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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

D.C. Police Expand Search for Chandra Levy, or Her Remains

Aired July 12, 2001 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, HOST: Tonight, the parents of Chandra Levy want answers as the search for their daughter expands to the Washington neighborhood where she was last seen: this, as a U.S. attorney looks at whether Congressman Gary Condit may have obstructed justice in the case.

We will get insight on the investigation from Police Chief Terrance Gainer and on the Levy state of mind from a Levy family friend.

More choices and discount prescription drugs. President Bush offers a remedy for Medicare. We will get a live update from the White House.

The hard fight over soft money comes to a head. We will tell you what just happened to a measure aimed at big money and influence peddling in politics.

Good evening, I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting tonight from Capitol Hill.

It's now been 10 weeks since the 24-year-old federal intern disappeared without a trace. Today, the D.C. police took their already intensive search for Chandra Levy to yet a new level. At the same time there are new allegations against Congressman Gary Condit, who has acknowledged to the police having had an affair with her, and that's our top story.

CNN national correspondent Bob Franken joins now live with the latest -- Bob?

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, everyday there seems to be another remarkable development and as we saw today, a remarkable sight.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANKEN (voice-over): Cadaver dogs are exactly what their name suggests: They are trained to uncover bodies. As police search abandoned buildings in Washington, the dogs are called in when the investigators spot something suspicious. On this day, a soft section of ground, yields nothing. Police are looking for what they hope they don't find, the body of Chandra Levy. COMMANDER MARK BEACH, D.C. METROPOLITAN POLICE: We are going under the premise she is still missing. Until we have evidence of any foul play or anything else, from an investigative standpoint, we have (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and these are just a natural part of broadening our investigative search for her.

FRANKEN: Investigators are very publicly intensifying their efforts. It's more than ten weeks since the former Washington intern disappeared. The case has received worldwide attention, thanks in large part to Congressman Gary Condit, who according to law enforcement sources, finally admitted to detectives last Friday that he did have an intimate relationship with 24-year-old Chandra Levy, something he had publicly denied for several weeks.

Condit has made his apartment available for a search and walks type lipped past cameras that attempt to follow him wherever they can. His lawyer Abbe Lowell has been involved in negotiations with police for Condit to take a lie detector test. Lowell wants to limit the questions and the police don't.

CHIEF CHARLES RAMSEY, D.C. METROPOLITAN POLICE: If we can't have an interview in which we can't ask questions we want to ask there is no point in doing it.

FRANKEN: The Chandra Levy investigation has now become an investigation of Gary Condit. Flight attendant Anne Marie Smith completed a second day of interviews with the FBI, "Washington police, and the U.S. Attorney's office. About her charge that the California congressman wanted her to lie under oath about their alleged relationship. Condit denies asking her to lie.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRANKEN: As for Chandra Levy, D.C. police are preparing to release computer-generated pictures which will show Chandra Levy as if she were in disguise. Different hairstyles, different haircoloring, that type of thing. They're pulling out, Wolf, all the stops.

BLITZER: Bob, you reported earlier today, there's word of a third woman who is alleged to have an affair with the congressman in California. What is that all about?

FRANKEN: Well, the FBI has interviewed a Pentecostal minister out in Modesto, California, about his charge that his daughter seven years ago when she was just 18 had a relationship with Gary Condit. No comment from his lawyers today. The minister was also a gardener that worked for the parents of Chandra Levy.

BLITZER: All right, we'll have more on that later in the program. Bob Franken, thank you for joining us.

For more on the search for Chandra Levy, we are now joined by the assistant chief Terrance Gainer. He is second in command at Washington's Metropolitan Police Department.

Chief Gainer, thanks once again for joining us. First of all, any new hard leads in the search for Chandra Levy?

ASSISTANT CHIEF TERRANCE GAINER, D.C. METROPOLITAN POLICE: No. We had officers out as you indicated across sections of the city today. We didn't find fortunately any evidence of her demise. We are still following up on interviews and waiting for some forensic evidence to come in.

