John Boehner

Boehner: What's Good for the Goose is Good for the Gander

Kate Klonick | October 15, 2008, 4:36PM

Back when the Mark Foley page scandal threw Republican leadership into the spotlight, Rep. John Boehner voluntarily testified.

And now that Foley's successor, Tim Mahoney, has found himself in a sordid scandal of his very own, Boehner is eager to see the same standards of forthrightness applied by his Democratic compatriots.

"In 2006, House Republican leaders voluntarily testified under oath in the matter of disgraced former Congressman Mark Foley," Boehner said in a statement released by his office on Wednesday. "Will House Democratic leaders, including Speaker Pelosi (D-Calif.), Congressman Emanuel (D-Ill.), and Congressman Van Hollen (D-Md.), agree to do the same?"

Van Hollen and Emanuel have both admitted to speaking with Mahoney after hearing rumors he was carrying on an affair with a staffer. Pelosi called on Monday night for a House Ethics Committee investigation into the allegations about Mahoney.

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Topics: John Boehner, Mark Foley, Tim Mahoney

Tim Mahoney

Alleged Mahoney Mistress Employed By Campaign, Congress, Campaign Again

Kate Klonick | October 14, 2008, 7:19PM

Little is known about the woman at the center of the scandal currently embroiling Rep. Tim Mahoney. Patricia Allen, who was named by ABCNews.com as Mahoney's former mistress, is also a former campaign and congressional staffer with Mahoney's offices in Florida. According to FEC filings and documents examined by TPMmuckraker, Allen was on Mahoney's campaign and congressional books starting in late 2006 until Feburary of this year, making over $40,000.

Allen first appears on Mahoney's FEC filings for expense reimbursements filed on October 25, 2006, almost two weeks before Mahoney narrowly won the seat of former Rep. Mark Foley (R) -- who had resigned due to his own sex scandal, involving male teenage House pages.

Allen's name appears again for two payments of $750 on December 15 and 18, 2006 for "Consulting Research Services." Combined with her expenses, Allen's payments from the Mahoney campaign in 2006 totaled $1,883.40.

In January 2007 Allen was hired by Mahoney's home office in Florida as a "Constituent Liason," making her an official Congressional staffer. She remained in that position for roughly five months, ending on June 2 of the same year and paying her $12,500 in taxpayer dollars.

Less than two weeks later, Allen was hired again by Mahoney -- this time back at his campaign. Allen appears on the campaign payroll on June 15, again performing "Consulting Research Services."

On January 20 of this year, Mahoney fired Allen in a heated phone call. Roughly two weeks later, Allen, who is often billed by her nickname "Trish," left the campaign. She appears on the payroll until February 2, with a request for mileage reimbursement filed on February 4. Her total in pay and reimbursement for her second stint at the congressman's campaign was $26,230 dollars.

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Topics: Mark Foley, Tim Mahoney

Tim Mahoney

Pelosi Calls for Ethics Probe of Mahoney

Kate Klonick | October 14, 2008, 9:11AM

Mere hours after ABCNews.com reported that Rep. Tim Mahoney had agreed to pay $121,000 to a former mistress and Congressional staffer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called for an ethics investigation into the allegations.

"I just learned today about the serious allegations concerning Congressman Tim Mahoney," Pelosi said in a statement released last night. "These charges must be immediately and thoroughly investigated by the House Ethics Committee."

Mahoney, a Democrat who won the seat of disgraced former Rep. Mark Foley, called for an ethics investigation of himself last night.

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Topics: Mark Foley, Tim Mahoney

Tim Mahoney

Mahoney Asks For Ethics Investigation into Allegations Over Former Mistress

Kate Klonick | October 13, 2008, 5:45PM

Just hours after ABCNews.com reported that he had agree to pay $121,000 to a former staffer and mistress, Rep. Tim Mahoney issued a statement asking the House Ethics Committee to conduct an investigation, The Hill reports.

The Democrat who won the infamous Mark Foley's seat in Florida, didn't exactly deny the charges.

"I am confident that when the facts are presented that I will be vindicated," Mahoney said in a statement released this afternoon.

"I was notified this afternoon about a story that ran on ABC News' website reporting allegations about a former employee," Mahoney stated. "While these allegations are based on hearsay, I believe that my constituents need a full accounting. As such, I have requested the House Ethics Committee review these allegations."

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Topics: Mark Foley, Tim Mahoney

Tim Mahoney

Foley Successor Embroiled In Own Allegations of Misconduct

Kate Klonick | October 13, 2008, 12:00PM

Is the West Palm Beach congressional seat prone to sex scandals, or is it just us?

Congressman Tim Mahoney, the Democrat who replaced disgraced representative Mark Foley, agreed to pay a former mistress -- who was also a staff member -- $121,000 after she threatened to sue him, ABCNews.com reports.

