Washington - "Exoneration" by a private-conducted lie detector test has failed to stop the escalation of political pressure on the US congressman linked to the disappeared intern, Ms Chandra Levy (24), reports Paddy Smith. Yesterday the leader of the Republicans in the US Senate, Mr Trent Lott, called for Mr Gary Condit's resignation, citing both his obstruction of the police investigation and his adultery with the young woman as "unacceptable conduct by anybody".
Mr Lott, a deeply conservative legislator from Mississippi, is the first senior politician to call for Mr Condit's resignation and his timing will be all the more upsetting to the congressman, coming just two days after the Mr Condit's lawyer revealed to the to press the results of a polygraph test which he said had cleared his client.
The tester, an independent expert with long FBI credentials, found Mr Condit to have answered truthfully questions in which he denied knowledge of the disappearance, denied having caused her to be harmed, and denied knowing where she is now.