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CNN Live At Daybreak

The Search for Chandra Levy: Focus Turns to Relationship With Gary Condit

Aired July 05, 2001 - 08:03   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.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: The Chandra Levy investigation is now looking more like the Gary Condit investigation. Levy is the government intern who went missing nine weeks ago. But the investigation is now focused on the romantic life of Condit, the Democratic congressman who says Levy was a good friend, nothing more.

National correspondent Bob Franken is following all of this for us and joins us now -- Bob.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And as a matter of fact, Colleen, the Condit people complained a lot about that, for instance, that there was so much focus yesterday not on Chandra Levy, but whether Gary Condit attended a parade -- the parade, of course, the July 4 parade in Modesto, California.

He has made a history as a congressman of being at the parade, but he was not there yesterday -- various explanations, one from the officials that they were worried -- the Condit office was -- about distractions because of all of the attention right now -- another explanation from his spokesperson, Mike Lynch, saying that there were other commitments, without being more specific than that.

The fact of the matter is that all the focus is on, as you said, the questions about Condit's relationship with Chandra Levy, the 24- year-old former Washington intern -- didn't work for Condit, worked for the Bureau of Prisons as an intern. She disappeared about nine weeks ago. And at the core of this is the investigation into her whereabouts.

Condit has had to deny repeatedly and continues to deny repeatedly that the two of them had a romantic relationship. But other allegations of Condit romantic relationships have dominated the story. There was, of course, the interview that was done with Anne Marie Smith, the flight attendant who claims that she had a romantic relationship with Condit.

Police say that they have talked to a couple of women who they say believe that -- who say that they did have a romantic relationship with Condit. The police say they are not out searching for that type of witness, but they are interested in talking to them if they come forward only to find out what their version is of how Condit treated them. They would be interested to see if Chandra Levy had a romantic relationship, whether, in fact, he was somebody who rejected her so hard that it might influenced her and caused her to be depressed and, in the words of one officer, caused her to "harm herself." That, of course, is one of the theories that the police are operating under.

The investigation continues. There is also an effort to interview Mrs. Condit out in the Modesto area. So far, the FBI has not been able to make those arrangements. Again, police continue to insist A: The focus is on finding Chandra Levy. They have had no success. They continue to say that Gary Condit is not a suspect; this is not a criminal investigation.

But as you point out, Colleen, it has become the story of Gary Condit.

MCEDWARDS: All right, CNN's Bob Franken, thanks very much.

And this story is prompting lots of discussion, we know. So you can send us your thoughts if you like on the Chandra Levy/Gary Condit mystery. The Web address is CNN.com/chat. For AOL subscribers, the keyword is CNN.

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