Washington – The House ethics committee has concluded that Republican leaders were negligent in protecting male pages from ex-Rep. Mark Foley’s improper advances, but they did not break any rules in handling the Foley case, a congressional aide said today.
The committee was releasing its findings today.
The aide, who was not authorized to be quoted by name, was made aware of the committee’s findings.
“The Republicans did not break rules but were negligent in protecting the pages,” the aide said.
A four-member investigative subcommittee interviewed dozens of witnesses, including Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., to determine whether majority Republicans took strong enough action against Foley when they learned of his questionable e-mails and other computer messages.
Foley, R-Fla., resigned in late September after the scandal became public, but Hastert’s office learned of the lawmaker’s e-mails to a former page at least a year earlier.
Committee leaders said in early October that the investigation would be finished in weeks, not months, and members have said privately they did not want to carry the matter over until next year.
Foley became overly friendly with male pages when they served as errand-runners for lawmakers and – after they left Congress – sent some of them inappropriate e-mails and lurid instant messages.
The ethics committee, evenly divided by party, had to resolve several conflicts in the case.
Hastert’s aides could have learned of Foley’s inappropriate e-mails as early as 2002 and as late as 2005, depending on who is recounting the events.
The speaker said his aides first learned in the fall of 2005 about questionable e-mails between Foley and a former page from Louisiana. Foley’s former top aide said he told Hastert’s chief of staff about the Florida lawmaker in 2002 or 2003.
Also, Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, and House Republican campaign chief Tom Reynolds, R-N.Y., said they told Hastert about Foley’s inappropriate behavior last spring. Hastert said he could not recall those conversations, and did not learn of Foley’s conduct until late September when the matter became public.