BLITZER: When is that search of the landfills that has been so highly anticipated going to take place?

GAINER: We are still working on it. We met with attorneys today who are representing the land fills. There are some legal issues from their perspective. So we need to narrow down where in the landfill we want to search. Make sure we have the canines and the handlers ready, because working those fields in this temperature, the dogs are limited in how much time they could do it, so there is some administrative issues.

BLITZER: Your officers spent about 3 1/2 hours Wednesday night going through the apartment of Congressman Condit. Did they find anything at all suspicious?

GAINER: Well, what they did find we have transported to the FBI's forensic lab in Quantico, and we will await the results of testing of that material.

BLITZER: What's happening with the negotiations with Abbe Lowell, the lawyer for Congressman Condit for a polygraph, which you'd like to have.

GAINER: I had a conversation with Mr. Lowell today and actually we didn't spend too much time on this issue. We have a lot of things to do and we are going to get to it. So we are not at any hard and fast fist fight over what's going to happen. We just want to continue to talk about it, and try to get there.

BLITZER: Any anticipation when that lie detector test might take place, if in fact it will take place?

GAINER: Well, I'm hopeful it will and I don't know. As you know, it's voluntarily. So we have to work towards the congressman agreeing to do that and still meet the mandates of Chief Ramsey, that it's very meaningful.

BLITZER: As you know, the D.C. Police Department has come under some criticism for the way it's conducted this investigation. William Safire in "The New York Times" said this, and I want to read it to you, Chief Gainer:

"Some of the anger directed at the congressman should be aimed at the D.C. police. For eight weeks, as the trail grew cold, they were overly deferential to Condit, failing to demand phone records and a full account of all he knew about her that might have opened leads to her whereabouts."

Is that criticism fair? GAINER: No, I don't think it is, because he doesn't have the facts and doesn't know what we have done in this. There's been a lot going on in this case, other than what's in the public eye, and because people are impatient and want to know something like it's a TV show, doesn't mean we are not doing it.

BLITZER: We asked our viewers to send us some questions for you, Chief Gainer. Let me go through a couple of them.

This from Patricia in New York: "There is something that i do not understand. The police are saying that Congressman Condit is not a suspect. If he is not a suspect, why have they searched his house? Why are they requesting a polygraph examination? Is he or is he not a suspect?"

GAINER: He is not a suspect. We are doing those things to try to bring some additional closure. When police investigate a case like this, we want every bit of information we can. Then we analyze it and see where it's going. They have offered that search. He didn't have to let it happen. They've offered the polygraph, they don't have to agree to that. And we say, why not?

BLITZER: Another question from Jim in Oklahoma.

"Why did it take over two months before police conducted a search of Congressman Gary Condit's Washington apartment?"

GAINER: I think people are forgetting that the police do not have a right to go into somebody's apartment, because either we don't like the way they live, or their lifestyle, or what they are doing. You either have to have a court order, a warrant to do that, probable cause. We didn't. Or have the person's permission. So timing, what we knew to get us there was critical to us.

BLITZER: Chief Gainer, very briefly, last night John Walsh of "America's Most Wanted" suggested on this program there could be a serial killer in the District of Columbia, citing earlier cases of murdered women. Is there any evidence of that whatsoever?

GAINER: Absolutely none whatsoever. We've looked at each of those cases. We know clearly what cases have happened in the District and there is no relationship.

BLITZER: Chief Gainer, thank you very much for joining us once again. Later in our program, we will go live to Modesto to talk a friend of Chandra Levy's parents to kind out how they are coping.

In other news tonight, campaign finance reform, a measure aimed at changing the way politicians run for office, has been knocked off track in the House of Representatives, at least for now. It's a fight that has been years in the making, a fight that Senator John McCain built a presidential campaign around, a fight that is now on hold.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: This is not a happy day when we see this kind of rancor. And that is not what the American people want from us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DICK ARMEY (R), MAJORITY LEADER: Had the coalition of Shays Gephardt Daschle and McCain been better legislators and less obsessed with politics they might have been able to construct a legislative victory. As it is, they earned for themselves a political loss and a deep shame.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Our senior political correspondent Candy Crowley joins us now. She's been following all of this.

