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CNN Saturday Morning News

Media Continues to Swirl Around Condit

Aired July 21, 2001 - 09:07   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: Moving on to other news, there are new developments in the Chandra Levy case. "Newsweek" magazine reports that Congressman Gary Condit was meeting with Vice President Cheney about the time Levy was last known to be in her apartment logging off of her computer.

CNN's Bob Franken has more on the case.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Not once in the 80-plus days that Chandra Levy has been missing has Congressman Gary Condit publicly answered questions about the case.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you planning to maintain the silence throughout, or...

FRANKEN: Even though, according to police sources, he did finally admit to investigators to having an intimate relationship with the 24-year-old former intern. A source on the Condit team says he will not go public while the "media typhoon of wild allegations" persists. "When they subside," he continues, "that will be the moment when people are listening to him instead of crazy gossip and rumors."

The Condit camp is calling for a front-page retraction from "The Washington Post" for its front-page story quoting Otis Thomas, a minister, who claimed his daughter had an affair with Condit seven years ago when she was 18 years old. The story was widely repeated by CNN and other news organizations.

Now law enforcement sources tell CNN they have evidence that Thomas fabricated the story. The "Post"'s executive editor says the paper stands by its report.

Thomas lives in the same area as the Levy family and worked at the house as a part-time gardener.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you guys have any comment on Minister Thomas's...

SUSAN LEVY, CHANDRA'S MOTHER: I have no comments to be made, no comments.

FRANKEN: According to Chandra Levy's aunt, Linda Zamsky, Mrs. Levy passed on Thomas's story to her daughter in Washington.

Neither Congressman Condit nor his representatives had any comment on a report that he went to Alexandria, Virginia, on July 10 and dumped a watch case in a trash can just four hours before he allowed his apartment to be searched by investigators. Police sources tell CNN a person who recognized Condit from television reports called authorities to report the incident.

Investigators recovered the case and traced it to a California woman who says she had a relationship with Condit and gave him the watch.

Law enforcement officials continue to insist this has not changed their view that Condit is not a suspect in Levy's disappearance. With the new lead FBI agent in attendance, federal and local investigators met once again to try and develop new approaches to a search that has so far been futile.

CHIEF CHARLES RAMSEY, D.C. METROPOLITAN POLICE: But I think that as time goes on, of course, we become more and more concerned that perhaps what may come when we just don't find her at all.

FRANKEN (on camera): Detectives plan to attend a gathering of Washington taxi drivers and review their logs, looking for instances when Chandra Levy may have been a passenger. They also released a partial list of Web sites surfed by Levy on May 1, just before she disappeared.

(voice-over): In addition to travel, government, and newspaper sites, Levy also logged onto several search engines and BaskinRobbins.com. Investigators did not release certain sites they view as, quote, "evidentiary."

Bob Franken, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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