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CNN Saturday Morning News

Should Gary Condit Speak About Missing Intern?

Aired July 07, 2001 - 09:32   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, ANCHOR: We turn our attention now back to the case of the missing intern, Chandra Levy.

Howard Kurtz of CNN's "RELIABLE SOURCES" says what started out as a missing persons case has now become something else.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HOWARD KURTZ, CNN'S "RELIABLE SOURCES" (voice-over): In the beginning, two long months ago, the story was about a young woman who mysteriously vanished from the nation's capital. But the spotlight gradually shifted from Chandra Levy's disappearance to her relationship, by many indications a romantic relationship, with Congressman Gary Condit.

Condit, through his spokesman, consistently denied any romantic involvement with Levy. But the media's pursuit of the California Democrat reached a new level of intensity this week when flight attendant Anne Marie Smith told Fox News she'd had an affair with Condit, and that he'd asked her to deny it with a sworn affidavit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, FOX NEWS)

ANNE MARIE SMITH: Obviously Mr. Condit knew it was false, and he was asking me to sign it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: Condit denied her account in a two-sentence statement, saying he never "suggested that anyone mislead the authorities."

But the very brevity of his denial, part of a strategy of refusing to answer a single question in public, has led some commentators to wonder whether Condit has something to hide.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARGARET CARLSON, "TIME" MAGAZINE: We haven't heard one word from the congressman, not a word.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: Soon the airwaves were filled with talk about Condit and the flight attendant. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE EARLY SHOW," CBS)

RUSS MITCHELL, HOST: They asked Miss Smith to sign this affidavit. Did the congressman commit a crime?

ROY BLACK, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, I think he skirted fairly close to the edge, but if he...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "GOOD MORNING AMERICA," ABC)

CHARLES GIBSON, HOST: There potentially -- is there obstruction of justice here?

PIERRE THOMAS, CNN: Well, that's one of the things that law enforcement officials are going to want to look at.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: For the press, the Monica Lewinsky parallels have been irresistible, another California intern, another politician denying an affair.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I did not have sexual relations...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: And the proposed affidavit that Smith says Condit's lawyer asked her to sign reminiscent of Lewinsky's talking points for Linda Tripp, a blueprint for denying her affair with President Clinton.

There is, however, one crucial difference. Lewinsky is very much alive and went on to a big book deal and celebrity endorsements. Chandra Levy is still missing, a painful reality that's been all but obscured by the journalistic focus on the congressman's alleged affairs.

Faced with this media deluge, Condit's attorney, Abbe Lowell, is denouncing the coverage of his client.

ABBE LOWELL, CONDIT'S ATTORNEY: Just because the media has interest, that doesn't mean that you have to feed that interest, especially because it doesn't help the investigation, it definitely invades the Condit family's privacy, and all it does is kind of create the next set of questions.

KURTZ: The spotlight shifted again Friday when Levy's aunt gave "The Washington Post" a detailed account of Chandra's description of an affair with Condit, and how, she says, the congressman went to great lengths to hide it. (on camera): The proposed affidavit sent to Anne Marie Smith is clearly a major development that raises the possibility of a cover-up. But now the story is almost exclusively about Gary Condit and his sex life. All but lost in the media frenzy is the haunting question that we seem no closer to answering -- where is Chandra Levy?

This is Howard Kurtz of CNN's "RELIABLE SOURCES."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, let's get more on this case now in our Reporter's Notebook segment.

CNN national correspondent Bob Franken has been covering this story and joins us now from Washington. Hi, Bob.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra.

May I make one point just as a supplement to what Howard was reporting there?

PHILLIPS: Absolutely.

FRANKEN: The affidavit that was sent, according to the Condit version of events, was sent with a heading at the top from the lawyer, Joe Koch in San Francisco, saying to Anne Marie Smith, "Feel free to edit, revise, make any changes you want." Their contention was this was just what they would like to see, but they were in no way suggesting, and they provide as evidence that heading, they were not suggesting that she sign a false affidavit. That is the response to that charge from Congressman Condit through his spokespeople.

PHILLIPS: Well said. OK, let's move on straight to the e-mails.

This one comes, Bob, from Raleigh, North Carolina, and Lynn has this comment, "I don't understand why everyone thinks Condit needs to talk to the media. It's now guilty until deemed innocent by the press. Or is it now guilty until deemed innocent by the press? It's not the public's right to know, it's the police and Levy family's right to know."

FRANKEN: Well, that's certainly an argument that we're hearing a lot, and there's real debate going on within the Condit camp and within those who are the people who are his supporters about whether he should go public.

