Washington – The former clerk of the House will face ethics investigators today in what could be the most important testimony yet on how GOP leaders handled complaints about Rep. Mark Foley’s behavior toward pages – including the early concerns of a Louisiana congressman who testified Wednesday.
The questioning of former Clerk Jeff Trandahl comes after Louisiana GOP Rep. Rodney Alexander spoke with investigators for three hours about how his office handled a complaint last fall from a former page about too-friendly e-mails from Foley.
GOP leaders are facing scrutiny over whether they or their aides did too little to stop Foley’s inappropriate behavior toward pages when problems surfaced years ago.
Trandahl’s testimony is critical in determining how many people knew about Foley’s behavior with pages and whether there are even more incidents than those reported so far.
Alexander discussed the matter last spring with two top House GOP lawmakers, Majority Leader John Boehner of Ohio and campaign chair Tom Reynolds of New York, both of whom say they spoke with House Speaker Dennis Hastert about it. Hastert, R-Ill., has said he does not recall the conversations.
Trandahl confronted Foley, a Florida Republican, last fall over his e-mails to the Louisiana boy and was alerted about inappropriate e-mails Foley sent in 2001 or 2002 to a former page sponsored by Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz.
As the House officer with direct responsibility for the page program, Trandahl is virtually certain to know whether there have been other complaints about Foley, including an alleged incident in which the Florida Republican tried to enter the page dorm while drunk.
