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Barbara Olson
is author of Hell
to Pay: The Unfolding Story of Hillary Rodham Clinton, soon
to be rereleased with a new chapter and of the upcoming, Final
Days, on the last days of the Clinton administration.
Kathryn
Lopez:
How are the police handling the investigation?
Barbara
Olson:
It's hard to say. From the outside one might say they've done a
terrible job. But from the inside, we don't know what they have
already looked at. I guess the best example was the Rock Creek Park
search. They had already been there, but they didn't make that public
for obvious reasons. They wanted to keep it quiet in case something
had happened to her. So I think it's very easy to sit on the outside
and criticize, but unfortunately, we won't know what kind of job
they've done until we've hit a point where there's a prosecution
and the evidence becomes public or at least some sort of summation
of the case is made publicly.
Lopez:
Why do they bother then to feed the media frenzy, to do things like
tell us about the animal bones found?
Olson:
Because, I think they realized if they didn't say something, it
was going to sneak out. So they say that they found the animal bones,
just so it didn't sneak out and people would think they found something
else. In particular, we're getting a little more information of
that kind because there's a public figure involved.
Lopez:
Is it possible that Gary Condit, at this point, is not a suspect?
Olson:
It is not possible. It is possible that he's not a legal suspect.
It is not possible that he's not a suspect if you use the term in
the way we both understand it. I think that becomes clear when you
ask yourself how many people have had their drains swabbed and their
apartments searched. Clearly he's a suspect, but they don't want
to give him the legal title.
Lopez:
The Abbe Lowell lie-detector press conference on Friday: What was
Lowell thinking? Did it make Condit more of a suspect?
Olson:
You know I watched that press conference, and my first reaction
was he must think we're stupid, because a private lie-detector test
is done by all defense attorneys, but to do that and then come out
with it as if it is some breaking piece of evidence that exonerates
his client is laughable. And then we find out that, at least according
to the police, that he lied to the police, that he was telling police
that he was too busy to take a lie-detector test, while all the
while we find out that was exactly what he was doing.
So to answer
your question, I think he certainly put his client in a worse position
with the police. I've come to believe if Gary Condit is guilty,
it has been handled very well, because he hasn't been charged with
anything. If he's innocent, I can't understand how in the world
it has been handled so poorly, except that I've never been in the
middle of that kind of fire-storm, and maybe that's just what happens.
Lopez:
Do you think at this point there is a possibility that she could
still be alive, that the delay by Condit's lying didn't affect her
life? Do you have an idea of where this is going to end?
Olson:
There's always a possibility. It's possible that she walked away,
that there was more going on than anyone around her knew. It's not
likely, but it's not impossible. It's possible that there was something
going on in her life that no one knew, and no one understood, and
she just walked away, but it's not likely. It's possible that she
had amnesia and she was just wandering around, but that's less likely
because of all the publicity. If she has amnesia and is just wandering
around, she would have been seen by somebody by now. She has very
distinctive looks. The frightening thing is that as days go by and
the police retrace their steps and more completely do searches of
buildings and parks, whether they are going to find her becomes
more and more of a concern.
Lopez:
Do you think Gary Condit will resign? Do you think he should resign?
Olson:
There's a lot of pressure on Gary Condit not to resign, for political
reasons. There's redistricting going on in California, he had a
safe seat. If he resigns and there is a special election, that's
a very conservative area, so they might lose that seat. So politically
there's pressure on him not to resign.
And just what
does he look like if he resigns? Does he look guilty? Probably.
That weighs against him resigning.
Should he resign?
I'm real troubled by someone who handles himself in the way he's
handled himself, as far as we know publicly. We do know that it
took three interviews with the police, and we if believe the leaks
by the police, he wasn't forthcoming. We do know there's a woman
out there who says he tried to get her to sign a false affidavit,
that he called her. Those things are facts, and they're serious.
If he tried to get Anna Marie Smith to sign a false affidavit, that
is something the prosecutor will look at to see if he was suborning
perjury. There are legal considerations. But just as a congressman,
is that something a good representative does?
And of course,
we have a man who was close, or intimate, with a young woman who
is missing, and her parents say he lied to them. These are the kind
of traits Gary Condit has shown us, and I guess his constituents
have to weigh that against the congressman they knew before. And
that's really the decision, the people who knew him before this
started. Are these the kinds of traits you want for someone who
represents them? If some of the allegations made against him by
Anne Marie Smith, for instance, are true, I can't imagine anyone
would want him to remain their representative.
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