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American Morning
Aunt of Chandra Levy Provides Details of Alleged Affair
Aired July 06, 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: The aunt of missing former intern Chandra Levy has given police a detailed account of a romantic relationship that her niece said she had with California Representative Gary Condit. The interview appears in today's "Washington Post," and the aunt, Linda Zamsky, also confirmed the information for CNN.
Our national correspondent Bob Franken is in Washington with the latest -- Bob.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's actually, Daryn, part of the story of Chandra Levy for the last several weeks. We have heard that an aunt of Chandra Levy's had been told that there was, in fact, this romantic relationship by Chandra Levy and now we can put a name to it. It is Linda Zamsky, as you pointed out. She lives in Maryland along the Chesapeake Bay, about a two hour drive from Washington.
She, in fact, was told by Chandra Levy, she said, that Levy was having a romantic relationship with the Congressman, that they would spend weekends together, that he would bring her gifts, that it was extremely secret. And what she also said to the "Washington Post" is that Chandra Levy was about to leave to go back to California. She said she had some big news. She left a message on April 29, reading, saying, "Hi, Linda. This is Chandra. My internship is over," Levy said in the message. "I'm planning on packing my bags in the next week or 10 days, heading home for a while. Don't know what I'm going to do this summer and I really have some big news or something important to tell. Call me."
Well, investigators, of course, are very interested in what that big news is and whether it had anything to do with disappearance of Chandra Levy. She was the 24-year-old former Washington intern for the Bureau of Prisons. That internship was suddenly terminated and she went missing a couple of days later and she is still missing after more than nine weeks.
Among the people who have been questioning in this now is the wife of Congressman Condit. That is Carolyn Condit. She was brought secretly to Washington on July 4 and was interviewed by the FBI and Washington, D.C. police investigators at an FBI headquarters in suburban Washington, in northern Virginia. The investigators were interested in what she could contribute to the knowledge of Chandra Levy's disappearance since Chandra Levy disappeared at the same time, as it turns out, Mrs. Condit was in Washington staying at the Congressman's apartment.
Now, from the beginning of this investigation there's been a tremendous focus on what the relationship was between Chandra Levy and the Congressman. There have been repeated allegations there was a romantic relationship, repeated denials up until now from the Congressman's spokespeople that there was a romantic relationship.
This has spread out, of course, to involve people who alleged, other people who allege romantic relationships with the Congressman, including a flight attendant, all of which is really frustrating the police chief of the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police, saying that this is not a sex investigation, this is an effort to find somebody who is missing, somebody, Daryn, who they have not been able to find.
KAGAN: Getting back to Congressman Condit, he has, though, finally hired a P.R. agency to rise him in this matter, as I understand it.
FRANKEN: Well, what he did is he hired a Washington attorney who is very adept at the Washington need to handle not just the legal matters but the public image matters, who did what as normal happens here, hired a public relations firm to handle this kind of thing. The attorney, Abbe Lowell, put out a statement yesterday, something he's been saying privately to reporters, which is there is this terrible preoccupation with the private life of Congressman Condit. "It is time," he said in the statement, "to focus on what happened to Chandra Levy."
KAGAN: And then there are those questions about why Congressman Condit didn't appear in those parades and events on the Fourth of July. But actually he and his wife had flown back to the D.C. area to have an interview for Mrs. Condit, as I understand it.
FRANKEN: Well, it's sort of typical of the way they do things. They speak very cryptically. The people out in Modesto, California, the members of his staff, said that the reason he didn't appear in these parades is because of another commitment that would become public later in the week. Well, that other commitment was that FBI interview of Mrs. Condit and, of course, it did become public.
KAGAN: Bob Franken in Washington. Bob, thank you -- Stephen?
FRAZIER: Daryn, the racetrack may be an unlikely place to help this search for Chandra Levy, but that's exactly what a NASCAR race team is doing. Melling Racing has put a large bumper sticker with the missing woman's picture on the back of Stacy Compton's race car. It will be displayed all during the Pepsi 400 race tomorrow in Daytona Beach, Florida. Television's AMERICA'S MOST WANTED program had asked Melling's body maker about generating publicity for the case of the former Washington intern.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN WALSH, "AMERICA'S MOST WANTED": I think this might have something to do with it. Pick up the phone. Have the guts to make that call because this car will have her picture throughout the whole race.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FRAZIER: The Melling race car bumper sticker also displays the hot line number for that program, AMERICA'S MOST WANTED. The phone number is 1-800-CRIMETV.
Stay with for the very latest on this search for Chandra Levy. Tonight, we will devote an entire hour to the story when Larry King asks whether Gary Condit has answers to the questions police are asking. That's LARRY KING LIVE tonight starting at 9:00 Eastern Time.
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