Condit Aide Denies Pressing Mistress

W A S H I N G T O N, July 26 -- Rep. Gary Condit's top aide in Washington today denied reports that he urged a former colleague to lie to FBI agents about her relationship with the congressman.

USA Today quoted former Condit staffer Joleen McKay as claiming that Mike Dayton, the congressman's senior staffer on Capitol Hill, had urged her to "leave [the affair] in the past or it will ruin you."

Law enforcement sources tell ABCNEWS that McKay, now 29 and married, has told the FBI she carried on an affair with Condit in 1994.

Dayton Denies Claim

Asked by ABCNEWS this morning if he had ever asked any woman to lie to police and the FBI, Dayton answered, "Absolutely not."

McKay is now the second woman from Condit's past who has come forward to claim she was pressured to keep quiet. Flight attendant Anne Marie Smith also has told investigators she was urged by Condit intermediaries to sign a false affidavit denying an affair with the California Democrat.

The Modesto Bee reports that Dayton and his boss, Condit chief of staff Mike Lynch, have each hired high-powered criminal defense lawyers.

Another former Condit staffer tells ABCNEWS that Dayton first knew McKay in high school, introduced her to Condit at an Independence Day parade in Modesto and often chauffeured them around the city.

FBI agents and police want Condit to answer some questions about this relationship with McKay as it relates to their search for missing intern Chandra Levy.

Watch Box Questions

Law enforcement sources tell ABCNEWS investigators will get that chance, as Condit has agreed to meet for a fourth time with investigators searching for Levy.

Police say Condit is not a suspect in Levy's disappearance. But the married congressman has acknowledged to police, sources say, that he carried on an affair with the 24-year-old Federal Bureau of Prisons intern.

Investigators are expected to ask Condit, 53, about a watch box he was seen discarding in a trash bin in Northern Virginia hours before police searched his Washington apartment on July 10.