Two other Republicans have called for Condit's resignation. Michigan Rep. Fred Upton said the Californian "has not cooperated with authorities investigating this tragic case." Condit's attorney has said that the congressman has cooperated fully.
Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said Condit should resign if it's shown he lied about an affair.
Also on Friday, D.C. police found two more bones in the city's Rock Creek Park. The two dogs brought in to check out the bones did not react to the remains as if they were human, but they will be sent to a police lab anyway.
Investigators have discovered animal bones at the park during previous searches for clues in the missing person case.
Saturday, police will question taxi drivers at RFK stadium to see if any of them picked up Levy the week she disappeared. Although there is no evidence that Levy took a taxi, she does not have a car.
Police say Condit, one of more than 100 people they have interviewed, is not a suspect in Chandra's disappearance.
Levy canceled her health club membership on the evening of April 30 and has not been seen since. However, she spent several hours the following day using the computer in her apartment, police said.
Police hope to make public Friday a list of the Web sites Levy visited on her computer — a list which includes Condit's Agriculture Committee sites.
Condit, who is married, admitted to having had an affair with Levy during his third interview with police, a police source said.
Police Chief Charles Ramsey said the search for Levy, a 24-year-old from Condit's Modesto, Calif., district, is the most extensive missing person investigation ever mounted by Washington police.
"We've had some high-profile missing persons cases, but this one has gone on so long," Ramsey said.
As the search for Chandra continues, Ramsey is rejecting criticism that the Levy case is hurting his department's murder investigations.
"Crime goes on, and we've got to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time," Ramsey said.
And, in an interview published Friday, Ramsey said there was a "fairly significant" chance Levy will never be found.
"We have not found anything that points us in one direction or another," he told USA Today, noting that detectives haven't turned up any evidence that she is alive or dead. "At this point in any missing-persons investigation ... it's unusual not to even have that path. That's not a good sign."
Fox News' Rita Cosby and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Police Reject Condit's Polygraph
Reprinted from NewsMax.com
NewsMax.com Wires
Thursday, July 19, 2001
WASHINGTON -- Police dismissed the results of privately administered polygraph and suggested they may need a fourth interview with Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif., regarding his relationship with missing intern Chandra Levy, The Washington Post reported Thursday.
The FBI has reviewed the results of Condit's polygraph but was unable to match specific questions to the graphs that show the congressman's reaction, Police Chief Charles Ramsey said in an interview.
Police questioned the validity of the test, saying its usefulness was compromised because, among other things, the examiner did not know all the facts in the case.
"He may have tried to sell it to us," Ramsey said of the polygraph, "but we're not buying it."
Ramsey said that police have not ruled out a fourth interview with Condit to clarify matters, including the timeline he provided to investigators on his whereabouts in the days before and after Levy's disappearance April 30, The Post reported. Ramsey said investigators are also interested in knowing whether Condit introduced Levy to anyone.
"We're not taking any cards off the table," Ramsey said. "We're certainly not saying it's all over and done with and let's move on. We can't say that with anybody right now." Condit's attorney, Abbe Lowell, on Friday told reporters that the congressman had undergone a privately administered polygraph test that showed his innocence in Levy's disappearance.
In his third police interview, Condit acknowledged having an affair with Levy, according to two sources familiar with the meeting.
CNN and other news outlets reported Wednesday that the FBI has transferred its involvement in the Levy case to a unit that handles ``long-range'' cases in which authorities do not expect a quick resolution.
Later Thursday, police plan to release more details of Levy's Internet searches. The former intern spent more than 3 hours searching the Web on May 1, beginning about 9:30 a.m., police said. Among the sites visited by Levy were the National Park Service, specifically Rock Creek Park; The Washington Post; the Modesto (Calif.) Bee; Southwest Airlines; and Amtrak.
The Levy family has publicly questioned Condit's conduct during the investigation, saying he impeded the search for their missing daughter by not fully disclosing the nature of his relationship with her.
Levy is from Modesto, Calif., and recently completed an internship at the Federal Bureau of Prisons. She had planned to return to her home state to receive a master's degree from the University of Southern California but did not show up.
Police found no sign of forced entry or a struggle in Levy's apartment. The doors were locked, her bags were half-packed, and cash and credit cards were found inside. Levy's keys and a gold ring were missing.
Copyright 2001 by United Press International. All rights reserved.
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After Caving, Rather Resumes Silence on Condit-Levy Story
Reprinted from NewsMax.com
Phil Brennan and Chuck Noe
July 2001
Update: Friday, July 20 - Dan Rather again reported nothing about the Condit-Levy story on "CBS Evening News."
On Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor" Thursday night, Bill O'Reilly and National Journal columnist Howard Mortman discussed Rather's strange silence.
