Condit staffers hire lawyers

By Michael Doyle Bee Washington Bureau

(Published July 26, 2001)

WASHINGTON -- The price of loyalty to Rep. Gary Condit is growing steeper for his senior staffers, who have hired top-gun Washington lawyers to represent them.

The hiring of well-known defense lawyers by Condit aides Mike Dayton and Mike Lynch suggests the seriousness of the questions investigators are posing. It also demonstrates anew how Condit's entire office has become tangled in the net that investigators have cast for missing Modesto woman Chandra Levy.

Unaccustomed to the spotlight, some Condit staffers are being interviewed by police, followed by reporters and subjected to car searches. Those who repeatedly denied Condit had an affair with Levy are finding their veracity questioned. Those who've driven the congressman about town must divulge their own possible role in a peculiar case involving allegations of a tossed gift box.

All are having their loyalty tested as never before, in a congressional office that has over the years shown both remarkable stability and some periodic turmoil.

"I'm told there are no morale problems," said Condit's spokeswoman, Marina Ein. "People are working professionally, and there are no defections."

Ein has never met Condit. An experienced Washington public relations professional, she was hired by Condit's lawyer Abbe Lowell in June to coordinate communications during the high-intensity Levy investigation. Calls to Condit's offices in Modesto and Washington are now routinely forwarded to Ein.

Sometimes the result can be a simple question that produces both an elusive answer and an illustration of the complications afoot in Condit camp.

On Wednesday, for instance, The Bee called Lynch in Condit's Modesto office. Ein returned the call. Asked how long Lynch had worked for Condit, Ein made her own call to Modesto. She then reported back that the question was put to Lynch's new lawyer.

Lynch has worked with Condit since the 1980s, when Condit served in the state Assembly. He is Condit's longest-serving aide, but not the only one with a long tenure. Of the 16 congressional staffers on Condit's payroll as of Dec. 31, records show six were also on Condit's payroll a decade ago. In the high-turnover world of Capitol Hill, this counts as considerable stability.

Administrative assistant Mike Dayton, for instance, is a 31-year-old Oakdale native who graduated from Modesto's Central Catholic High School. He started with Condit as a young precinct captain in Turlock, and over the years he has steadily gained more responsibility.

At about $136,000 a year, Lynch is Condit's highest-paid staffer. He is now represented by Washington lawyer Beth Wilkinson. She is a 38-year-old Princeton graduate and former Army captain who also served as a federal prosecutor, where she helped convict Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

Dayton, Condit's $125,000-a-year administrative assistant, has hired well-connected lawyer Stanley Brand. The 52-year-old Brand formerly served as general counsel for the House of Representatives, and was once a partner with Condit lawyer Lowell.

Though different breeds of lawyers, Brand and Wilkinson both are considered cool hands in troubled times.

Prosecutors have been asking about Lynch and Dayton, according to an account published Tuesday in USA Today. The newspaper quoted an unnamed senior aide to Condit as indicating the questions have been part of an inquiry into suggestions that Condit has sought to hinder investigators.

Federal prosecutors declined to comment on their continuing inquiries.

Brand was out of town Wednesday.

Wilkinson told The Bee late Wednesday that she has already contacted police and assured them that Lynch will fully cooperate with their inquiries.

Condit, according to flight attendant Anne Marie Smith, repeatedly urged Smith to sign an affidavit falsely denying an affair. Condit allegedly did this in June, while his staffers were still denying in public that he'd had a romantic relationship with Levy, 24.

A romance with Levy "totally did not occur," Lynch told the Washington Post on May 16.

"We have nothing to hide" about Condit's relationship with Levy, Dayton told the Post in June.

Condit admitted in his third interview with police that he had an affair with Levy, according to multiple news reports citing anonymous police sources. Neither Condit nor his staff have since disputed these reports.

Condit subsequently invited police to search his Washington condominium. But according to multiple news accounts that have not been denied by Condit's team, Condit was seen throwing away a gift watch box in northern Virginia several hours before the July 10 search started. A former Condit employee -- who according to an informed source was having an affair with the congressman in the mid-1990s -- reportedly gave him the watch and has since been interviewed by investigators.

"We want to follow up to find out what there is to it," Executive Assistant Police Chief Terrance Gainer said.

One follow-up question is how Condit got to Alexandria from Washington. A witness told Fox News that a driver -- still unidentified -- was with Condit while the congressman was throwing away the gift box.

Condit, like some other members of Congress, is frequently driven about Washington by staffers. Between Jan. 1 and March 31, for instance, public records show Dayton was reimbursed $297 for his Washington mileage. No other Washington-based staffer in Condit's office appears to have been reimbursed for mileage during the period.

Other staffers, though, have handled the driving in past years. In Condit's first years in Congress, for instance, his executive secretary would drive the congressman. This female employee left the office in the summer of 1992, in a tearful scene still remembered by other former Condit staffers as an example of how sometimes congressional employment can go awry.

"One evening she said she would leave at 6, because she had a date," recalled one former Condit staffer. "He asked her to stay till 8, to drive him home. She just took off, and the next morning Condit grabbed hold of me. He was visibly shaken, and he said he fired the woman."

The reporter can be reached at mdoyle@mcclatchydc.com or (202) 383-0006.

-- Anonymous, July 26, 2001

Answers

Just read on Drudge Report that Mrs. Condit had spoken to Levy just days before she disappeared and that Mrs. Condit was ask to take a lie dector and she refused. The article from Drudge said not to copy, so you might want to go to his site and read it. It's a real eye opener!

-- Anonymous, July 26, 2001

According to Drudge, the National Enquirer will be doing a story that contains this information:

[SNIP] Gary Condit is said to have become enraged that Levy broke a cardinal rule of his and picked up the phone at his D.C. apartment, and confronted her over the encounter.

Investigators have pieced together that Chandra was at Condit's apartment at the time and saw on the Caller ID that an incoming call was coming from Condit's California home and that Chandra boldly picked up the receiver and that a 'blow-up phone call' ensued.

There's more here

-- Anonymous, July 26, 2001

Cap Hill Blue

Mrs. Condit, missing intern, may have clashed before disappearance

Thursday, July 26, 2001

Washington police and FBI officials now believe there was a confrontation between the wife of California Democratic Congressman Gary Condit and his 24-year-old lover before the lover disappeared without a trace.

Police sources say they have evidence that Carolyn Condit lied when she told police that she had never met nor heard of missing intern Chandra Levy before Levy vanished on or about May 1.

Now police want to interview Rep. Gary Condit's wife for a second time and ask her why she lied.

After first denying an affair with Levy, Gary Condit admitted to police, in his third interview, that he and the intern were having a sexual relationship.

Police also want to review the Condits' exact schedules and whereabouts on May 1, the day Chandra disappeared. Condit told police he spent that evening at home having dinner with his wife.

Mrs. Condit, who normally lives in her husband's district in Calfornia, was in Washington when Levy disappeared.

-- Anonymous, July 26, 2001