07/09/01: Missing Intern

[Freakapotimus]

Monday July 9 2:10 AM ET

U.S. Rep. Criticized in Case of Missing Intern
By Lori Santos

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. congressman caught up in the case of a missing intern withheld crucial information from police and should be a suspect in her disappearance, a former federal prosecutor said on Sunday.

Police questioned Rep. Gary Condit, the 53-year-old Democrat from California, for a third time and said on Saturday he had answered all their questions and was not a suspect in the disappearance of Chandra Levy, who was last seen on April 30.

But Joseph diGenova, a former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, told the ``Fox News Sunday'' program he believed Condit should be a suspect because he did not disclose his intimate relationship with the intern.

DiGenova, a Republican who handled many high profile cases, including that of convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, also said he was ``absolutely stunned'' that city police had not searched Condit's apartment.

``I cannot believe that that was not one of the first things that police did not ask him to do, especially in light of the fact that the congressman obviously lied to them in the first two interviews, and it wasn't until the third interview that he finally told the truth and admitted that he had a relationship with this missing person,'' diGenova said.

``He withheld that information from the police over a number of weeks. It's absolutely outrageous. It is indefensible,'' diGenova said. ``...He should be a suspect, under all the facts and circumstances,'' he added.

On CNN's ``Late Edition,'' former U.S. Attorney General Richard Thornburgh also asserted Condit had ``not been completely forthcoming'' until the third interview and said the delay likely damaged the investigation.

``That's two months later, all that time has been lost,'' said Thornburgh, who led the Justice Department during the first Bush administration.

Though police would not comment on the nature of the relationship between the congressman, who is married, and the 24-year-old intern, Levy's aunt said on Friday Condit was involved in a romantic relationship with Levy.

It was widely reported that Condit acknowledged to police investigators on Friday evening he had an affair with Levy that was continuing at the time she disappeared. But Abbe Lowell, Condit's attorney, declined on Sunday to describe the relationship between the congressman and the intern but asserted Condit had been completely forthcoming to police.

``The congressman has answered their questions each time to the best of his ability,'' Lowell told ABC's ``This Week.''

Lowell also said Condit has not been subpoenaed for anything by police nor had authorities asked to search his apartment.

``If they need something that we can help them with, we'll get it to them,'' he said. ``But they haven't asked us for anything at this point.''

Levy's parents want Condit to take a lie detector test, USA Today reported in Monday editions, quoting the office of Billy Martin, a Washington lawyer representing the Levys.

Lowell also sidestepped questions about whether Levy might have been pregnant at the time of her disappearance.

``I certainly know the questions the police asked the congressman, I know his answers. And we're not getting into that,'' he told the CBS ``Face the Nation'' program.

``This is a situation in which the congressman has told the police everything, has been cooperative, has been said never to be a suspect, and anything about what he's told them is not a matter of the public, it's a matter of the private,'' Lowell said.

Condit has been at the center of a furor surrounding Levy's disappearance shortly after she finished up a government internship in Washington. He represents Levy's home town of Modesto in California.

Many of his fellow lawmakers urged him to be more forthcoming.

``The most critical thing that you need to do in this situation... is get the facts out. And it's critical that he does that,'' Rep. Martin Meehan, a Massachusetts Democrat, told NBC's ``Meet the Press.''

Rep. Christopher Shays, a Connecticut Republican, said, ''It's clearly a lesson -- you have got to tell the truth. If you say you didn't have an affair and you had an affair, that's wrong.''

And Rep. Dick Armey, the House Republican leader, said the case could come before the House ethics committee if a complaint were filed and predicted it might be hard for Condit to survive politically.

But Armey told ``Fox News Sunday'' that Condit should not step down at this time. ``We've got more speculation, it seems to me, than we do fact,'' he said. ``I'm still not convinced that he did anything.''

[Freakapotimus]

Monday July 16 7:22 AM ET
Levy Family Believes She May Have Known Abductor
Photos

Reuters Photo

Audio/Video
Condit Takes Lie Detector Test - (Reuters)

By Mark Felsenthal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The family of missing intern Chandra Levy has all but ruled out suicide as a reason for her disappearance and believes that if she was abducted, she probably knew her abductor, their lawyer said on Sunday.

Also on Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi called on U.S. Rep. Gary Condit, the California Democrat interviewed by authorities about Levy's disappearance in May, to resign if it is true that he had an intimate relationship with her.

Condit, 53, who is married, called Levy a ``friend'' in initial police interviews. But published reports and other media have said he told investigators in subsequent meetings that he had a romantic relationship with her.

Washington police said Condit is not a suspect, and a report on Sunday in Newsweek magazine said police think it is unlikely he had a hand in Levy's disappearance.

Police Chief Charles Ramsey told NBC's ``Meet the Press'' it was ``very early in this investigation to start discounting anything,'' adding that all possibilities remain open.

