page_title: Gary Condit
section_title: Levy scandal
hierarchical_section_title: Gary Condit / Political career / Levy scandal
caption_attribution_description: English: Jim Wieder (in white shirt) reporting on the resignation of congressman Gary Condit (right) during Chandra Levy scandal
context_page_description: Gary Adrian Condit is an American former politician who represented parts of California's Central Valley in the House of Representatives from 1989 to 2003. He gained significant national attention for an extramarital affair with Federal Bureau of Prisons intern Chandra Levy, which was suggested after Levy's disappearance in May 2001.
  Although Condit was never considered an official suspect in Levy's disappearance, he lost the 2002 Democratic primary based in large part on negative publicity from the scandal.
context_section_description: In 2001, Condit became the subject of international news coverage after the disappearance of Chandra Levy, a young woman working as a Washington, D.C. intern, originally from Condit's district. Police questioned Condit twice, and both times he denied having an affair with her; however, Levy's aunt eventually went public with conversations she had with her about their relationship. Police questioned Condit a third time, and he confessed to the relationship. When the affair began, Condit was 53 and Levy was 23.
  While Condit was not named as an official suspect in the disappearance, Levy's family suspected that Condit was withholding important information about her disappearance. Public interest was high, and Condit's reputation suffered from the contrast between his "pro-family" politics, adultery with a woman younger than his daughter, and his attempts to mislead the police regarding his relationship with her. In July, two months after Levy vanished, Condit agreed to let investigators search his apartment and, hours before the search, police said he was spotted throwing a gift box he had received from another woman into a dumpster in one of Washington's Virginia suburbs. This followed news reports that Condit had had an affair with a flight attendant.  
  Levy's remains were not found during the extensive search that followed her disappearance, but were discovered accidentally May 22, 2002 in a secluded area of Rock Creek Park in Washington D.C.; the death was declared a homicide.
  Condit sued Vanity Fair writer Dominick Dunne in late 2002 for $11 million, claiming that Dunne defamed him by suggesting he ordered Levy killed in 2001. Condit's attorney said that the libel lawsuit was based on comments Dunne repeated on national radio and television programs in December 2001, where he suggested Condit frequented Middle Eastern embassies for sexual activity with prostitutes and, during those times, he made it clear that he wanted someone to get rid of Levy. Condit's attorney said that Dunne's comments "conveyed that Gary Condit was involved in her kidnapping and in her murder, that friends of Gary Condit had her kidnapped, put in an airplane and dropped in the Atlantic Ocean." Dunne paid an undisclosed amount to settle that lawsuit in March 2005. Dunne said he had been "completely hoodwinked" by an unreliable informant. Subsequently, Condit sued Dunne again, charging him with "revivifying" the slander in an appearance on Larry King Live in November 2005. In July 2008 a federal judge dismissed the second lawsuit filed against Dunne.
  In July 2006, Condit sued the Sonoran News, a free weekly circular, for defamation of character, after the publication wrote "that Condit was the 'main focus in the Chandra Levy case in 2001, after lying to investigators about his affair with Levy.'" The case was dismissed in July 2007 when the judge ruled that Condit had not proved the statement was false, or that the paper had published it with malice.
  Years later, Condit publicly denied ever having an affair with Chandra Levy. 
  Police continued the murder investigation, and in March 2009, a warrant was issued for the arrest of Ingmar Guandique, an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador who had already been convicted and imprisoned for two other attacks on women in Rock Creek Park. He was subsequently indicted for Levy's murder. On November 22, 2010, Guandique was found guilty of first-degree murder, and was sentenced in February 2011 to 60 years in prison. Condit's lawyer Bert Fields said, "It's a complete vindication but that comes a little late. Who gives him his career back?"
  However, on June 4, 2015, D.C. Superior Court Judge Gerald Fisher granted a motion for the retrial of Guandique after it was revealed that the sole witness against him, a jailhouse informant named Armando Morales, had lied about prior jailhouse testimony. Prosecutors dropped all charges against Guandique on July 28, 2016 after an associate of Morales came forward with secret recordings in which he admitted to falsifying testimony about the murder of Chandra Levy. The murde
caption: Reporters with Condit, August 17, 2001
exif: {"Image Make": "Apple", "Image Model": "iPhone 4S", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "QuickTime 7.7.1", "Image DateTime": "2012:05:14 11:00:14", "Image HostComputer": "Mac OS X 10.7.4", "Image ExifOffset": "230", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[37, 4031/100, 0]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "W", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[122, 51/10, 0]", "GPS GPSAltitudeRef": "0", "GPS GPSAltitude": "11809/417", "GPS GPSTimeStamp": "[20, 59, 3397]", "GPS GPSImgDirectionRef": "T", "GPS GPSImgDirection": "24576/85", "Image GPSInfo": "632", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/15", "EXIF FNumber": "12/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "500", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:05:10 13:59:37", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2012:05:10 13:59:37", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "Y", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "6337/1622", "EXIF ApertureValue": "4312/1707", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "-7353/8576", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "107/25", "EXIF SubjectArea": "[1631, 1223, 881, 881]", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3264", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2448", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "35", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}