Mortman expressed puzzlement about Rather's attitude and asked what element of the story was not newsworthy, especially with Rep. Gary Condit lying to investigators and thus hindering the investigation of Chandra Levy's disappearance.
"They never get that," O'Reilly said. "... He knows that he's getting pounded everywhere. ... He thinks he's the old-guard bastion of journalism."
"I do think they're out of touch on this," Mortman agreed.
Update: Thursday, July 19 - Dan Rather reverts to silence on the Condit-Levy story. He refuses to report CBS's own poll showing Democrat Rep. Gary Condit in trouble with his constituents.
Update: 7 p.m. EDT Wednesday, July 18 - Caving in to widespread criticism led by NewsMax.com and its readers, Dan Rather's "CBS Evening News" tonight finally stopped ignoring the Condit-Levy story.
Even after 11 weeks of silence, Rather didn't deign to tell the news himself. Instead, he impudently prefaced the story by saying there was an update on "one of tens of thousands of missing persons" in the U.S. From Washington, Jim Stewart reported the FBI would investigate the disappearance of Chandra Levy and take the focus from Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif.
After Stewart's brief report, Rather, who embarrassed himself by being caught speaking March 21 at a Democrat fund-raiser, showed his disapproval of the media spotlight on Condit, whose lack of candor has hindered the Levy investigation. No one has been accused of breaking any laws, Rather claimed - even though investigators are considering charging Condit with obstruction of justice and suborning perjury, according to the New York Post, Fox News and other news sources.
Other media have followed NewsMax.com's lead in exposing Rather's blatant bias in refusing to cover a Democrat scandal:
The nation's largest news wire service, the Associated Press, wryly noted tonight, "After pointedly staying away from a story that has gripped other news outlets for weeks, the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather aired its first report Wednesday on the case of missing intern Chandra Levy."
AP reported that Rather thought the attention paid to his broadcast's refusal to air the story was a "waste of time" and a result of the slow summer news period.
"What I hope won't be forgotten is that this is the case of a missing young woman," AP quoted him as saying. "Who covered what, when and how is a story that I've never had much time for. Here's a family that has a missing daughter. That's where the focus should be" - and where his focus has not been.
Yardley wrote: "The hunch here is that CBS got beat on the story and decided that, rather than lumber in late with yesterday's news, it would corner the high road by going holier than thou. This would score points with all the usual people who had commenced making all the usual complaints about 'salacious and irresponsible' journalism and thus would enable Rather and his colleagues to get into Heaven with a wink and a nod from Saint Peter. ...
"The only trouble is, the tale of Condit and his amours is news. It is not a pretty story, but it has just about all the ingredients of what anyone except a terminal prig would readily accept as news ...."
Note to Rather: Those other 200,000 missing persons would be big news if a congressman lied and delayed an investigation of their disappearance. Dan, if you can't recognize news, even if it negatively involves a politician from the party you favor, it's long past time to retire.
NewsMax readers have flooded CBS with complaints about Rather and helped force him to break his silence. Contact CBS About Dan Rather.
Update: Wednesday, July 18 - Once again, Dan Rather refused to mention the Condit-Levy story on "CBS Evening News" Tuesday night, 78 days after Chandra Levy's disappearance.
Rather has portrayed his refusal to report the story as a CBS decision that he supports - yet the Web site of CBS News did have a related story Tuesday, "Chandra Levy's Not The Only One." This article mentioned the search for Levy in Washington's Rock Creek Park and went on to complain that other missing persons don't get such attention. Note to CBS: That's because they weren't involved with a duplicitous congressman.
A check of cable news networks Tuesday night found that CNN, MSNBC and especially Fox News Channel continued to give the Condit-Levy story heavy coverage.
As Fox News star Bill O'Reilly noted, the case reveals a dramatic difference between the old Big Three networks (CBS, NBC, ABC) and the newer cable news networks. While CBS might be content to ignore or cover up the story, pressure from Fox News and other upstarts forced the District of Columbia police to finally investigate Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif.
Dan Rather ought to know that even the liberal establishment newspapers such as the New York Times and the Washington Post are covering the Condit-Levy story. So once again it must be asked: Why isn't he?
Tuesday, July 17, 2001 - If, God forbid, your only source for news is Dan Rather's "CBS Evening News," the names Gary Condit and Chandra Levy will mean nothing to you. After 77 days, the names of the two main characters in a burgeoning scandal still have not passed the lips of Dan Rather on his nightly telecast.
As the savvy Media Research Council has reported: "The weekday CBS Evening News has yet to mention the Chandra Levy/Gary Condit story ...
"Friday night the CBS Evening News under Executive Producer Jim Murphy and anchor Dan Rather ignored Levy, but found time for stories on how anthrax is killing deer in Texas, another shark attack update and even 19 seconds to recount how the guy who threw a dog into an oncoming car received a three year prison sentence."