From The Blotter:

Mahoney, who is married, also promised the woman, Patricia Allen, a $50,000 a year job for two years at the agency that handles his campaign advertising, the staffers said.

A Mahoney spokesperson would not answer questions about the alleged affair or the settlement, but said Allen resigned of her own accord and "has not received any special payment from campaign funds."

. . . The affair between Mahoney and Allen began, according to the current and former staffers, in 2006 when Mahoney was campaigning for Congress against Foley, promising "a world that is safer, more moral."

Later in the article there's this kicker:

Senior Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives, including Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL), the chair of the Democratic Caucus, have been working with Mahoney to keep the matter from hurting his re-election campaign, the Mahoney staffers said.

Late update: Later in the article, there's a transcript and a recording of Mahoney firing Allen. It's pretty damning.

"The only person that matters is guess who? Me. You understand that. That is how life really is. That is how it works," Mahoney can be heard yelling on the call to Allen.

Listen to the audio below. Full transcript after the jump.

Click To Play

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Topics: Mark Foley, Tim Mahoney

Alan Mollohan

Lawmakers Give Back to the Legal Community

Will Thomas | October 16, 2007, 1:43PM

Recently, House lawmakers filed their third quarter campaign disclosure reports -- and you know what that means! It's time for another round-up of how much lawmakers have dropped on lawyers to defend themselves from investigation.

Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), with nearly $1 million in total fees dating back to last year, remains the undisputed House champion, but Rep. Don Young (R-AK) is charging hard.

Here's our list of legal spending habits for the past three months, as well as an estimate of how much each lawmaker has spent in campaign funds to date and to which firms:

Rep. Don Young (R-AK): $183,785
So far, Young has spent $447,000 on the law firms Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and Tobin O'Connor Ewing & Richard (the vast majority of which is spent on Akin Gump). He's under investigation for his relationship with Bill Allen, former CEO of oil-services firm.

Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ): $111,042
Renzi has paid around $148,000 to law firms Patton Boggs LLP and Steptoe & Johnson LLP (primarily on Patton Boggs). Renzi remains under investigation by the FBI for pushing legislation that would advantage political supporters and former business partners. His house was raided by the FBI this past April. Renzi has announced that he will not seek another term.

Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV): $55,000
Mollohan has spent $78,000 on the law firm Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel. He has been under federal scrutiny since last May for earmarking funds for organizations connected to him.

Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA): $26,982
Lewis has spent over $987,000 on the law firms Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Williams & Jensen. He is being investigated for earmarks that he provided to campaign contributors, as well as his role in the Duke Cunningham scandal.

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Topics: Alan Mollohan, Dennis Hastert, Don Young, John Doolittle, Mark Foley, Rick Renzi

Mark Foley

Blotter: Foley Unlikely to Be Charged

Paul Kiel | September 14, 2007, 9:32AM

An epilogue, of sorts:

Disgraced former Congressman Mark Foley, whose e-mails and instant messages to teenage former congressional pages shocked the country, may avoid criminal prosecution in Florida because of the state's three-year statute of limitations.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement did not start a criminal investigation of Foley until November 2006, making it nearly impossible to prosecute what some officials regarded as the best case, an explicit instant message sent by Foley to a 17-year-old high school student in February 2003, when Foley was in Pensacola, Fla.

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Topics: Mark Foley

Mark Foley

Constitutionally Protected Chats?

Paul Kiel | August 23, 2007, 11:19AM

From the AP:

Florida's top police agency said Wednesday its investigation into former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley's lurid Internet communications with teenage boys has been hindered because neither Foley nor the House will let investigators examine his congressional computers.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement says it hopes to conclude its investigation next week. Foley, a Florida Republican, resigned from Congress on Sept. 29 after being confronted with the computer messages he sent to male teenage pages who had worked on Capitol Hill.

"We have requested to review federally owned computers that Mr. Foley used during his time as a representative, but the U.S. House of Representatives ... cited case law restrictions that prohibited them from releasing those computers," said Heather Smith, an FDLE spokeswoman.

The AP notes the court decision early this month that the FBI had wrongfully seized Constitutionally protected legislative materials from Rep. William Jefferson's (D-LA) office, which strengthens the House's refusal to turn over the computer. Probably not precisely what the Founding Fathers had in mind.

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Topics: Mark Foley

Mark Foley

Justice IG: The FBI Lies When It Cries

Justin Rood | January 22, 2007, 1:06PM

Officials lied to reporters when they said the FBI suspected a nonprofit group held for months inappropriate emails between Mark Foley and a former teenage page, before turning them over to investigators, according to a new report.

At the height of the Foley scandal this summer, quotes from anonymous "law enforcement" officials surfaced in news accounts alleging that Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) had first received copies of the infamous Foley emails in April 2006, but did not turn them over to the FBI until July.

But a new report from the Justice Department's internal watchdog confirms that was not the case. In fact, "the e-mails were provided to CREW in July 2006, not April, and CREW sent them to the FBI within days of receiving them," the office of Justice Inspector General Glenn A. Fine reported.

