Lawmaker's scandal widens

E-mails to teen House pages prompt FBI investigation

Washington Post

Oct. 2, 2006 12:00 AM

WASHINGTON - The FBI announced Sunday night that it is looking into whether former Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., broke federal law by sending inappropriate e-mails and instant messages to teenage House pages.

The announcement came hours after House Speaker Dennis Hastert asked for a Justice Department investigation into not only Foley's actions but also Congress' handling of the matter once it learned of the contacts.

In his letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Hastert, R-Ill., said that some of Foley's most sexually explicit instant messages were sent to former House pages in 2003. That was two years before lawmakers say they learned of a more ambiguous 2005 e-mail that led only to a quiet warning to Foley to leave pages alone.

Foley, 52, abruptly resigned Friday, and Democrats have since been hammering Hastert and other GOP leaders. They have accused Republicans of covering up the matter and allowing Foley to remain as co-chairman of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus instead of launching an inquiry into the 2005 incident and possibly uncovering the raunchier communications.

As the scandal broke, Hastert contended that he learned of concerns about Foley only last week.

But after Rep. Thomas Reynolds, R-N.Y., said Saturday that he had notified Hastert months ago of Foley's e-mails to a 16-year-old boy, the speaker did not dispute him, and Hastert's office acknowledged that some aides knew last year that Foley had been ordered to cease contact with the youth.

Republican leaders continued to insist Sunday that it was understandable that the "overfriendly" Internet e-mails they had seen did not set off alarm bells.

But one House GOP leadership aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of losing his job, conceded that Republicans had erred in not notifying the three-member bipartisan panel that oversees the page system. Instead, they left it to the panel chairman, Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., to confront Foley.

Also Sunday, a former House page said that during a 2003 page reunion, he saw sexually suggestive e-mails Foley had sent to another former page. Patrick McDonald, 21, now a senior at Ohio State University, said he eventually learned of "three or four" pages from his 2001-02 class who were sent such messages.

Foley has said nothing since announcing his resignation. On Sunday, a statement purportedly sent by Foley to news organizations, including the Washington Post, said he has entered an alcohol-treatment facility in Florida.

The Post could not confirm the statement's authenticity, and none of Foley's former aides has responded to messages since his resignation.

In his letter to Gonzales, Hastert said Foley's electronic messages crossed state lines, so "there should be a complete investigation and prosecution of any federal laws that have been violated."

FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko declined to elaborate on his announcement of the agency's investigation of Foley.

A law enforcement official who requested anonymity so he could discuss an ongoing case said the investigation will be handled by the FBI's Cyber Division.

Hastert also wrote that, because some of the more sexually explicit instant messages were written in 2003, "there should be an investigation into the extent there are persons who knew or had possession of these messages but did not report them to the appropriate authorities."

The speaker asked that the investigation extend to "all individuals who may have been aware of this matter - be they Members of Congress, employees of the House of Representatives, or anyone outside the Congress."

He said "no one in the House Leadership was aware, to my knowledge" of the explicit messages from 2003 until ABC News reported on them last week.

ABC News reported that in one instant-message exchange with a high school boy, Foley made repeated references to sex acts and body parts.

Former page Matthew Loraditch said Sunday that he has known for years about the "creepy" messages three 2002 classmates received from Foley. He said Foley sent them after the boys had finished the House program. Each began innocuously but took a turn in tone, said Loraditch, a senior at Towson University.

"They became explicit and similar to what we are seeing on the Web sites right now," said Loraditch, 21, who runs the U.S. House Page Alumni Association's Internet message board. "They didn't do anything beside telling other pages about it."

Foley was known as an exceedingly friendly House member to young pages, most of whom are 16- and 17-year-old high school juniors who come to Washington for an intensive, yearlong civics lesson. Unlike most House members, he memorized their names and talked politics with them during lulls in late-night sessions. Foley was the only House member to attend the Class of 2002's graduation, McDonald said, and he wore a tuxedo.

McDonald and Loraditch said they received no improper messages from Foley. Loraditch said he had viewed several "cut-and-paste excerpts" of messages Foley sent to one of the three in their class. "Some went along with it; others cut it off," Loraditch said. "I'm pretty sure none met with him."

None of the three former pages is yet willing to step forward, according to McDonald and Loraditch.

Loraditch said no one wanted to report Foley for fear of damaging his job prospects.

"That's part of your concern about coming forward," he said. "You take down a Congress member, and you can't end up trying to do something later."

McDonald remembers Foley encouraging pages who expressed an interest in politics and invited them to his district for his campaigning. McDonald was so fond of Foley that he almost refused to believe the obscene messages when he learned of them in 2003.

"There is a part of us that all want to be told lies," he said. "We want to be told, 'That's not true.' I wanted to believe that Foley was the guy we always knew he was: He just loved pages."

"This weekend," McDonald said, "there's no more lying to yourself."