NEW YORK – Gary Condit (search) is ready to answer questions about his sexual history so he can pursue his slander case against a magazine writer who suggested the former congressman is hiding information about the death of intern Chandra Levy (search), his lawyer said Thursday.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Peter K. Leisure ordered Condit to disclose information about his sexual history and finances.
In 2002, Condit filed an $11 million lawsuit against Dominick Dunne (search), a special correspondent to Vanity Fair, saying Dunne's statements led millions of people to believe Condit was criminally involved in Levy's death.
After the 24-year-old U.S. Bureau of Prisons employee disappeared in 2001, Condit reportedly told police he had an affair with Levy but knew nothing of her disappearance. Her remains were discovered in a Washington, D.C., park in May 2002.
He is not considered a suspect in the homicide investigation. The then-California congressman was defeated in the March 2002 primary after months of negative publicity about the case.
Condit's lawyer L. Lin Wood (search) said his client refused to answer questions at a deposition earlier this year but knew it was likely he would eventually have to disclose some information on the subjects.
Leisure ordered that a magistrate judge will be present when the questions are posed and barred questions that have no bearing on the outcome of the lawsuit.
Wood said the questions were meant to intimidate his client.
"He's not going to be intimidated," Wood said. "Gary Condit did not lie to police, the Levy family and to the public. The fact he made a decision not to discuss certain aspects of his life he believed were entitled to privacy both for him and third parties does not make him out to be a liar."
Lawyers for Dunne declined to comment Thursday.
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