General

Poor Gary Condit

The California congressman was telling the truth all along: He didn’t kill Chandra Levy

Eight years later, it appears as though the cops in Washington, D.C., have finally cracked the case of Chandra Levy, the former congressional aide who vanished during her daily jog and later turned up dead. Reports say Ingmar Guandique, a Salvadoran immigrant who attacked other women in the area, will be charged with Levy’s murder. Poor Gary Condit. The California congressman was convicted in the press and booted by his constituents after admitting to an affair with Levy while she worked at his office. But he always insisted that he had nothing to do with her death—and after all these years, it turns out he was telling the truth. So now what? Condit released a brief statement on the weekend, expressing his hope that Levy’s family will finally receive justice (he also criticized the media’s “insatiable appetite for sensationalism” for slowing down the investigation). Condit may have more to say in the weeks to come, but in the meantime, it’s worth re-reading this classic profile from Esquire magazine. “Any person, any family, any individual at any moment who gets themselves into a situation that they can’t explain, or that they don’t have answers for, and the press puts a camera on it—they could end up having their life destroyed,” he told the magazine in an exclusive interview back in 2002. “Freedom of the press is one thing, but I have rights, too. All I could do was draw a line and say, ‘I’m not crossing that line.’ History will be my judge.” The verdict is finally in.

Esquire

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