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CNN Sunday Morning

Will Condit's Alleged Admission of an Affair Help Find Missing Intern?

Aired July 08, 2001 - 07:01   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Many people who been following the saga of Congressman Gary Condit and the disappearance of intern Chandra Levy this morning are saying I told you so. This, because Condit apparently has now admitted to police that he did have an adulterous relationship with intern Chandra Levy despite earlier denials. Now, the question now is whether that is just a salacious sideshow or important to discovering what happened to Levy, who's been missing since April 30th.

CNN's Bob Franken has been covering this story since it first broke two months ago -- Bob, what's the latest?

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the police have come to the conclusion, Kyra, that it was important that they know the full extent of the relationship so they could know just how much information Condit might have about Chandra Levy and how much knowledge he might have about her most intimate thoughts. And so they insisted on this third interview, and this time, according to police sources, Condit acknowledged to them that there was a romantic relationship with Chandra Levy.

He had, of course, denied this repeatedly through spokespeople up until this time. There has been report after report about a romantic relationship and until recently the denials have followed those reports each and every time.

Now, Condit is somebody who is not considered to be a suspect in this, as we'll hear in just a moment. Chandra Levy has been gone, missing, for over nine weeks and police are very frustrated that they've not been able to locate any leads. They say that they really are not that much closer, even though they've done now three interviews with Congressman Condit. They said this time he answered everything they asked and they asked a lot.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TERRANCE GAINER, EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT CHIEF OF POLICE: The congressman, with his attorney present, answered every question that we put to him. And so he clarified those issues that we needed some more information about, and we were comfortable with his answers. It was a good hour and a half productive meeting and the congressman was not a suspect before the meeting, he was not a suspect during the meeting and he is not a suspect since the meeting. So he was cooperative and happy to get this third interview out of the way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: At the same time, police say they are no closer to the whereabouts of Chandra Levy. They say they're still considering four possibilities, one that she ran into foul play; two, suicide, although they say that that is less and less likely a possibility; three, that she is hiding out somewhere for her own personal reasons; or, four, was injured and is out there on the street somewhere without knowing what's going on. They're continuing to do their investigation. They say, however, that at the moment Gary Condit has answered just about everything that he needs from them, that he was cooperative and the relationship now has surfaced and we're going to be hearing more from his lawyer as the day goes on, Abbe Lowell, now saying that the nature of the relationship was just a media sideshow, what's important here is trying to find Chandra Levy -- Kyra?

PHILLIPS: All right, we'll hear more from you, Bob, within 30 minutes.

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