Rep. Condit’s Lawyer Chastises the Media

The lawyer for beleaguered Rep. Gary A. Condit (D-Ceres) lashed out at the media Sunday for continuing to try to link the California Democrat with the disappearance of Chandra Levy, saying journalists are more interested in rummaging through Condit’s private life than trying to help find the missing Washington intern.

“What he told the police about what his relationships were with her or anybody else is not the news,” attorney Abbe Lowell said on CNN’s “Late Edition.” “You’re making it the news. It’s not helping find Chandra Levy.”

Lowell, who earlier supported President Clinton in his troubles over Monica S. Lewinsky, also said that Condit at some point would explain his relationship with Levy to his constituents in the Modesto area in terms that “make sense.”

Condit, a seven-term congressman, has enjoyed tremendous voter support in the past but now sees new polls showing a sharp division and growing angst in his district reflecting a belief that he has something to hide involving the 25-year-old Levy.

“By the time there is an investigation completed, by the time that the information should be released, I am sure the congressman will talk to his constituents in a way that makes sense,” Lowell said on the ABC-TV program “This Week.”

“On the other hand, that does not mean that a man who has done a very good job of keeping his family intact for so long is going to change his stripes now.”

Condit, 53 and married with two children, has been questioned three times by police, and his wife has been questioned once. The media have reported that while he at first characterized himself and Levy as “good friends,” he has since conceded that they were lovers.

In addition, the press has reported on comments from Levy’s aunt and friends who said she was romantically involved with Condit, even to the point of hoping someday to become his wife.

That kind of reporting is what angered Lowell, who claimed that it was mere titillation that did nothing to help locate the young woman who vanished from her Washington apartment April 30.

“I think the media is out there trying to find stuff that is of interest to them and prying into the private life of people, including Congressman Condit,” Lowell said. “But he is providing that information to the people who are working day and night, seven days a week, to find her, and I think that’s what he should be commended for.”

On CNN, however, he added that Condit simply “doesn’t have a particular idea one way or the other” about what happened to Levy.

Police said Saturday that Condit has been completely cooperative and that he had at last “clarified” to them the nature of his relationship with Levy. They added that he is not a criminal suspect in a case that remains a missing person investigation.

Asked on ABC whether Condit, a conservative Democrat, had become politically “vulnerable” and would not seek reelection next year, Lowell said, “I have no reason to think that’s on his brain, radar screen, purview, constellation.

“Anybody who knows Gary Condit knows what a very good public servant he’s been, how he has really served his constituency well, how he has not been the show horse. He has been the workhorse.

“The people of his district are not going to judge this man who has such a long track record of public service based on whether or not he’s going on your show and answering your questions when you want him to do so. I think they’re more sophisticated than that.”

But others in Washington have serious questions about his behavior in the days and weeks after Levy vanished.

“He’s a great man and I love the guy, but it’s clearly a lesson you’ve got to tell the truth,” said Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.). “And if you don’t tell the truth, then everything else you say goes into question.”