NEW YORK (AP) – In a lawsuit against writer Dominick Dunne, former Congressman Gary Condit’s lawyer was allowed to withdraw from the case Wednesday after saying he believed the case meritless.

Mark E. Goidell asked to resign from the case in a submission to the court on Jan. 15, saying he now agrees with Dunne’s lawyer, Paul LiCalsi, that “the defamation claim in this action is not warranted by existing law or by a non-frivolous argument for new law.”

Goidell filed the lawsuit on Condit’s behalf in November, claiming the writer made false claims about Condit’s relationship with Chandra Levy, an intern who disappeared.

At a hearing Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Peter K. Leisure said Condit has several weeks to find a new lawyer to represent him.

Leisure also said it was unlikely he would agree with a request by a Dunne’s lawyer to impose sanctions against Condit’s lawyer for filing a frivolous lawsuit.

The judge praised Goidell several times as a good lawyer and said he usually is hesitant to sanction lawyers, though he once fined a lawyer $10,000 for poorly handling a case.

Goidell said Condit has been “extremely upset” since he asked to resign from the case.

“I can truthfully say there were irreconcilable differences,” he said.

Condit and Dunne were not required to be in court Wednesday.

Goidell said he told Condit on Jan. 9 that he believed the lawsuit should be dropped because it seemed to rely essentially on the same statements – made on the CNN show “Larry King Live” – as a 2002 lawsuit that was settled under undisclosed terms. Dunne reportedly claimed on the show that Condit knew more than he let on about Levy.

Condit, a former congressman from California, has denied any involvement in or knowledge of Levy’s May 2001 disappearance, or her death. Her body was found in a park in Washington in May 2002. Condit reportedly told police he had an affair with Levy, but in a sworn deposition in an earlier defamation case, he denied being romantically involved with the intern and insisted “we were friends.”