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Ethics Panel Begins Inquiry of Foley Scandal

Posted on: Friday, 6 October 2006, 06:00 CDT

By Kathy Kiely and Kevin Johnson

WASHINGTON -- The House ethics committee launched an investigation Thursday into former congressman Mark Foley's lurid Internet communications with teenage pages to determine whether the situation was handled properly by House leadership.

Amid signs that the Foley scandal is broadening, the normally secretive committee announced it has issued nearly four dozen subpoenas for documents and testimony. Chairman Doc Hastings, R-Wash., said the committee will interrogate members and officers of Congress as well as staff.

"Our investigation will go wherever the evidence leads us," Hastings said, declining to mention by name anyone who will testify.

The announcement came as House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., took responsibility for a scandal that could threaten his party's control of the House. Some Republicans, such as Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri, have criticized Hastert for not being more alert to warnings about Foley's inappropriate friendships with pages.

"The buck stops here," said Hastert, quoting former Democratic president Harry Truman. Still, Hastert insisted he has no intention of stepping down as his party's House leader.

"I haven't done anything wrong," he said at a news conference outside his office in Batavia, Ill.

Hastert has been on a media blitz to retain his post in the face of calls for his resignation from conservatives such as Richard Viguerie.

The ethics committee no longer has jurisdiction over Foley, a Florida Republican, because he resigned from Congress last week. Instead, the panel will focus on whether members of Congress or its employees mishandled reports that Foley had sent overly friendly e-mails to a page.

"The American people, and especially the parents of all current and former pages, are entitled to know how this situation was handled," Hastings said.

Members of a four-person investigating subcommittee, evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, expressed a determination to move swiftly.

"We're talking about a matter of weeks, not months," said Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif.

Meanwhile, Hastert tried unsuccessfully to win Democratic support for an examination of House page security by former FBI director Louis Freeh.

Brendan Daly, a spokesman for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, said the California Democrat objected to the former FBI director's appointment because "the page program isn't the problem."

Hastert spokesman Ron Bonjean said that the speaker still hopes to enlist Freeh but that the former FBI director wants a commitment of "bipartisan cooperation" before agreeing to the assignment.

Though he is out of the ethics committee's reach, Foley faces the possibility of prosecution for illegal sexual contact with minors.

In another development: A former page, now working on the gubernatorial campaign of Republican Rep. Ernest Istook, has retained a lawyer. Lawyer Stephen Jones said he is representing the page in matters related to his work as a page and in reference to Foley.

FBI agents in Washington interviewed Kirk Fordham, a former Foley aide who has said he warned top Hastert staffers of Foley's contacts with pages at least two years ago. Fordham was "forthcoming," his attorney Timothy Heaphy said.

Foley's offices, here and in Florida, are now run by the House clerk. They remain open to constituents, though a reporter who stopped by the Washington office, dominated by a large tank of colorful tropical fish, was shooed away.

Steps are being taken to preserve potential evidence. Salley Collins, a spokeswoman for the House Administration Committee, said officials are in the process of complying with "every request made" by the Justice Department. This week, the department asked House officials to secure Foley's computers, documents and archives.

To facilitate the investigations, Hastert announced the creation of a toll-free hotline for pages and parents to phone in tips about concerns and possible abuses. The number of the tip line is 866-348-0481.

Hastert canceled an appearance at a Monday fundraiser for Republican congressional candidate Joy Padgett, an Ohio state senator, but remained upbeat at his Illinois news conference.

"I am going to run, and presumably win, in this election," Hastert said. "And when we do, I expect to run for leader -- for speaker."

Contributing: Malia Rulon, Gannett News Service (c) Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Source: USA TODAY

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