Smith's Lawyer to File Legal Action Against Condit Monday

Sunday, August 26, 2001

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The lawyer for Anne Marie Smith, the flight attendant who says she had an affair with embattled Rep. Gary Condit, said on Fox News Sunday he plans to take legal action Monday against the California Democrat.

Meanwhile, a California paper renewed its call for the congressman to resign, and sources tell Fox News that Condit's district may be redrawn in order to gracefully deny him re-election.

Without stating exactly what claim he would file against Condit, Jim Robinson, Smith's attorney, said that it would be related to Condit's nationally televised interview with ABC's Connie Chung this past Thursday night.

Condit denied to Chung that he had had a relationship with Smith, who had earlier said that the FBI had interviewed her about her affair with the congressman in relation to another affair he was allegedly having with 24-year-old missing intern Chandra Levy.

Levy disappeared on May 1, shortly after her internship with the Federal Bureau of Prisons ended. Washington, D.C., police said that Condit only admitted having had an affair with her in his third interview with them, and that he tried to block the investigation into her disappearance in other ways. They still insist, however, that he is not a suspect and that there is no evidence of a crime.

On Friday, Condit backtracked a little about his denial of the relationship with Smith, telling Newsweek magazine that "In my opinion, we did not have a relationship. It would probably be her definition of a relationship versus mine."

Robinson told Fox News' Brit Hume that Condit was "back to the old Clinton playbook, except for the fact that apparently he never feels anybody's pain but his own."

When pressed by Hume whether he thought that perhaps the congressman considered his dealings with Smith "a recreational relationship," Robinson, who appeared to be a bit sleepy at 6 a.m. Seattle time, laughed but would not elaborate.

Robinson did state that he considered Condit's alleged attempts to elicit a false affidavit from Smith, in which she would swear to not having had an affair with the congressman, a criminal act.

When questioned about whether his legal action against Condit would involve the charge of suborning perjury, Robinson said that as a civil lawyer he did not have the power to bring an indictment, "[b]ut I'll be able to talk about it after I make the filing."

Smith told Fox News' Rita Cosby in July that she never signed Condit's affidavit. When the congressman's representatives challenged the existence of the document, Smith produced a copy.

Smith also told Cosby that she saw personal effects in Condit's apartment that she assumed were Levy's. Robinson said that the FBI's questioning of Smith was prompted by the bureau, which apparently already knew of his client's relationship with the congressman, and that the affidavit was intended to "impeach her testimony later."

In response to the Condit team's charges that Smith and her lawyer are only speaking out against the congressman for financial gain, Robinson told Fox News Sunday that "I have not received a dime on this case. ... She hasn't paid me, nobody's paid her. There's no money."

Condit's legal team is "between a rock and a hard place" over the affidavit, Robinson said. If Condit admits his affair with Smith, her lawyer explained, "then he admit[s] obstruction of justice and suborning perjury. ... If they say the affidavit is false, then Joe Cotchett [Condit's first lawyer] is in a whole lot of trouble."

Back in California, the largest newspaper in Condit's 18th Congressional District repeated its call for his resignation following the Connie Chung interview.

"After months of watching him stall and stonewall, Condit's weasel-like performance on Thursday was terribly disappointing," says an editorial published Friday in the Modesto Bee.

Condit lawyer Abbe Lowell said that wasn't likely to happen.

"I don't think he's considering that at all," Lowell told NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday.

He also said Condit's family was satisfied with the ABC interview.

"The congressman spoke to his family, they decided what they were comfortable with him saying," Lowell said. "He went out and said it in a way that he was comfortable and that they requested of him. Now if that didn't work for the American people because they wanted them, they wanted him to use the sex word, wanted him to describe details, well I get that that's not going to make him Mr. Popularity."

But even Lowell conceded that Condit's dumping an ex-girlfriend's watchbox just before an FBI search of his apartment was "a dumb thing to do." But, as for Condit's vagueness on his relationship with Levy during the Chung interview, Lowell said it was understandable.