Candy, is campaign finance reform dead on Capitol Hill right now?

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No. It's not dead. Dead, like we'll never see it again. It can come up in other forms. It can, you know -- they may come to some agreement on the rules. That's why it went down today, is that the rules of engagement -- what they're going to vote on, when they will vote on it, and how long they will take to debate. That's what went down today because the Democrats said the rules weren't fair. And really were shaped to defeat this bill.

Then, they can always ask for a discharge petition and that is go around the House leadership completely and get it out on the floor, but that takes some time. And that would be to fault.

BLITZER: And briefly, who won and who lost?

CROWLEY: Ah, there's the rub, it depends on who you talk to. Look, rarely do Republicans go against their leadership on rules votes and, you know, about a dozen of them did. So Democrats are claiming a victory. We couldn't have won under these rules; therefore, we defeated the rule.

On the other hand, campaign finance reform did not get passed today. That can't be a good victory for those who support it.

BLITZER: Candy Crowley, thanks for joining us.

And in other news tonight, it's a program that touches all of us in one way or another: We're either on Medicare, will be or close to someone currently covered by the senior citizen health plan, and President Bush says it needs to be fixed. CNN's Kelly Wallace has more now from the White House -- Kelly.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, President Bush unveiled a plan today he says provides quick relief to seniors to help pay for their prescriptions. But Democrats say the initiative is just a sham and just a way of avoiding the bigger issue of providing a prescription drug benefit to seniors.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) WALLACE (voice-over): Seventy-eight-year-old Eleanora Giuliano has high blood pressure and a thyroid problem. She needs four prescriptions a month, but says she doesn't always have the money to pay for them all.

ELEANORA GIULIANO, SENIOR CITIZEN: What are you going to do? If you don't -- if you can't afford the $67 every month, something's got to give. So the one I feel is not essential is going.

WALLACE: Flanked by seniors also struggling to pay their drug bills, President Bush said help is on the way. New discount cards, which will be available to all Medicare beneficiaries by January of next year.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Present the card at a participating pharmacy and you receive a substantial discount. It's as simple as that, and it's convenient.

WALLACE: Private companies would sell cards to seniors, and in return would negotiate lower prices with the drug manufacturers. But criticism is coming from the small pharmacies who worry they, not the drug companies, will get squeezed, and Democrats, who say seniors already have access to discount cards and characterize the president's new plan as a gimmick.

REP. RICHARD GEPHARDT (D-MO), MINORITY LEADER: This is becoming an infomercial administration. They are engaging in illusion, they're trying to convince people that they are helping them on this problem when they are not.

WALLACE: The president called discount card just a first step, not a substitute for a broader drug benefit and comprehensive Medicare reform.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: But big differences remain between the two parties about just how to solve the problem, and this issue isn't likely to get Congress' full attention until lawmakers finish up work on another politically popular issue, and that is a patients' bill of rights -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Kelly, as you know, there's a new CNN/"USA Today/Gallup poll, which shows an uptick in the president's job approval numbers. Right now, it's at 57 percent. Only two weeks ago, it was at 52 percent. How are they reacting at the White House to this improvement? How are they explaining it?

WALLACE: Well, Wolf, as you know, publicly the White House doesn't comment on polls. Privately, though, aides definitely keeping tabs on the numbers. And while they don't want to do any play-by- play, what's causing the numbers to go up, what's causing them to go down, they do think they are doing a better job at communicating the president's message, getting him out there, talking about popular issues, such as health care and education, and also putting him in settings where he can sort of personalize the message and explain what he wants to do.

Again, they are heartened, but Wolf, they are certainly cautious. They expect these numbers to be going up and down throughout the administration -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Kelly Wallace at the White House, thank you very much.

