A new memoir about former Rep. Gary Condit (D-Calif.) has unearthed brand new reasons to resurrect the circumstances surrounding the death of Washington intern Chandra Levy, who was murdered in the spring of 2001.
On ABC’s “20/20” Friday night, the program played never before heard voicemails from Condit to Levy. There was also an exclusive interview with Ingmar Guandique, the illegal immigrant who spent the past six years in prison for Levy’s murder. In August, prosecutors suddenly dropped all charges against him.
Condit, who declined to speak to the program, had the book Actual Malice written to clear his name.
Instead, it’s raising issues of the married lawmaker’s playboy lifestyle that created a shroud of suspicion around the congressman when the intern was murdered in Washington, D.C.’s Rock Creek Park.
Condit isn’t exactly helping himself. So far, he refuses to admit that he and Levy had a sexual relationship. Appearing on Dr. Phil‘s talkshow last week, he would not say whether their relationship was sexual but said that it was not “romantic.”
Huh?
Levy’s coworker at the Bureau of Prisons, Sven Jones, told “20/20” that before Levy died, she described Condit as “powerful” and “someone she was in love with, someone she could see making a life with.”
In a voicemail to Levy, Condit can be heard saying, “I haven’t heard from you” and “Sorry I’ve been tied up for the past few days.” He’s also obviously wondering where she is, saying, “Maybe you’re out of the country.”
After the young woman’s death in 2001, Connie Chung interviewed Condit and asked if he and Levy had a sexual relationship. He declined to say then, too. Instead, he said he was not a perfect man and that he’d been married for 34 years and wanted to show respect for his family.
Again. Huh?
News reports indicate Jones, the coworker, was among those questioned in Levy’s murder.
But he was never charged and neither was Condit.
Guandique was charged and convicted with murdering Levy in 2010. In 2015, authorities granted him a new trial.
Prosecutors formally dropped the case against him in August. But he remains in immigration custody.
“The Chandra Levy case is now in shambles,” said “20/20” reporter Deborah Roberts.
Elizabeth Vargas and David Muir closed out the program by reiterating that Condit’s lawyer says the former congressman has been “completely exonerated” in any possible involvement in Levy’s death. They asked listeners to weigh in on Guandique’s alleged involvement on social media.
Vargas pointedly asks viewers: “Do you think he had anything to do with the murder?”
They leave the possibility of Condit alone.