The notoriously biased Rather, whose well-documented leftist leanings are on display five nights a week, has studiously avoided reporting one of the year's most sensational stories - the mysterious disappearance of a 24-year-old former Washington intern who was romantically involved with a married Democrat congressman. As the feisty Ratherbiased.com Web site has reported, Rather "has decided to ignore the story that has been reported on by every network and major publication, as well as CBS's morning show. The disappearance of the intern, who was also a paramour of Democratic Congressman Gary Condit, has not been mentioned on the CBS Evening News."
Bill O'Reilly Blasts CBS
But fortunately the cable news shows and the Internet are telling the news, forcing most of the old-time competition to do likewise. Fox News star Bill O'Reilly last night noted that if the Big Three non-cable networks still had their way, there would be a cover-up on Condit just as there was with Ted Kennedy's Chappaquiddick.
"CBS News is not doing their job," O'Reilly fumed on his top-rated "O'Reilly Factor" Monday night, blasting the network for not reporting on what he referred to as Condit's abuse of power.
In addition to ignoring the story on his nightly newscast, Rather has had the gall to lambaste the rest of the media for reporting on the Condit-Levy mystery.
The media, he sneered during his radio commentary, "titillate themselves, and they hope you, with the latest rumors and speculation about what they believe is a 'sexual scandal.'"
Rather says he "believes in honest, straight reporting," in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Plainly speaking, he has allowed himself to become what amounts to a shameless shill for the dominant Marxist wing of the Democrat party. Among the more recent examples of his blatant bias as reported by Ratherbiased.com:
Bernard Goldberg: 'Dan Can't Help It'
Bernard Goldberg, a highly respected former CBS correspondent who left the network last year, blasted Rather in the Wall Street Journal. "Dan can't help it. He doesn't know he's biased," Bernard Goldberg writes.
"Rather, Brokaw and Jennings don't even know what liberal bias is. I concede this is hard to believe, but I'm convinced it's why we keep getting these ridiculous denials."
In recent years he has all but stopped masquerading as an unbiased journalist, making such outrageous charges as that Bush is rushing to "cozy up to big-money special interests," because of his principled opposition to the McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill that most legal scholars agree is unconstitutional. Rather does not refer to Democrats' kowtowing to their special interests, such as Big Labor, Big Education, Big Government and Big Law. Appearing on Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor" to promote his book, Rather defended himself against accusations that CBS was being soft on Clinton by doing fewer investigative reports than during GOP administrations. Incredibly, he criticized those who questioned Clinton's trustworthiness, saying: "I think at core, he's an honest person. I think you can be an honest person and lie about any number of things."
He also tried to deflect charges of his bias because the "CBS Evening News" mentioned unsubstantiated allegations of past drug use by Bush more than twice as many times as it mentioned rape charges (judged as credible by NBC) against Clinton.
In another example of his willingness to shill for the Democrats, he sides with them in their criticism of Bush's budget and tax plans. "It does not say how it's possible" to cut taxes "while also spending more for education, defense and other things, including drug coverage for seniors," Rather says.
A report on Rather's 20-year record at CBS clearly reveals him to be a longtime, unashamed propagandist for leftist causes.
NewsMax.com reported March 24 a scathing examination of Rather's unabashed liberal bias, including "20 Years of Liberal Spin From Gunga Dan," a study from Media Research Council's Media Reality Check.
The report revealed what it called "a few of the many liberal outbursts that have animated Rather's tenure:
Before becoming anchor, Rather told the San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle that anyone "who just watches TV news cannot be well-informed."
And anyone who watches Dan Rather and his "CBS Evening News" can also expect to be misinformed, or in cases such as the Condit-Levy case, completely uniformed and kept in the dark.
As NewsMax.com's Chris Ruddy has written, it's time for CBS to dump Rather.
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Media
Bias
Tabs Hit Condit With 'Sex Slave' and Assault Allegations
NewsMax.com
Friday, July 20, 2001 9:17 a.m. EDT
Twenty-seven women have told investigators they've had affairs with Congressman Gary Condit, with probers exploring everything from an account he turned girlfriends into his "sex slaves" to rape allegations, two supermarket tabloids are set to report.
"Gary called his chicks his sex slaves," a Condit pal told the Globe, which feautres an interview with 34-year-old Torrie Hendley, whose account substantiates the charge.
"He liked to be dominant," Hendley, a California T-shirt artist, told the tabloid. "He always wanted to be on top, pinning my arms down with his hands."
Hendley said Condit was into spanking games and was angered when she didn't appreciate his kinky antics.
