Condit accuses Dunne of slander

Rep. Gary Condit (D-Ceres) has sued Dominick Dunne for $11 million, alleging that the writer slandered him in connection with the disappearance of Washington intern Chandra Levy. Dunne “made false and defamatory statements, accusing [Condit] of involvement in the crimes of kidnapping and murder,” according to the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Manhattan on Monday.

“Dunne was one of the major contributors to a media frenzy that transformed allegations of sexual misconduct into false accusations of involvement in the crimes of kidnapping and murder,” said Condit’s lawyer, L. Lin Wood, in a cell-phone call from Denver. Dunne did not return calls for comment.

Last month, Condit hired Wood, an Atlanta-based libel lawyer who also represents John and Patsy Ramsey, the parents of slain child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey, to review defamatory statements against him. The slander suit alleges that in an interview on the nationally syndicated radio program “The Laura Ingraham Show” last December, Dunne said that Condit was under suspicion in the Levy case; that Levy had “stumbled into a noxious ring of prostitution, sex slaves and Middle Eastern sheiks in Washington, D.C., which may have contributed to her disappearance”; that “Levy had been dumped out of [an] airplane over the Atlantic Ocean”; and that “Condit may have been behind Ms. Levy’s abduction.”

Dunne repeated the statements in print and on TV and during several dinner parties, including one at Trader Vic’s attended by writer Gore Vidal and actress Anjelica Huston, among others, according to the suit.

Because of the various comments made by Dunne, Condit “has suffered emotional distress and mental pain,” and “permanent impairment to his ability to obtain or maintain gainful employment,” according to the suit, which seeks at least $1 million in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages.

Condit lost a primary in March after a year of revelations about his relationship with Levy. Although he privately acknowledged that he had had an affair with her, he denied involvement in her disappearance. He was never named as a suspect.