And there was a scare at the White House following that Medicare announcement. The Secret Service ordered part of the West Wing cleared when a bomb sniffing dog reacted to a car inside the White House compound. False alarm, as it turns out. After looking it over for an hour, the Secret Service said the car, owned by a congressional aide, was clean.

In a moment, what is it like when were your daughter is missing and you have no solid idea of what's happened to her? We'll get the perspective of Kim Petersen: She's a friend of Chandra Levy's parents. And we'll also get the Summer Olympics in 2008: Who will win that contest? There's a clear front-runner. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. The hunt for missing intern Chandra Levy. Another name is now entering the investigation: Pentecostal minister Otis Thomas says his daughter had an affair with Congressman Gary Condit some seven years ago when she was 18. He tells "The Washington Post," quote: "I told Mrs. Levy that with my daughter it ended badly, that I think her daughter should end the relationship with him right away."

Reporters found a note today taped to the door of the Thomas home in Ceres, California signed by Jennifer Thomas. It reads in part: "I will tell you that I never knew Mrs. Levy's daughter. I never met the congressman who's involved in all of this."

The Levys continue to hold out hope that their daughter will be found. Joining me now from outside the Levy family home in Modesto is Kim Petersen of the Carole Sund/Carrington Memorial Reward Foundation, a group that helps families of missing loved-ones. She's worked very closely with the Levys to help them find their daughter, Chandra.

Thanks so much, Kim, for joining us.

First of all, how are the Levys coping right now?

KIM PETERSEN, CAROLE SUND FOUNDATION: They're having a very difficult time. They're physically and emotionally exhausted, as any family would be under the circumstances.

BLITZER: Is there any indication that you have that this latest disclosure from this Mr. Thomas about his daughter has impacted, has resonated in a specific way with the parents?

PETERSEN: They -- I've been with the family today, and they haven't made specific comments in any way other than the normal. What it has done is it's created quite a media frenzy outside of their home, which is difficult. It's a curse and a blessing at the same time. They know how important it is to keep Chandra and her picture out there, but yet it's also very difficult to do any normal activities that a family would want to, because there's media surrounding their home, which is always difficult.

BLITZER: So are you suggesting they have mixed feelings about all of this media attention that's been devoted to the disappearance of their daughter?

PETERSEN: I'm just saying it's difficult to go through what they're going through. They are baring their raw emotions in front of the country, which no one wants to have to do. Having your loved-one missing, especially a child, is a pain that is the worst pain a parent could ever experience.

BLITZER: Do they suspect that Congressman Condit had anything at all to do with the disappearance of their daughter?

PETERSEN: I can't comment on that. You'd have to address Billy Martin with that question.

BLITZER: Do you suspect that there's something else out there involving Congressman Condit that perhaps he's not sharing that could help in the search for Chandra Levy?

PETERSEN: I can't comment on that. The Levys have repeatedly stated that they just want every stone unturned to find their daughter. That means anybody who may have had some encounter with Chandra somewhere along the way, friends, anybody who might have the smallest piece of information that can help them find their daughter. That's all they care about. They just want to bring her home.

BLITZER: Well, there's been so much attention, of course, on this missing person's case. What else possibly could anyone be doing, including the D.C. Police Department, to be more assertive, more active in this case?

PETERSEN: I think the D.C. Police Department and all the agencies that are working on this have -- are working around the clock to help bring Chandra home to her family. They aren't getting a whole lot of clues. There isn't a lot of information coming out. It's a very unusual case in that everything was left in her apartment intact, including her identification, her purse. There is no indication one way or another as to whether foul play was involved, whether she left voluntarily. There are very few clues in this case.

BLITZER: So much attention has been focused on Congressman Condit. Some experts say perhaps that's too much attention, they should be focusing attention elsewhere. What do you believe?