Police are working on numerous theories, including foul play, in the disappearance of the 24-year-old woman who vanished more than two months ago while preparing to return to California after completing an internship at the Bureau of Prisons.

Asked on ``Meet the Press'' whether the family has ``pretty much ruled out suicide,'' Levy family attorney Billy Martin said, ``that's correct.''

Ramsey said the suicide theory was the weakest one because, among other reasons, it was likely that Levy's body would have been found by now. She was last seen on April 30.

Martin did not express a firm idea on what had happened to Levy, but indicated that if she had been abducted it was not random. Asked if he thought the family believed it was more (likely) that she knew her abductor -- if that is what happened -- Martin said, ``We do.''

In the first public rebuke of Condit by a leading lawmaker, Lott said on the Fox news program that the California congressman had mishandled the case by raising ``additional suspicions'' and that if allegations of infidelity involving Levy were true, he should step down.

``Infidelity is always unacceptable but particularly when you have an elected official involved in a position of trust with a young girl, an intern,'' Lott said. ``If these allegations are true, obviously he should resign and if he doesn't, the people of his district probably will not re-elect him.''

Lott, who insisted not all lawmakers were involved in similar behavior, acknowledged that he and other leaders of both parties had been reluctant to criticize Condit.

Condit took a voluntary, privately administered lie detector test last week. His lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said the test should clear up questions about whether he had anything to do with Levy's disappearance or had caused harm to her.

His lawyers maintain that Condit has cooperated fully with the police, but Martin and Ramsey said the lie detector test failed to put certain questions to rest.

``It would have been nice if we had the opportunity to formulate some of the questions,'' Ramsey told CNN's ``Late Edition.''

Assistant Police Chief Terrance Gainer, appearing on ``Fox News Sunday,'' said investigators had yet to receive the results of the lie detector test and he couldn't say whether the information would be helpful.

Gainer noted that ``at least the polygraph examiner is a very credible'' former FBI examiner, but said police still wanted to administer their own test to Condit. It is not clear if that will happen.

[Freakapotimus]

Thursday July 19 10:39 AM EDT

Chandra Was 'Definitely' Going Home
By ABCNEWS.com

The last known person to see Chandra Levy told ABCNEWS she was "definitely" going home.

Chandra Levy told at least one person she was "definitely" going home.

In an FBI Sees No Quick Resolution

Meanwhile, the FBI has transferred control of the Levy investigation to its special "cold case" unit that handles hard-to-solve cases. Washington, D.C., police are expected to comment on the move today.

The move comes as a painstaking search of Washington, D.C., parklands and other areas Levy may have visited turned up nothing. That search, involving dozens of police recruits, resumes today.

But with few new clues, police have been forced to revisit old leads to check for anything they may have missed in earlier interviews and searches. While police cadets roamed the parks, detectives planned to re-interview Levy's neighbors.

ABCNEWS' Jackie Judd contributed to this report.

[Freakapotimus]

Monday July 30 09:00 AM EDT

Police to Scale Back Levy Search
By ABCNEWS.com

Washington D.C. Metro Police Chief Charles Ramsey says police soon will return to class police recruits who have been searching Washington parklands for Chandra Levy.

Washington D.C. police soon plan to reduce manpower on physical searching for Chandra Levy, the former federal intern whose disappearance three months ago and alleged relationship with a congressman have been the focus of media scrutiny.

Metropolitan Police Chief Charles Ramsey told The Washington Post that 50 police recruits involved in searching Washington's vast parklands for traces of Levy will stop by the end of the week, because those recruits have got to get back to their classes.

Other Aspects of Investigation Continue

Detectives will continue to investigate the case, however — including interviewing residents of Levy's apartment building and known sex offenders in the area.

This past week, Washington detectives, joined by FBI profilers, interviewed for a fourth time Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif., 53, who has admitted to police that he had a sexual relationship with Levy, 24, a former intern with the federal Bureau of Prisons, sources say.

Police have repeatedly said they consider Levy's disappearance a missing persons case, with no evidence of a crime, and neither Condit nor anybody else is a suspect.

Investigators were seeking Condit's help to construct a victimization profile of Levy in an attempt to find leads in their search for her.

Many Questioned

On ABCNEWS' This Week today, Ramsey said Condit is one of many individuals police have questioned in the case.

"Unfortunately, all the [media] attention has seemed to fall on one individual," Ramsey said. "But that's not our fault. We are constructing a very broad investigation as a department and he is not the only person we have interviewed."

Ramsey has said the decision to scale back the park searches was not connected to a public perception that an inordinate amount of police resources were being devoted to the Levy case because of its high profile.

"Half the people think we're doing too much, the other half think we're not doing enough," he said on This Week . "We're doing what we think is right in order to get to the bottom of this case. But I can understand, certainly, how that perception is. With this intense [media] coverage, it looks as if the only thing the metropolitan police department is doing is working on the Chandra Levy case and that simply is not true.