"He'd say, 'What are you laughing at?' and get furious," Handley told the Globe.
Condit would sometimes explode over little things, she said, like the time she was late for one of their assignations.
"He was furious," according to Hendley. "He yelled, 'I've got better things to do than wait around for you all night.'"
Hendley also alleged that Condit was super-secretive about their six-month affair, a detail that mirrors what other Condit girlfriends have said, including what Chandra Levy told her aunt.
And in another revelation that mirrors the account of one-time Condit chauffeur Vince Flammini, Hendley says Condit told her he had a vasectomy, which - if true - would rule out the possibility that Chandra Levy was pregnant by him when she disappeared.
Three weeks ago, the Globe first revealed Condit's relationship with flight attendant Anne Marie Smith, whose subsequent account to Fox News blew the lid off the Condit-Levy case.
The National Enquirer goes even further than the Globe, claiming that Condit probers are investigating rape allegations against the married 53-year-old.
In a report set to hit newsstands today, the Enquirer claims, "Investigators working on the Chandra Levy missing intern case are probing charges that Congressman Gary Condit was accused of sexually assaulting two teenage girls."
"Two California girls - both just 15 at the time - claimed they were sexually assaulted by Condit when he was a state assemblyman about 15 years ago," a source close to the case told the tabloid.
The girls "were terrified of Condit but made a police report anyway. But somehow the whole thing just went away."
"This has left some associates wondering what the congressman might be capable of in a fit of passion or rage," a Justice Department source confided to the Enquirer.
Several women are said to have told probers that "Condit was into kinky sex - including rough sex" and that he has an "explosive temper when things don't go his way."
FBI agents working on the case are "astounded" by Condit's rampant promiscuity.
"There have been more than 27 women interviewed who have had affairs with him, ranging in age from 20 to 50," a Justice Department source told the Enquirer.
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Lawyer: New
Condit Shockers
Hidden in Closet
NewsMax.com
Thursday, July 19, 2001 2:08 a.m. EDT
Flight attendant Anne Marie Smith claimed last week that California congressman Gary Condit forbade her to use his bedroom closet when they met for sex - and now her lawyer suggests police found something shocking inside when they searched his apartment.
Smith's attorney Jim Robinson and former Clinton private investigator Terry Lenzner discussed Condit's secret closet late Wednesday on Fox News Channel's "The Edge with Paula Zahn."
ZAHN: Your client has said she has told federal investigators everything she knows, but if there were some things that were shared publicly it would blow the roof open on this case. Can you explain to us what that means tonight?
ROBINSON: In Mr. Condit's apartment Anne Marie was not allowed to go into a particular closet. She had to use the hall closet. She couldn't go into his closet in the bedroom. She was forbidden from doing that. And apparently they found very interesting things in that closet along with the other DNA evidence all over the apartment.
ZAHN: But what, what did they find?
ROBINSON: I really don't want to say. I basically have this from talking to other reporters and they told me what they believe [police] had found.
ZAHN: All right, Terry, what would that mean in the investigation? That the guy had a lot of sex? Or does it mean something else?
LENZNER: Well, obviously you could infer from that and look at the issue of whether he was engaged in more physical domination-type of activities that could have resulted in some sort of accident to the people he was engaged with. And that would be one possible theory that I'm sure the police must be exploring if that's the kind of equipment that they found in his apartment.
ZAHN: All right, trio. Of course I can't independently confirm that this evening, Jim, some of the things you've just said. And I think we need to continue to make it clear that police say tonight that Gary Condit is not a suspect, never has been and continues not to be one tonight.
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Chandra Angry
Over Condit's
Refusal to Leave Wife
NewsMax.com
Wednesday, July 18, 2001 8:35 p.m. EDT
In the days before she disappeared, missing Washington, D.C., intern Chandra Levy pressured Congressman Gary Condit to leave his wife and expressed anger to her friends when he refused to do so, Talk magazine is set to report in an upcoming issue.
Appearing on CNN's "Crossfire" Wednesday night, Talk reporter Lisa DePaulo said her article would shed new light on the last weeks of the missing intern's life before she disappeared, based in part on what a male confidant of Chandra revealed to her.
DePaulo said the platonic friend was giving Levy "advice on how to handle the relationship [with Condit] - on how to navigate this romance and yes, at one point, at several points actually, on how to get what she thought she deserved."
The Talk magazine author told "Crossfire" that Levy's friend counseled her on how to win "a serious commitment" from the playboy congressman.
According to DePaulo, Levy told more than one person that Condit complained that "his wife is 3,000 miles away" and that his marriage was "unrewarding."
DePaulo's report is scheduled to appear in Talk's Aug. 3 edition.
Click here for the continuing saga of the DIMOCRAP GARY CONDIT, PG 4.