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American Morning

Search for Chandra Takes a New Turn

Aired July 10, 2001 - 11:10   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.
BRIAN NELSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: At this hour, the mystery surrounding a missing intern still leads the news. The search for Chandra Levy appears to be taking a new turn. Will police find anything inside Gary Condit's Washington home?

National correspondent Bob Franken is staying on top of the story from D.C. and he joins us now live with an update -- good morning again, Bob.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Brian.

And the police have been frustrated every step of the way over a 10 week period since Chandra Levy has been missing. The reason now that they are going to search the apartment of Gary Condit in Washington is because his lawyer said they should, or at least that he would be willing to let them do so.

In a wide ranging news conference last night, Abbe Lowell, Gary Condit's attorney, said hey, if people want the apartment searched, the congressman is perfectly happy to let that happen. So the police decided, OK, you've made the offer, no warrant is needed, we will do so. You're seeing, by the way, a live picture of the apartment building where Congressman Condit lives in Washington. Of course, we are now hearing from police sources that he has said that Chandra Levy, in fact, spent quite a bit of time at that apartment, something we're hearing also from Chandra Levy's aunt.

That's just one of the many developments today. Another one, at about this hour in Seattle, Anne Marie Smith is boarding a plane and will be flying to Washington, this Washington, Washington, D.C. She is the flight attendant who publicly charged that A, she, too, had a romantic relationship with Congressman Condit and B, he tried to get her to file a sworn statement lying about that relationship, something that the congressman denies. He said his representatives were just giving her the choice to create a statement about the relationship.

In any case, the U.S. attorney's office here in Washington has decided it would be a good idea to talk to Anne Marie Smith and to see if there's any question about the legality of the conduct thank you Congressman Condit and his legal representatives.

Now, Congressman Condit is returning to Washington, Congress, actually. He has been in Washington, we've been told by sources. He's going to be coming back for the resumption of Congress that had been on a break of about a week, a little bit over a week, for the July Fourth holiday. Of course, many of his colleagues are quite angry at him for apparently not telling them the truth when he assured them he was not having a relationship with Chandra Levy. Of course, we hear, quoting police sources as saying that he acknowledged in a Friday night interview that he did have a relationship. And that has brought pleas from the family of Chandra Levy, Susan Levy and Bob Levy, the parents of her, through their lawyer, Billy Martin, saying they want a lie detector test.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILLY MARTIN, LEVY FAMILY ATTORNEY: As a good faith gesture toward the family, take a polygraph. They're not accusing Congressman Condit of anything. We believe a polygraph would once and for all show the family that he has told the truth and has nothing to hide.

ABBE LOWELL, CONDIT'S ATTORNEY: With respect to lie detectors, I know there's a great public appeal to lie detectors. But I know from my own practice that they leave a lot to be desired. If the police call me and tell me that at some point they think that, no matter how suspect it might be, can be helpful, I will discuss it with them. But I will discuss it with them and not with you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: By whom he means the news media. It should be pointed out that Abbe Lowell did not commit to allowing his client to take a lie detector test, but said it would be something he'd talk about with the police. The police say at the moment that they're really noncommittal about that. It's a possibility they might ask for one, but our sources say that they have not.

And, of course, there's so many tentacles to this story, it's really important that we focus again on what this is really about, that is Chandra Levy. She's been missing for 10 weeks and so far the police have been unsuccessful in locating her -- Brian.

NELSON: All right, thank you, CNN's Bob Franken in Washington.

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