ISIKOFF: What message didn’t you get across [on ABC]? CONDIT: I would like to have been clear that how disheartened and heartbroken I am that it’s been four months and we haven’t been able to find Chandra. I would have liked to have been able to make a statement about that. The other thing was the Levys–my heart goes out to the Levys. I have a tremendous amount of empathy for them.
Are you sorry? Well, some people aren’t hurt and some people are, so for the people I hurt, I’m sorry. That’s how I qualify it. It’s basically all I can say.
You mentioned the last time you saw her was the 24th or 25th [of April]. She came to your apartment that morning? Right.
But this had been prearranged? No, I was surprised to see her because I figured she’d be at work. This was the time she told me that she had lost her prospects on the job with the Bureau of Prisons…. It was the first time I’d seen her in probably three weeks.
There were several phone calls in early April, about every day. Was there any issue during that time? I never had a cross word with her. The kind of conversation we had would be–I’m not sure what day [Timothy] McVeigh was executed or what day [Juan Garza] was executed. She seemed to have a lot of interest in those two things and a lot of more interest in them than I did. She might have called and said, “Hey, I read they are building a new federal prison down in your district and they are going to employ 350 people,” and blah, blah, blah. And I might call her back and she might share information with me. We might get into a philosophical discussion about Israel or foreign aid, but that was pretty unusual.
Did you have plans to see her again after [the last meeting]? Oh, yeah, there was never a thought that we weren’t going to stay in contact or see each other. One way or another. We were going to maintain the friendship, no matter.
How do you account for the dramatic difference between the way Linda Zamsky [Chandra’s aunt] describes what Chandra told her about the relationship and your perception of this as being much more unemotional? I wouldn’t say unemotional. Every friendship, you have some emotional ties to the relationship. You have some emotional ties, but I can’t explain that. I can only say that I have heard some of the things that Linda has said and it’s not correct. The one about this elaborate scheme that I would ask someone not to carry identification is just totally absurd. We didn’t go out to restaurants. I think we had dinner possibly one time and I met her at Tryst [a Washington, D.C., restaurant]. That’s the only time I can remember going out to dinner and she met me there. I’ve been to dinner with several people, females, at Tryst.
How about in your apartment, did you ever eat [there]? I might have brought something home, but by the time I got home from work it was 9:30. You know how late we work. So I had already been to dinner or she had already been to dinner if I was going to see her or have any discussion with her.
The dinner out in the suburbs [that Zamsky says Condit and Chandra had]… There was concern about hailing a cab separately… I never remember being in a cab with her.
You told Connie Chung that you didn’t have a relationship with Anne Marie Smith. You made reference to the allure of money and publicity. Did you mean to say that? I don’t know what Anne Marie thought she had with me, but in my opinion we did not have a relationship. And when I talked about the people who sort of take advantage of the tragedy, I had been told by several people that she had benefited financially. And I’m puzzled to this day why she would involve herself in this issue when she didn’t know Chandra Levy.
Do you regret telling people last night on national television that Anne Marie had gotten money? I can only say that that’s what I’ve been told and if it’s not correct, I regret saying that.
Has anybody at the White House talked to you about the difficulties you’ve found yourself in? Yes, but I prefer not to go into that.
Have they offered advice? No.
Encouragement? A pat on the back or hang in there.
Because they always saw you as somebody who was a potentially important ally in the House? Right. I still am.
You’ve said in the local interview you think the media has something to apologize for. I think the misinformation that they put out, the accusations that they’ve made with unnamed sources, with innuendos, hearsay. You are not the church, you are not the court.
