Washington – Lawmakers, following a request from the House ethics committee, are surveying aides and former House pages to find out if any of them had knowledge of ex-Rep. Mark Foley’s inappropriate conduct toward male pages.
Charlie Keller, spokesman for Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Fla., said she contacted two pages before receiving the committee request and asked if they were aware of inappropriate behavior by Foley, any other lawmaker or staff members. Both said they were not.
Aides for other House members reported similar results Monday.
The ethics committee leaders, in a letter to all House members, asked them to contact current and former pages they sponsored to learn whether any of them had “inappropriate communications or interactions” with Foley or any other House member.
The ethics panel, formally known as the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, also directed lawmakers to cast a wide net and ask aides what they might have heard about improper approaches by Foley or others to pages before revelations about his sexually explicit Internet messages surfaced last month. Foley resigned Sept. 29.
Meanwhile, the lawyer for Kirk Fordham, Foley’s former chief of staff, said Monday his client could testify before the committee as early as this week. Fordham has said he informed House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s staff in 2003 about Foley’s inappropriate messages to pages.
Timothy Heaphy, Fordham’s lawyer, said he contacted the ethics panel Friday and was told Fordham could appear this week to provide sworn testimony.
The ethics committee’s four- person investigative subcommittee said it approved nearly four dozen subpoenas for testimony and documents, although many witnesses are expected to testify voluntarily without the need for a subpoena.
J. Randolph Evans, Hastert’s lawyer, said, “We are working to cooperate fully” but did not know when Hastert may appear.
Fordham is a key figure because of his statements that he notified Hastert’s staff about Foley in 2003 and possibly as far back as 2002. His statements have been rebutted by Hastert chief of staff Scott Palmer, who denied having a discussion with Fordham about Foley. A major task of the ethics panel will be to determine who is telling the truth.
