US Congressman Gary Condit is a suspect in the disappearance of
Washington intern Ms Chandra Levy, it was alleged today.
The claim came from Mr Jim Robinson, lawyer for Ms Anne Marie Smith, a flight attendant who alleges she had an affair with Mr Condit, thepolitician at the centre of the intern's mystery disappearance 11weeks ago.
Police have consistently said Mr Condit, 54, who finally admitted anaffair with the 24-year-old missing intern last Friday, is not asuspect.
But today Mr Robinson told Fox News Channel: ``As far as I'mconcerned, they consider him a suspect.''
The FBI and detectives questioned Ms Smith, 39, for seven hours overher claim Mr Condit asked her to lie about their affair.
Ms Smith added: ``I think there's a lot more that he knows that he'snot telling.''
It was also revealed that police found spots of blood in hisapartment after a search early yesterday - despite the Washingtonflat having been thoroughly cleaned beforehand.
Investigators found one spot of blood plainly visible in the bathroomand using special equipment, discovered specks of blood in the livingroom, the Washington Timesreported.
The search team also found hair and massage oil and are to conductDNA tests on the hair and blood, and are likely to use a DNA sampledue to be taken from Mr Condit, whose lawyer is negotiating over himtaking a lie detector test.
Mr Condit and his wife, who his staff had earlier claimed wasseriously ill, were both in the apartment as Washington DC policesearched it. They kept out of the way of the forensic team, althoughthey refused to hand over a pair of trousers with a red stain on them.
Investigators told the newspaper they found no sign of a struggle oranything that would lead to a solution to the mystery of the intern'sdisappearance.
But today they were using sniffer dogs to probe abandoned buildingsin the affluent north-west of Washington, where both Mr Condit and MsLevy lived.
A police source told CNNthe sniffer dogs would be sent into aseries of empty buildings in the area, where Washington's politicalelite live.
And there was further embarrassment for Mr Condit, who refused tospeak as he emerged from his apartment after the search, when itemerged a Pentecostal minister told the FBI his daughter had anaffair with the politician when she was just 18.
The Rev Otis Thomas revealed his daughter, who he did not name but isin her mid-20s, was just 18 when she became involved with the marriedfather-of-two.
The minister, who also runs a gardening business, was working for MsLevy's parents when Susan Levy asked him if he knew Mr Condit, thecongressman for Modesto, California, the intern's home town.
The two confided in each other about Mr Condit's involvement withtheir daughters.
``I told Mrs Levy that with my daughter it ended badly, that I thinkher daughter should end the relationship with her right away,'' MrThomas told the Washington Post.
``Mrs Levy talked to Chandra about it but Chandra told her mother tomind her own business, that she was a grown woman who could deal withit.''
Ms Levy had told her family she was involved with a man who ``lookedlike Harrison Ford'' and told her aunt the man was Mr Condit.
The smartly-dressed politician has refused to speak about his affairwith Ms Levy, who was a Bureau of Prisons intern in Washington, andhired a lawyer and publicist in a last-ditch attempt to resurrect hisshattered reputation.
The 24-year-old was last seen on April 20 and last heard of a daylater, when she e-mailed her parents to say she was coming home toCalifornia to graduate from university.
PA