PETERSEN: I hope that through all this media, that the bottom line is never forgotten, and that is that a family's 24-year-old daughter missing and has not been heard from for two and a half months, and this family is going through hell. And with all the other things that the attention is on, the bottom line is there's a missing woman. BLITZER: Kim Petersen, that is, in fact, the bottom line. I want to thank you so much for joining us tonight from Modesto.

PETERSEN: Thank you.

BLITZER: Thank you. And who will host the 2008 Summer Olympics? We'll have the latest on the countdown to that decision under way now in Moscow.

And a government glitch means more than 15 million Americans are due an unexpected check. Are you on that list? That story just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The U.S. Capitol as the sun sets here in the nation's capital.

Welcome back. In other news tonight, the International Olympic Committee votes tomorrow in Moscow for the host city of the 2008 summer games. The 112th IOC session formally began today with outgoing President Juan Antonio Samaranch opening the meeting after a greeting by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The summer games appear to be Beijing's to lost, and that's generating both buzz and opposition.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TOM LANTOS (D), CALIFORNIA: It would be an outrage if this game, dedicated to the free spirit of human beings to human dignity, would be in a location where religion is persecuted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JAMES LEACH (R), IOWA: I think sport is good. Sport should be above politics, and that we, whether we like all of China's government policies, ought to identify with Chinese culture and the Chinese people who want to hold these Olympics.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: And in other news from overseas, an emotional rivalry turned violent today in Belfast, Northern Ireland, when Catholics clashed with police and the British army in protest of a parade by Protestants. July 12th is the biggest day of the summertime marching season and was largely peaceful before the violence broke out. Dozens of people were injured, including 55 police officers.

From New York, a hefty lawsuit settlement for a Haitian immigrant tortured by police. Thirty-four-year-old Abner Louima will get almost $9 million to settle the suit. Louima was beaten and tortured by police four years ago. The settlement is the largest in city history in a police brutality case. There will be something extra in the mail for people who get Social Security. Some 50 million recipients will get a bonus check of about $19. The extra money is to adjust for a $1 billion shortfall in payments caused by a computer glitch. The checks are set for delivery on Monday.

When we come back, I'll have the final thought on confidential sources and what they're saying about Congressman Gary Condit. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. This final thought: Reporters always are having off-the-record conversations with sources here in Washington. The ground rule is we can't identify these sources by name. I've had numerous such conversations in recent days on the sad case of Chandra Levy and Congressman Gary Condit.

Among the current and former members of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans with whom I have talked, I think it's fair to say most are quickly losing faith in him, although few say so publicly. No one has said to me that he or she believes Condit had anything do with Chandra's disappearance.

Here's a typical quote: "Just because he may have had an affair with her doesn't mean he killed her. " Still, before we conclude Condit is "political toast," as another source said to me, we should remember an earlier rush to judgment involving another politician who had an affair with a former intern. That politician may have been impeached in the House, but was later acquitted in the Senate and served out a second term. We will soon find out whether Condit can pull off a similar feat.

Remember, I want to hear from you. Please e-mail me at wolf@cnn.com. And you can read my daily online column by going to my Web page, cnn.com/wolf.

Please stay with CNN throughout the night. D.C. Police Chief Charles Ramsey is Larry King's guest at the top of the hour. Up next, Greta Van Susteren. She's standing by to tell us what she has -- Greta.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, HOST, CNN'S "THE POINT": Wolf, we're going to take a look at the investigation -- still no trace. There's a DNA request, a polygraph request of the congressman, but still so far, no polygraph.

We're also going to find out the political fallout. We're going to talk to a republican leader in the state of California, and I'll be joined by the bureau chief of "The San Francisco Chronicle" to talk about Gary Condit -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Sounds good, Greta. We'll be watching, at least, I will be watching, of course. Tomorrow night, part two of my special interview with famed Washington attorney Plato Cacheris on his most recent client, FBI spy Robert Hanssen. Until then, thanks very much for watching. I'm Wolf Blitzer on Capitol Hill. "THE POINT WITH GRETA VAN SUSTEREN" begins right now.

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