On the one hand, there are those who say that by not responding, he is getting incessantly hammered, and these rumors turn into what seems to be reality if he doesn't respond to them in person. On the other hand are those who say it's a no-win situation, that no matter what he does, he will be compared to the Bill Clinton, I did not have sex with that women -- woman sound bite, and that it's just lose-lose for him, and therefore the worst -- the least worst thing he can do would be to not say something.

Did that make sense? What I'm saying is that they're saying, Don't talk, because you can't win.

PHILLIPS: And I interviewed a number of lawyers last week, Bob, and they all seem to have the same advice, If he was my client, if he were my client, I would tell him not to talk.

Here's the (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

FRANKEN: Let me just say something about lawyers, though. Lawyers are people who are more concerned with the legalities of something, and other advice has to come from people who maybe are more adept in the public relations field. As a profession, the law does not like to operate in public.

But the public relations people are the ones who are also saying to him right now, It's bad to -- bad for PR to go out there and say something.

PHILLIPS: G. Martin from Washington, D.C., "If the police treated this as a criminal investigation, wouldn't they be able to search Condit's and others' homes, cars, rental cars, and/or offices for traces of blood and other relevant forensics evidence?"

FRANKEN: They would be able to do that. They could seek a warrant to do that kind of thing. They do not believe at this moment that they have the necessary evidence to treat it like that. They could switch at any moment, of course. They can get warrants. They have gotten warrants. They've gone to a grand jury. The mechanism in Washington is to involve the grand jury in the process of issuing a warrant. They can do all that in the course of a missing persons investigation.

If they were in fact going to in fact go into the congressman's property, they'd need a warrant. That would probably take it over into the criminal investigation stage.

PHILLIPS: This comes from actually there -- we don't have a name on this one. "Chandra Levy clearly had a relationship, apparently quite close, to Condit. So why do police continue to soft shoe around him? Investigating him is clearly valid. Most cases like these, the first people examined and closely are the most intimate with the missing or dead person." This comes from (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

FRANKEN: OK. Now, first of all, what the police are saying is, is, that they want to know if there was an intimate relationship. They are really debating whether that was the case. Some believe that there's enough indication there was, others say they're not sure. The reason that would be important, of course, is because that might provide some ability to get clues from Congressman Condit.

But people who are on the other side say this could be something quite different. This could be, for instance, the starstruck intern who in fact was really fantasizing about the powerful congressman and was exaggerating the relationship.

We must remember that there are other possibilities than the one it looks like it is, although many, many people are now concluding, as this writer did, that in fact the possibilities add up to a romantic relationship, one that up until now the congressman has denied.

PHILLIPS: Bob, we're going to take a phone call. We have Bob from Virginia on the phone. Go ahead.

CALLER: Good morning, Kyra, good morning, Bob. My question is this. Why is the media so focused on Gary Condit's sex life? And another thing, Bob, I have been hearing on other news organizations this morning that a grand jury is going to be seated in this case. If that happens, are we going to go through a repeat performance of 18 months of Clinton "I did not have sexual relations with that woman"?

FRANKEN: OK, let's start with the grand jury. First of all, that is a report on one newspaper, which we at CNN have not confirmed, and I'm not ready to in fact believe it is actual fact, for two reasons. Number one, the police chief, as recently as two days ago, said this continued to be a missing person investigation. The grand jury, of course, would take it into the realm of the criminal investigation. And number two, again, the grand jury is used here to have any warrants, warrants for subpoenaing phone records and the like, and the mechanism here is to go through a grand jury.

It is entirely possible that is what is meant by the grand jury involvement. We're going to try and see what is the accurate story here, but at the moment I'm not ready to say that there is a grand jury investigation.

As for the media preoccupation with the romantic relationship, and a lot of people who are criticizing this right now for getting into areas that have nothing to do with the disappearance of Chandra Levy. There are others who say that it's relevant because it could explain her state of mind, it could explain the possibility that Congressman Condit knows something about it, or at least suspects something about it, has knowledge, in other words, and therefore it's relevant. That's the debate.

PHILLIPS: All right, I'll move to another e-mail, Bob. Dale Friesen, "Could Chandra Levy's career aspirations in the area of criminal justice and the reported mentorship she may have seeked in her relationship with Mr. Condit in this area have brought her in contact with a dangerous criminal element?"

FRANKEN: Possibly. Anything is possible. But nobody is suggesting that, quite frankly. Congressman Condit, first of all, is her hometown congressman. Second of all, she worked here, not for Congressman Condit, she was not an intern for him, she was an intern at the Bureau of Prisons at the Department of Justice. I suspect they would be a bit offended if they were called a dangerous criminal element.

PHILLIPS: Bob Franken, always a pleasure to have you and your insights, sir. Thanks so much.

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