California- MOVE over, Paris Hilton – here come the Dominick Dunne/Gary Condit tapes.
Lin Wood, the lawyer for former California Congressman Condit, spent two days this week questioning Dunne under oath in Condit’s defamation suit against the Vanity Fair diarist. The two-day grilling was videotaped, and Wood is preparing arguments for the tapes to be made public.
“Dominick Dunne is in deep, deep trouble,” Wood told PAGE SIX. “The transcript will be interesting, but the video will be even more interesting. I am confident that it will not be deemed confidential. It will come out eventually.”
Condit is not suing Dunne for anything he wrote, but for comments he made in 2002 on “Larry King Live” and at dinner parties implicating the lawmaker in the disappearance of intern Chandra Levy.
Condit, who admitted having an affair with Levy, lost his congressional seat in the next election. Levy’s body was found in a shallow grave in a public park, but there was no evidence linking Condit to the murder.
Dunne’s lawyers tried to get the case dismissed, but failed when Manhattan Federal Judge Peter Leisure ruled earlier this year that Dunne “did not merely comment on a public controversy, but also added false assertions of fact.”
The two sides will be back in court Nov. 4. Wood said he isn’t finished deposing Dunne: “We were entitled to 31/2 hours of questioning each day. We were only allowed five hours [in all] by Dunne’s lawyer.”
Dunne’s lawyer Paul LiCalsi, who grilled Condit all day last Monday, denied he will try to keep the deposition secret. “We are going to review the transcript and see if there is anything that should remain confidential,” he said.
The main issue, LiCalsi said, will be his motion “to force Mr. Condit to anwer questions” about his relationship with Chandra Levy. “It turned out to be a very frustrating day,” LiCalsi said. “He refused to answer on a claim of privilege, which has no merit.”
Wood claims the questioning about the Levy affair is “just a tactic to intimidate Mr. Condit. It won’t work.”
LiCalsi retorted, “A public figure can’t expect to sue for defamation and get away with stonewalling.”