"We're concerned," he added. "We're working very hard, but we've have a lot of cases and a lot of issues as a police department that we're addressing."

Ramsey said the longer the investigation goes on, the less likely officials will know the truth about Levy's disappearance.

"It's been 90 days or so now, and the longer it goes, especially without any information to take you down any particular path," the less likely the case will be solved, he said. "There are people throughout the country that are missing and have been missing for years."

ABCNEWS' Jon Bascom in Washington contributed to this report.

[Freakapotimus]

Friday August 24 7:52 AM ET

Condit Denies Role in Intern's Disappearance
By Roger Atwood

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Rep. Gary Condit, in a media offensive ending months of public silence, denied any involvement in the disappearance of intern Chandra Levy but refused to say whether he had an affair with her.

In a series of interviews on Thursday and Friday, Condit acknowledged that he and Levy had ``a close relationship.'' Despite repeated questioning, he declined to say if they were having a sexual relationship when she vanished in early May.

``In the interest of my family and the Levy family, I am not going to discuss my relationship (with Levy),'' Condit said in an interview in People magazine released on Friday.

``We had a close relationship. I liked her very much,'' he said in an interview with ABC's ``Prime Time Thursday.''

The mystery of Levy's disappearance and the nature of her relationship with the married 53-year-old Democratic congressman from California has riveted Americans and brought huge media coverage all summer.

Police have questioned Condit four times and searched his Washington apartment but have said he is not considered a suspect. He has faced calls from newspapers in his home district and some colleagues in Congress to resign.

Condit insisted that Levy's family, who have publicly suggested the congressman is withholding information that might help solve the case, should not suspect his motives.

``They don't have any reason to be suspicious of me. I would never do anything to harm Chandra. And I think it's unfair when they make references to maybe I had something to do with the disappearance. It's not correct,'' he said in People.

He added that apart from the Levy family, ``I'm probably hoping to find Chandra more than anyone else.''

ABC correspondent Connie Chung asked Condit during the 30-minute interview why he would not give details publicly about his relationship with Levy.

``I'm entitled to try to retain as much privacy as I can. The Levys are entitled to retain as much privacy on behalf of their daughter as they can. I'm going to honor that,'' he said.

Asked whether he and Levy were in love, Condit said: ``Well, I don't know that she was in love with me. She never said so. And I was not in love with her.'' He said they never discussed a future or having a family together.

In the People interview, he described Levy as ``very nice, very smart, very interested in politics, very interested in her career.''

The congressman and the 24-year-old intern met during a visit she made to his office on Capitol Hill. He learned of her disappearance, he said, when Levy's father Robert called the congressman to say that she was missing.

``Just the tone of his voice sent chills running down my spine,'' said Condit in People. ``It made me really fearful that something might have happened to her.'' He was ``hoping that she'd just gone somewhere.''

Levy was last seen on April 30 near her apartment in Washington's Dupont Circle neighborhood. She is believed to have used her home computer the next day, but after that there are no traces of her.

``VERY UPBEAT''

Condit told Chung that the last time he saw Levy was at his apartment on April 24 or 25, and the last time he spoke to her in a telephone conversation was on April 29.

``She was very upbeat. This is a person who was looking to the future,'' he said in the People interview, denying that she ever told him if she was pregnant.

Condit said he had no regrets about his conduct early in the investigation, when he reportedly denied in police interviews having an affair with Levy.

``How can I have any regrets when I have cooperated with all the authorities?'' he told People. ``I have done everything they've asked me to do. I answered every question that law enforcement asked me in every interview. I answered every question truthfully. I had nothing to do with the disappearance of Chandra Levy.''

Condit, a father of two, denied that he lied to the young woman's mother when she asked him whether they had an affair.

``I never lied,'' he told People. ``She named some people who she thought might be involved with Chandra. My name was not mentioned... She asked me about other members of Congress.''

In another interview, with Vanity Fair magazine, Condit seemed ``quite angry at the Levys,'' the magazine's contributing editor Judy Bachrach said.

``He said, 'They overstepped the line when they accused me of being suspicious, of acting in a suspicious manner or having anything to do with (her disappearance)','' Bachrach said on CNN's ``Larry King Live.'' She described the interview with Condit as ``very, very tense.''

The Levys' lawyer, Billy Martin, said he saw nothing new in Condit's comments. ``I don't think he's been forthcoming, either tonight or in any of the interviews with the authorities,'' Martin said on ABC's ``Nightline.''

On the same program, Condit's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said the congressman had no obligation to talk publicly about the details of the relationship.

``You guys in the media think that prime time is a church and Connie Chung is the priest, and you weren't going to be satisfied until on prime time the congressman did his confessional,'' Lowell said.