"Perhaps he hasn't been as accurate," Lowell said. "You know what? He might be might boggling specifics in how he uses phrases. But we are talking about intimate details of human relationships."

Two dozen protesters gathered outside Condit's office in Modesto at lunchtime Saturday, shouting for him to step down.

"If he can cheat on his own commitment to his family, how's he going to treat the community?" said housewife Christine Lagow. "Especially now, after his interview, there's even more support for him to resign than there ever was before."

The Bee and several other California newspapers earlier this month called for Condit's resignation because of his silence over his relationship with Levy.

Friday's editorial echoed a chorus of negative reviews following the highly anticipated interview. From California to Capitol Hill, he was criticized for his sometimes evasive answers to Chung's questions and his lack of an apology to voters or Levy's parents.

"Instead of accepting responsibility and apologizing for this shameful conduct. Condit clung to his strategy of spin and denial," the editorial said.

Condit tried to repair the damage on Newsweek's Web site Friday.

"I sat there the whole time with Connie Chung waiting for her ask me something other than a sex question," said Condit, who acknowledged having a close relationship with the former Bureau of Prisons intern but sidestepped questions about its nature.

Sources tell Fox News that the Democrats in charge of California's congressional redistricting following the 2000 census are planning to shore up the 18th District by shifting its borders to include some staunchly Republican areas, as well as the more blue-collar, traditionally Democratic city of Stockton.

The district is at present largely rural, and voters have been supportive of Condit's middle-of-the-road voting record. The congressman is a leader of the House Blue Dog Democrats, who are more conservative than the party's mainstream and often vote with the GOP, and Condit was even briefly considered by President Bush for a Cabinet post late last year.

"It's a nice way to show Condit the door," one Democratic source told Fox News. Draft redistricting maps are expected to be released within the next two weeks.

Fox News' Rita Cosby and the Associated Press contributed to this report

-- Anonymous, August 26, 2001

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FresBee

Condit target of legal action

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Gary Condit's legal and political problems continue to multiply, with new legal action being taken against him today and the impending release of new congressional district maps that reportedly do him no good.

On the steps of the Stanislaus County courthouse at 10:30 a.m. today, Seattle-based lawyer Jim Robinson plans to announce the filing of legal action targeting Condit. Robinson declined to specify the nature of the action, though he told The Bee on Sunday that Condit's characterization of flight attendant Anne Marie Smith amounted to "defamation, libel and slander."

Smith says she had a 10-month affair with the married Condit, which ended about the time former intern Chandra Levy disappeared May 1. In an ABC interview watched by an estimated 23.6 million television viewers last Thursday, Condit denied the affair and essentially accused Smith of being a gold-digger.

"She's taken advantage of this tragedy," Condit said during the "PrimeTime Thursday" interview. "She didn't know Chandra Levy. So she gets to have her moment of publicity, of financial gain."

Condit has since appeared to back off from his blanket denial. But his lawyer, Abbe Lowell, added Sunday that Smith has "gotten her sort of publicity about these sorts of things. I don't know what motivates her to use the tragedy of the Chandra story to do the publicity."

Robinson, who represents Smith, said Condit's account hurt the 39-year-old woman, who says she was given gifts by the congressman and can describe him intimately.

"Certainly he defamed my client," Robinson said on ABC's "This Week." "He slandered her, he libeled her, all of the above. We have several causes of action."

Robinson also suggested Condit's actions involving a draft affidavit, which stated there was no romantic relationship with Smith, could be at the center of today's legal action.

Smith was one of two women who have claimed publicly to have had affairs with Condit, and whose accounts were denied by the congressman in his 30-minute ABC interview. Condit's overall performance in that session has been roundly criticized, with nearly two-thirds of the local voters surveyed for The Modesto Bee saying they liked Condit less after the interview than before.

"I was very disappointed in the performance," Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe said Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation." "I wish Gary had apologized to the Levy family. I wish he had been more forthcoming about the relationship."

