The attorney for the flight attendant who said she had a 10-month affair with U.S. Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif., told Fox News Channel’s Paula Zahn the congressman mysteriously forbade his client from using a closet in his apartment just before Chandra Levy was reported missing.
Attorney Jim Robinson of Seattle speculated on “The Edge With Paula Zahn” that Condit arranged for his wife to visit him in Washington from April 28 to May 3 as a ploy to keep the missing intern away from his apartment “so that whatever happened could happen.”
Robinson, who represents Anne Marie Smith, also said his client had related “some peculiar sexual fantasies that a normal heterosexual man does not have” and had seen signs of unusual sexual activity “that she had nothing to do with.”
In a separate report, Fox News reports Washington police found traces of blood on window blinds in Condit’s apartment during a search. The blood was collected for analysis, according to police sources quoted by Fox News correspondent Rita Cosby.
Robinson said Smith had feared for her life, and he had asked her, “Did you call me because I’m a good attorney or (because) I’m an ex-Marine?”
Smith’s response was, “I think ex-Marine would be more accurate,” he said.
“There’s already a missing girl, and she didn’t want to be the second one,” Robinson told Zahn.
The lawyer said that near the end of Smith’s relationship with Condit,
“things started to really disturb Anne Marie. She found what she believed to be Chandra’s hair in the bathroom.”
Moreover, he said, Smith saw neckties knotted together and “tied
underneath the bed as if someone had been tied up in bed.” Condit made a joke of Smith’s concern.
“And then this woman disappears. She was terrified.”
Levy, 24, was last seen at the Washington Sports Club April 30. Levy, from Modesto, Calif., had recently completed an internship at the Federal Bureau of Prisons. She had planned to return to her home state to receive a master’s degree from the University of Southern California.
Police found no sign of forced entry or a struggle in Levy’s apartment.
The doors were locked, her bags were half-packed, and cash and credit cards were found inside. Only Levy’s keys and a gold ring were missing.
On Friday, after two months of denial, Condit, 53, reportedly admitted to police that his relationship with Levy had been sexual. For weeks he had maintained the two were “just good friends.” Late Tuesday night, an evidence-gathering team made a search of Condit’s apartment that lasted until just before 3 a.m. Wednesday.
On July 3, Smith told Fox News that Condit had asked her to sign a
declaration denying her relationship with the congressman and told her that she did not have to talk to the FBI after Levy’s disappearance.
“The man suborned perjury, flat-out,” Robinson told Zahn.
Condit’s attorneys countered by saying the cover letter allowed Smith to make additions or deletions to the document.
Robinson told Zahn, “That’s not quite true.” He said it’s common for
attorneys to include those provisions for such things as misspelled names. “I didn’t think anything of it at the time until I got down to paragraph five. And paragraph five is the opposite of the truth.”
On July 4, Smith said Condit had called her “approximately May 5 or 6.” She said Condit had told her that he might be in trouble and that he was “going to have to disappear for a while.”
After searching Rep. Gary Condit’s condominium, police continued to try to arrange for the congressman to take a lie-detector test and provide a DNA sample. Police Chief Charles Ramsey told NBC News that Condit had agreed to undergo the polygraph exam, but sources indicated the terms were still under negotiation and that Condit’s attorney might insist on restrictions that police searching for missing intern Chandra Levy would not accept.
Smith said earlier on Fox News Channel that investigators indicated she had provided them with new information during the six hours she met with them. She would not disclose what she told them, but said she would meet with them again.
Smith said she and Condit never talked about Levy. She said she last spoke to Condit 2? weeks ago and that he again urged her to sign the statement.
Condit has not commented on any relationship with Smith, but in a statement last week said he never asked anyone to lie.
Condit, 53 and married, told police last week that he had an affair with Levy, according to a source familiar with the investigation. His staff had claimed for weeks that they were just goods friends.
The disappearance still is being treated as a missing-person case and police have said repeatedly that Condit is not a suspect. Yet, Robinson told Zahn that he and his client met with representatives of the Washington, D.C., police as well as officials of the FBI and U.S. attorney’s office, including the head of homicide investigations for the latter.
Condit, who has represented his central California district for 12 years and has been re-elected by landslides, now has his first challenger in the 2002 election. Republican Bill Conrad, who received less than a third of the vote when he ran against Condit in 1996, said he would run again next year, citing Condit’s character.
Judicial Watch, a conservative interest group, is seeking the backing of House members for an ethics complaint it has filed against Condit.
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