As you’ll see in this article, Condit lawyer Abbe Lowell is now saying that Condit’s aides lied to the press without Condit’s permission or knowledge.
Congressman Condit did not tell his staff to go out and lie,” Condit’s attorney, Abbe D. Lowell, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Congressman Condit did not authorize those statements to be made. Those staff people spoke about what they hoped was the truth and what they thought the truth was.
Now obviously this is a proposition so inherently ridiculous as to not really be intended to be believed. But I’ve been feeling a bit sorry for Lowell so let’s play along for a moment, shall we?
The problem with what Lowell is saying is that, at the time, Mike Lynch — the staffer in question — was telling reporters that he was talking to Condit regularly and getting his go-ahead and direction about statements to give to the press. In fact, I’ve even got an example of it in an article I wrote in Salon two months ago.
When I asked Lynch, Condit’s press secretary, whether Levy had ever spent the night at Condit’s apartment, he responded that Levy didn’t spend the night at Condit’s apartment “that night.” No press account has ever discussed a specific night that Levy spent at Condit’s apartment. When I pointed this out, and asked if Levy had ever spent the night at Condit’s apartment, he fell back on Condit’s denial of having told anyone of a Levy visit.
“I asked him directly,” Lynch said, “is this story true? Did you tell the police that? And he said, ‘Absolutely not.'”
When I pointed out the obvious fact that denying only that he had told police the story implied that Condit would not, or perhaps could not, deny the underlying allegation, Lynch said, “To the best of my knowledge she never spent the night.”
When I asked if he had asked Condit that question directly, he said, “I won’t go there.”
Is Lowell exploring the outer regions of ridiculousness? Or am I missing something?
