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American Morning

The Search for Chandra: Flight Attendant Claims Long-Term Relationship With Congressman Condit

Aired July 03, 2001 - 11:01   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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: A flight attendant today claims a long- term sexual relationship with Gary Condit. She says that the California Congressman told her to lie about that relationship. The woman she says that she called it quits with Condit around the time that Washington intern Chandra Levy went missing. Whether the two events are intertwined remain a big mystery, as Chandra Levy's whereabouts still remain.

Our national correspondent Bob Franken is on the story once again today and has the latest -- Bob, good morning once again.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

And lest we forget, this is at the core an investigation into the missing former intern and the attention that's been paid to allegations that Congressman Condit had a romantic relationship with the 24-year-old Chandra Levy, something that has been repeatedly denied by his spokesman. And this has spun off now to attention being paid to flight attendant Anne Marie Smith, who lives in San Francisco and/or Seattle. She may have apartments in both locations.

There have been published reports that she, too, had a romantic relationship with Congressman Condit. And then that has been reinforced by an interview that she did yesterday with the Fox News Channel in which she repeatedly said yes, she did have that romantic relationship with Congressman Condit.

But what is important here is she went on to say that a representative and then Congressman Condit himself tried to get her to sign a sworn statement in which she claimed that she did thought have a relationship, one that she said was not true.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNE MARIE SMITH, FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Obviously Mr. Condit knew it was false and he was asking me to sign it. And I personally could never have signed it or would never have signed it. And he was urging me to sign it. He said you don't want anything, this could be potentially embarrassing for both of us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: Now, the flight attendant, Anne Marie Smith, has been interviewed by the FBI, interviewed after the reports came out about the relationship she alleges with Congressman Condit, a relationship, by the way, that Condit has never confirmed nor has he denied it. Now, when the interview was set up with the FBI, according to Ann Marie Smith, she was contacted by Condit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SMITH: He was really upset with me. He said, "Well, I, oh, I see how you are. I see what you are doing." And I said, "No, you know, I've never been in a situation like this." You know, I realized, he told me, he said, "You don't have to talk to the media. You don't have to talk to anybody. You don't even have to talk to the FBI."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: Now we've been trying to get comment from the Condit side, both his attorney in Washington, Abbe Lowell and the office out in Modesto, California said we should talk to Joe Cotchett, who is the San Francisco attorney who has also been representing Congressman Condit. We have repeatedly tried to get Mr. Cotchett to give us a response to all this. He has been repeatedly unavailable, at least unavailable thus far, even though we're told that he is expected at some point to put out a written statement.

It is important to point out, Daryn, that in this particular case, the allegation is now being made that the flight attendant, Anne Marie Smith, was asked to sign a false affidavit. But in order for it to be a false affidavit, first of all, we would have to prove that she was asked to sign that by the Congressman Condit's representatives or the Congressman himself and that, in fact, there was the relationship she alleged. Otherwise, the affidavit would not be false -- Daryn?

KAGAN: Which opens up a whole other part of the story, and let's bring in our legal analyst, Roger Cossack, to join us in this discussion -- Roger, good morning to you.

ROGER COSSACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Daryn. How are you?

KAGAN: I'm doing...

COSSACK: The plot thickens, eh?

KAGAN: Yes. That it does. And let's take out the Congressman's, any possibility of his involvement in the disappearance of Chandra Levy. Let's just look at the allegations that this flight attendant, that Anne Marie Smith is making against the Congressman. These unto themselves are very serious allegations, aren't they?

COSSACK: Well, yes. Look, the law is pretty simple. He was right about one thing, she didn't have to talk to the press and she didn't have to talk to the FBI. However, unlike the press, you can lie to the press if you want to and there's no crime against that, but if you lie to the FBI, that is a crime under the United States code, as well as if you ask someone to sign a false affidavit with the intent to thwart an investigation, that could possibly be obstruction of justice. Now, both of those are crimes that are, they're triable within the federal court and both of those are felonies and both of those, if convicted or tried and convicted, could result in jail time.

Now having said that, we have a long ways to go before we find out whether or not what this woman is saying is true, and second of all, whether or not anybody would ever be prosecuted for that. But technically if it is true, it could be a crime.

FRANKEN: Daryn, the one thing that I know that Roger wants to talk about is the fact that even though the FBI, which is following every lead, along with Washington police, even though the FBI did interview Anne Marie Smith, it is a bit of a stretch in the minds of many to believe that Anne Marie Smith can contribute anything to determining the whereabouts of Chandra Levy.

KAGAN: Well, that's true, and that continues to be the main purpose and goal of this case is to find the whereabouts of this missing intern. Yet again, and this one going to both Bob and Roger here, another flash to a comparison to the Monica Lewinsky situation, again involving an intern in Washington, D.C. And didn't Monica Lewinsky sign a false affidavit considering her relationship with President Clinton?

COSSACK: Yes, and you'll remember, that became the subject of a serious problem that President, then President Clinton and his lawyer had with the judge down in Little Rock because of that false affidavit. And that was, in a sense, sort of the foundation for the contempt citation that President Clinton eventually got himself into. That, of course, had gotten a little further than this one. That was actually introduced into a trial, into evidence. This, of course, allegedly never happened. So you have the attempt to obstruct justice and/or the solicitation to obstruct justice as well as the solicitation to lie to the FBI.

I want to really underline that while I told you both of those, lying to the FBI as well as obstructing justice, both are serious crimes, there is a long ways to go before we are going to see anybody indicted for these.

FRANKEN: And if I may, Daryn, to differentiate, ultimately President Clinton acknowledged that he had a relationship with Monica Lewinsky. We must repeat that Congressman Condit repeatedly through his spokespeople has denied that he had a romantic relationship with Chandra Levy.

KAGAN: And has not confirmed or denied about the relationship with Anne Marie Smith.

FRANKEN: That's correct.

KAGAN: Which brings me to my next question, some free legal advice from Roger here. You've heard Bob report throughout the morning that we've tried to contact lawyers and get some response out of the lawyers, which we haven't been able to get yet. From a lawyer's perspective, what are you telling your client, if it's Gary Condit, to do in this situation? On a P.R. front, he's losing the battle.

COSSACK: You know, he is, if I can be a little trite, he is caught between that proverbial rock and that proverbial hard spot because where he has got to go is on one side he has constituents to worry about and he has elections to worry about and he has to make sure that he keeps that peace and those people happy. On the other side, he has lawyers who would be like me saying, you know, whatever you do, don't talk to the press, don't say anything more, you know, every time you say something or every time something gets further down the road it can come back to haunt you. Just don't say anything about this.

So he is, as I said, he's caught between those two spots trying to figure out some kind of a solution.

FRANKEN: And, Daryn, one of the reasons that a Washington lawyer would be brought into the case, somebody like Abbe Lowell, is that part of their experience, and it's almost a unique experience, is that they can bridge the gap between that rock and a hard place.

KAGAN: And we heard Roger bring up the constituents. As I understand it, Congressman Condit is heading back towards Modesto, is he not, Bob?

FRANKEN: He is in Modesto. There is some question now whether he is going to participate in the July 4 festivities out of a concern that if he does it will become a real media scrum, as we got to call it around here. That's a probability.

KAGAN: Kind of lose the point of the parade there. Bob Franken, Roger Cossack in Washington, gentlemen, thank you.

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