McAuliffe added the politically sobering note that "there is talk that they're going to carve up the district" when redistricting maps are delivered Wednesday to California lawmakers. The maps, by shifting Democratic voters in places such as Stockton, could significantly protect other Democrats while leaving Condit exposed.

In the wake of the bad reviews, Condit and his team have been slightly adjusting their approach. In an interview conducted with Newsweek magazine Friday, Condit did not dispute Smith's claim of an affair but instead parsed the meaning of the word "relationship."

"In my opinion, we did not have a relationship," Condit told Newsweek when asked about Anne Marie Smith. "It would probably be her definition of a relationship versus mine."

Smith, in previous interviews, said she and Condit "spent a lot of time together." She said she "cared for him deeply" and that he was "very caring, very thoughtful [and] he was always concerned."

She said he would "get upset" if she saw other men. She said "we had great discussions about politics," and that she would meet him at San Francisco hotels or stay over at his Washington condo. She said she "continually asked him" if he was seeing other women while they were together, and that "he said no."

Condit on Thursday also denied public claims by his former employee, Joleen Argentini McKay, that they had an affair spanning several years. But Lowell reiterated Sunday that Smith and McKay have different ideas about what a relationship means than does the married congressman.

"I don't think the congressman lied about it. ... I understand that they're defining it the way they're defining it," Lowell said.

He added that "I realize it drives people insane if the congressman says, 'I didn't deem that to be a relationship. Whatever we shared together, whatever we were, I don't think that's a relationship.' "

McKay previously told USA Today that she gave Condit several expensive gifts, including a Tag Heuer watch. She said she stayed in Condit's apartment for most of the eight months she lived in Washington, in 1994.

A one-time confidante of McKay told The Bee, speaking on condition of anonymity, that McKay and Condit "had a full-fledged relationship going, almost to the point of living together." This confidante further recalled McKay running in tears from the congressional office upset over the turns the relationship was taking.

In May and June, while he was remaining silent in public, Condit's staffers repeatedly denied that he had a romantic relationship with Levy. None of those public statements was corrected at the time.

"Congressman Condit did not tell the staff to go out and lie," Lowell said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." "Congressman Condit did not authorize those statements to be made. Those staff people spoke about what they hoped was the truth and what they thought was the truth."

Lowell said Sunday "it was a mistake" not to have corrected those staff statements earlier. Condit himself, however, has not said whether or not his relationship with Levy was a romantic one. He did say Thursday that he was not in love with her, but that he "liked her very much."

Lowell also said Condit has no reason to quit the House Intelligence Committee, despite concerns by colleagues about his relationship with Levy and his actions since the former federal intern disappeared.

Condit may be the only committee member without any secrets left and "he's probably the person on the Intelligence Committee who can't be blackmailed anymore," Lowell said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"If it's not punitive for some reason, there's no good reason" for Condit to leave the committee, Lowell said. "He's served very well, as colleagues will tell you."

House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., has criticized Condit for failing to be "candid and forward" in the ABC interview. Gephardt characterized Condit's answers as "disturbing and wrong," and said he would talk to House Democrats about possible action against Condit, including his removal from the committee.

Rep. Scott McInnis, R-Colo., said Gephardt "has an obligation that's inherent to his responsibilities to immediately remove" Condit.

Service on the committee "requires very high integrity," McInnis said on CNN's "Late Edition." "Certainly any kind of indication that someone has not been forthcoming or truthful when put under pressure should not be in charge or sitting on the committee that oversees central intelligence and our spy networks throughout the world."

Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., said Condit's behavior was "embarrassing." But, Rangel said on "Fox News Sunday," "there's nothing that we can do in the Congress. Unless there is something to take before the Ethics Committee, I don't see how we can do anything."

Later, on CNN, Rangel added: "What is it that we could possibly charge him with in the Ethics Committee? Not one thing."

Meanwhile, a poll of Condit's district by CNN/USA Today/Gallup found that almost half who had seen one of Condit's televised interviews, either nationally or locally, had a less favorable impression of him afterward.

-- Anonymous, August 27, 2001