He gained significant national attention after the May 2001 disappearance of Chandra Levy, an intern with the Federal Bureau of Prisons with whom Condit was having an affair and was subsequently found murdered.

[4] At the time, Oklahoma required males under age 21 to have parental consent to marry; by claiming to have been born in 1942 rather than 1948, Condit appeared to be older than 18.

In 1988, Condit was a member of the "Gang of Five" – with Charles M. Calderon of Whittier, Gerald R. Eaves of Rialto, Rusty Areias of Los Banos and Steve Peace of Chula Vista[8] – that failed to unseat Willie Brown as Speaker of the State Assembly by making a deal with Republicans.

Peace co-wrote and produced the 1988 film Return of the Killer Tomatoes, in which Condit appeared in an uncredited non-speaking cameo during a fight sequence.

[11] Condit took several populist progressive positions such as opposing NAFTA despite intense lobbying from his own district's wine industry and President Clinton himself, voted against the landmark repeal of Glass-Steagall protections,[12] and against the Iraq War and intervention in Kosovo.

[16] Condit kept his seat on the Intelligence Committee, retained his security clearance, and was one of a small number of members of Congress who were cleared to see the most sensitive information on the 9/11 attacks.

He lost the Democratic primary election in March 2002 to his former aide, then-Assemblyman Dennis Cardoza, and left Congress at the end of his term in January 2003.

[17] Condit's most notable vote in his last months in office was the resolution to expel Congressman James Traficant after his conviction on corruption charges.

[20] Levy's remains were not found during the extensive search that followed her disappearance, and were discovered accidentally May 22, 2002, in a secluded area of Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C., and the death was declared a homicide.

[24] Police continued the murder investigation, and in March 2009, a warrant was issued for the arrest of Ingmar Guandique, an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador who had already been convicted and imprisoned for two other attacks on women in Rock Creek Park.

[30] Prosecutors dropped all charges against Guandique on July 28, 2016, after an associate of Morales came forward with secret recordings in which he admitted to falsifying testimony about the murder of Levy.

[34][35] In 2012, he was reported to be serving as president of the Phoenix Institute of Desert Agriculture,[36] which listed its status as "Dissolved" in the last corporate filing as of June 4, 2015.

[38] In 2012, Condit's son, Chad, announced his intention to run for the House of Representatives as an independent in California's redrawn 10th congressional district.

[42] In 2020, Condit's nephew Buck was elected to the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors for district 1, defeating Modesto City Councilman Bill Zoslocki 58.77% to 41.23%.

[45] Couper Condit won a seat on the Ceres City Council later in 2020 by defeating incumbent Michael "Mike" Kline by a 38.19% to 23.52% margin, with two other competitors falling short.

[41][48] His wife, Destiny Suarez, worked at the office of State Senator Marie Alvarado-Gil, but quit about eight months after her father in-law, Chad Condit, was fired from the same workplace.