Subsequent to his interview with Connie Chung of ABC News, Rep. Gary Condit of Ceres, CA also gave an interview to the editors of the Merced Sun-Star. During this interview, Rep. Condit again discussed his polygraph examination by retired FBI polygrapher Barry Colvert. The following is an excerpt from the interview transcript:
Condit: …I did a polygraph test – got criticized for that. Found the best polygraph operator in the country, the guy who trains the FBI agents. FBI will tell you he’s one of the best. I didn’t know the guy, but I didn’t know the guy, I walked into the room and strapped on the lie detector. I’m telling you if you’ve ever done that it’s a pretty spooky feeling as well because even though you know you haven’t done anything, you don’t know how the machine works – don’t know this guy and you don’t know what the outcome is going to be, so the third part of that that I want to underscore that I think I have been cooperative, I have not been silent….
…
Sun-Star: Why have you not consented to a police polygraph examination?
Condit: Well, I’m you know, I’m kind of new to this polygraph world but when, you know when you’ve thought about doing everything we could do to be helpful to the police department, we went out and found the best guy in the country, the guy who trains the FBI and he’s like his credentials are unchallengeable and we got him, you know, and we thought that, I actually thought that would be acceptable. I’m a little bit disappointed that the police chief jumped so quick before he even had a chance to look at the results of the polygraph, I think it was just territorial, you know maybe we mishandled it in that maybe we should have advised him first but we took the polygraph test. I believe that the FBI people working on this who know this gentleman probably have a different view than the police chief. I think the police chief probably has a different view today than he did.
Sun-Star: Were there any questions that were off-limits? Were there any ground rules to the polygraph test?
Condit: I don’t know if you’ve ever been around that or taken it but I had no off-ground rules Ð I had no limitations, but they have a process by which they can only ask so many questions and then the return on the information gets weaker and they have to frame it. They do these things like they got to find the thing that gets to you and that was interesting how, after I’d gone through it, he found out how the things he did to get to me to rise your blood level or whatever it is, but there is a system — there is a process to do this I do not understand it – I can only say to you that it was scary. You walk into a room in a house you don’t know, you don’t know this guy, you know he’s a 30-year FBI agent, you know he doesn’t like bad guys. He may think you’re a bad guy and he straps you off and begins to ask you questions. You know you didn’t do anything but you don’t know what the machine’s going to say. But that’s, we just thought we were doing the right thing.
Sun-Star: O.K.
Condit: And still think we’re doing the right thing and in the final analysis we believe that the FBI and people will see that this is a legitimate test.
Sun-Star: And you didn’t go with the police polygraph, because?
Condit: Well, it was discussed that maybe we should do that so we just went out and did it, just went out and found the best guy in town.
Sun-Star: Did the D.C. police still want a polygraph of their own? As I recall there was some questions that weren’t made public that were asked of your attorneys.
Condit: I think we made all the questions public to the police department.
Sun-Star: They’ve got all the questions?
Condit: Yeah, they’ve got all the questions. Now I’m not sure, they have sort of I mean I think they’ve sort of backed off on it. I mean once they’ve got the lie detector test they’ve got it explained to them by their own polygraph people, I think there’s a little less interest in pushing that right now.
Sun-Star: So they’re satisfied that on that?
Condit: As soon as I say they’re satisfied Chief Ramsey will say something different. But it seems to me it’s calmed them down once they’ve actually got the credentials of this guy and they can really figure out what they, what it says.
To discuss Rep. Condit’s remarks, see the AntiPolygraph.org message board thread, “Gary Condit on Polygraph Testing.”