The Search for Chandra
A conversation with former federal prosecutor Barbara Olson on the Levy case.

By Kathryn Jean Lopez, NR associate editor
July 19, 2001 1:00 p.m.

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.