Condit Turns Over DNA to Police
W A S H I N G T O N, July 13, 2001 -- ABCNEWS has learned Rep. Gary Condit has turned over a DNA sample to the Washington police.
The sample could be useful because it would help to eliminate other DNA samples police may have found in Chandra Levy's apartment.
Meanwhile, police say they have expanded their search for Chandra Levy, looking in abandoned buildings around the city and today beginning preparations to scour landfills where trash from Levy's apartment building is dumped.
Cmdr. Mark Beach said 80 buildings will be searched "at least through the weekend," and said it was "just a natural part of the broader investigative search" for the 24-year-old former intern.
"We are assuming that these dwellings are open, a number of people may have access to them and we would be remiss if we didn't take a look at them," he said, adding that some of the buildings had already been searched.
When asked whether the decision to go through the abandoned buildings, many of them empty apartment complexes, meant that police expected to find a body, Beach said police were looking for "a body or anything at all."
Trying Out Other Looks
Investigators scoured some buildings on Thursday, accompanied by cadaver dogs looking for remains. In addition, a team of nine police officers who did not have cadaver dogs walked through a park near Condit's apartment.
Investigators are also testing several items removed from Rep. Gary Condit's apartment during a three-hour search carried out Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. After weeks of failing to disclose the true nature of their relationship, the 53-year-old married congressman last week admitted to police that he had had an affair with Levy.
In an interview with ABCNEWS, Assistant Police Chief Terrance Gainer said investigators have not ruled out the possibility that Levy is still alive and may have wandered off or purposely disappeared. Gainer said his office hopes to release new composite photos of Levy to the public, just in case the former intern has changed her appearance.
"Our hopeful theory [is] that maybe she's off on her own and we're still exploring that," Gainer said. "And in fact one of the things that we're doing now is doing a re-composite of her photo so that we can show her hair shorter, in a different style, in a different color because maybe she is hiding out from people."
"I think everybody has a good picture of Chandra Levy that we've all seen, but if she is trying to hide out from us or her parents or others, then I think we need to take another look," Gainer added.
A Young Woman's Confidence
Condit's reputation was dealt another blow on Thursday when the The Washington Post reported that a Pentecostal minister has told the FBI about an alleged affair seven years ago between his then-18-year-old daughter and the Northern California congressman.
According to the Post, Levy's family learned of Condit's alleged affair with, Jennifer Thomas, the Modesto, Calif., minister's daughter in April, when the intern's mother and the minister were talking as he was doing yard work for the Levys. Susan Levy reportedly called her daughter and expressed concern over Chandra's relationship with Condit.
"I told Mrs. Levy that with my daughter, it ended badly, that I think her daughter should end the relationship with him right away," Otis Thomas, the minister, told the Post. "Mrs. Levy talked to Chandra about it, but Chandra told her to mind her own business, that she was a grown woman who could deal with it."
Susan Levy told the Post that she talked to Thomas about their daughters' relationships with Condit, and that she and Chandra argued about it.
The minister said when he and his daughter learned of Levy's disappearance, the young woman told him Condit had warned her never to discuss their relationship with others.
A note signed by Thomas and posted in the Modesto apartment building where she lives denied that she ever knew Condit and asking that people leave her alone.
‘Destructive, Unfair and Irrelevant’
The Post said that four law enforcement sources confirmed that Thomas has been questioned by the FBI and that investigators are interested in talking to his daughter.
Outside their Modesto home on Thursday, Susan and Robert Levy said they had not read what had appeared in the paper and could not comment.
"Yes, I do know the Rev. Thomas and we do appreciate his concern, but we have to see what's going on," said Robert Levy, Chandra's father. "I know there's this report in the paper and right now we can't comment any more on this."
Marina Ein, a spokeswoman for Condit, accused The Post of joining "the ranks of tabloids who have come to us with specious questions about a supposed affair."
"These questions are destructive, unfair and irrelevant," Ein said. "In fact, we are constantly placed in the impossible position of having to prove a negative. This is something we will not do."
Condit's attorney, Abbe D. Lowell, said, "This is beneath the dignity of The Washington Post."
Gainer downplayed the Post report, saying he failed to find its immediate relevance to the Levy case.
"We're only interested in the congressman's life vis-a-vis how it could help us find Chandra and I'm not sure any of these other things are particularly relevant to what we're doing," Gainer said.
Condit Denies Trying to Pressure Smith
In another report, the The Modesto Bee quoted a 31-year-old former congressional aide as saying she too was romanced by the Democratic congressman.
According to the Bee, the woman said Condit gave her the number to his beeper and "continued to flirt with me and basically proposition me" for about five weeks.
"He has this mysterious phone number he gives out to all the girls," she told the paper. "When you call this number, you just hear music and then a beep. That is when you are supposed to leave a message."
Flight attendant Anne Marie Smith, who claims Condit asked her to lie about an alleged affair, met with representatives from the U.S. attorney's office for six hours Wednesday and five hours on Thursday before flying to Los Angeles Thursday evening.
The U.S. attorney's office is considering whether the congressman may have tried to obstruct justice in the search for Levy. FBI agents and police were also believed to be in the meeting.
Smith's attorney, James Robinson, told the New York Daily News that the questioning focused on Condit's behavior and whereabouts, not on whether Condit or anyone else tried to coerce her into denying she had an affair with the congressman.
Condit has denied trying to pressure Smith. But she alleged last week that Condit and a private investigator working for him pressed her to sign an affidavit denying a 10-month affair that she claims took place. Prosecutors wanted to ask Smith about her communications with Condit. And they were expected to ask what, if anything, she knows about Levy.
Amid the increasing allegations, one of Condit's fellow congressman called for him to step down for the first time. When asked on Oliver North's Commonsense Radio show whether Condit should resign, Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia, said, "Yes" and did not further elaborate. Barr was one of conservative Republicans who prosecuted President Clinton's impeachment in the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
No Evidence of a Crime
Washington police maintain that Condit is not, nor has ever been, considered a suspect because they do not have evidence of a crime. The three-hour search of the congressman's apartment building, which was completed early Wednesday morning, was carried out because Condit's lawyer offered it, not because of probable cause, Police Chief Charles Ramsey said.
"There are no suspects because we have no crime," Ramsey said. When asked again if Condit was a suspect, he replied: "He's not. He wasn't before and he's not now because we have no evidence of a crime."
Still unclear is whether Condit will take a polygraph test. Ramsey said he has asked Condit to take an FBI-administered test. Levy's parents and their lawyer have called on Condit to take such a test. Lowell has said Condit would be willing to take a polygraph, but he has also discounted the effectiveness of lie detector tests.
Levy was last seen on April 30, and her last known communication — an e-mail to her parents in California — was received on May 1. Levy, who had just finished an internship at the Federal Bureau of Prisons, was apparently planning to return home when she disappeared.
ABCNEWS' Pierre Thomas and Claire Shipman contributed to this report.