Washington | Monday
FORMER California congressman Gary Condit has been summoned by a grand jury investigating the disappearance last year of Sandra Levy, an young intern he had an affair with, The Washington Post said on Tuesday.
Condit, who last month lost a primary race to run for re-election for his Democratic seat, will testify in early April along with members of his staff and Levy’s friends and other witnesses, law enforcement sources told the daily.
In addition to Levy’s disappearance, the grand jury will also probe allegations of obstruction of justice against Condit.
The sources said that after a thousand interviews and thousands of tips, investigators are still no closer to solving the mystery of 24-year old Levy’s disappearance on April 30, 2001.
“There have been no new leads, but still there’s a lot of information that’s being sorted through,” Washington Police Chief Charles Ramsey was quoted as saying.
Condit (53) has denied involvement in Levy’s disappearance.
Authorities have repeatedly stressed that he is not a suspect in the disappearance.
Levy, who came to Washington last year for an internship at the US Bureau of Prisons and met Condit soon thereafter, was last seen at a downtown Washington gym.
Police officers have combed local parks and abandoned buildings, questioned Levy’s relatives, friends and taxi drivers, and even searched Condit’s apartment — without getting any breakthroughs in the case.
The affair prompted leaders from his Democratic party to call on Condit to resign or at least not stand for re-election in 2000 and to give up his seat on the powerful House Intelligence Committee.
Condit refused to step down, but his fall in popularity in the wake of the Levy scandal cost him his 13-year seat in the House of Representatives for the central Californian city of Modesto. Last month, he was bested in the Democratic primary by his aide Dennis Cardoza. – AFP