Unfortunately, "we do not know who may have supplied the media with this inaccurate information," Fine's report stated. (You can find the full report here.)

CREW had disputed the allegation from the day it was made. "They're making it up. There's no question about it," CREW spokeswoman Naomi Seligman-Steiner told TPMmuckraker October 6, the day the Washington Post's Dan Eggen reported that the FBI believed CREW had sat on the emails for months, according to a "law enforcement official -- speaking on condition of anonymity."

Fine's office concluded that the FBI's decision not to investigate the emails was not "misconduct," but "should have raised enough concerns to warrant some action." At the very least, the report concludes, agents should have notified the House Page program.

Politics were not an issue in the FBI's decisionmaking process, Fine's report said.

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Topics: Mark Foley

Mark Foley

Foley Report: Piling On Edition

Justin Rood | December 13, 2006, 12:39PM

More voices rise to join the chorus denouncing the House ethics committee's report exonerating GOP leaders for their blind-eye behavior to former Rep. Mark Foley's page seduction:

Houston Chronicle - "Critics for years have described the bipartisan U.S. House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct as a joke. [The Foley report] removed all doubt about the House's inability to discipline itself."

U.S. News & World Report - "The bipartisan report on the Mark Foley scandal was a study in pitiful cowardice." (Opinion)

Orlando Sentinel - "If willful ignorance among members and staff to Mr. Foley's exploits and reckless endangerment of teenage pages doesn't break any rule or call for any penalty, the committee's standards aren't low. They're subterranean. . . . The long-awaited report on the Foley scandal was an acid test as to whether the House ethics committee -- evenly split between Republicans and Democrats -- was finally ready to wake up to its responsibilities after years of slumber. The committee flunked."

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Topics: Mark Foley

Mark Foley

Foley Scandal: Why Didn't the Dems Act?

Justin Rood | December 11, 2006, 4:42PM

"A 16-year-old kid was entrusted by his parents to the U.S. House of Representatives, and Congress has a responsibility," Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told the Chicago Tribune in October.

"The most important questions are, 'What did the Republican leadership know, when did they know it and, if they knew something, why didn't they do anything to protect the child?'"

Now, Emanuel's questions are boomeranging back on him and his Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. A House report revealed last week that he and the DCCC knew of Foley's emails during the 2005 period but did not bring them up with the House Page Board or other groups.

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Topics: Mark Foley

Mark Foley

It's Official: Foley Report Sucked

Justin Rood | December 11, 2006, 11:02AM

The reviews are in on the House ethics committee report on the Foley scandal, and they aren't good.

"[A] 91-page exercise in cowardice," a New York Times editorial thundered."The report’s authors were clearly more concerned about protecting the members of the House than the young men and women under their charge in the page program."

"What, one has to wonder, would it take for the House ethics committee to hold a lawmaker or a staff member accountable?" asked the Washington Post in its editorial, "The Buck Just Stopped." (The Wall Street Journal, however, pronounced the report "fair and sensible.")

Even some GOPers are whispering that those who dodged a bullet only did so because the committee purposely fired above their heads. Roll Call's John Bresnahan quoted one unnamed "Republican insider" with ties to Hastert who called the report a "shrewd political document" that carefully criticized only members and staff who were leaving power.

"They kicked people who don't care anymore," the source told Bresnahan. "Hastert doesn't care, and the other guys don't care either. . . . This doesn't hurt them at all."

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Topics: Dennis Hastert, Mark Foley

Jim Kolbe

Foley Report: Kolbe Responds

Justin Rood | December 9, 2006, 10:11AM

Yesterday, Paul was among the first to note how the House ethics investigators took outgoing Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) to task for his less-than-heroic response to complaints from a recently-departed page that Foley was asking him questions about his penis size.

In a statement late yesterday, Kolbe responded. "The report demonstrates that members of my office and I took prompt action in 2001 to address the complaint that was brought to our attention," Kolbe declares. Full statement after the jump.

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Topics: Jim Kolbe, Mark Foley

Mark Foley

Anatomy of a Leak

Paul Kiel | December 8, 2006, 6:00PM

One puzzle that had never quite been clear: how did Mark Foley's emails to a former House page reach the public eye?

According to the ethics report (page 44 and on), in the fall of 2005, a page nominated by Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-LA) received the now-infamous icky emails. He forwarded them to Danielle Savoy, a staffer in Alexander's office, calling them "sick."

From there, Savoy forwarded them to her friend, Kelley Halliwell, a lobbyist and formerly of Rep. Joel Hefley's (R-CO) office. And she forwarded the emails to her boyfriend Justin Field, who worked at the House Democratic Caucus. From there, they went to the House Democratic Caucus communications director Matt Miller. And from him to The Miami Herald and St. Petersburg Times (both of whom ultimately decided not to run stories) and also the communications director at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Nevertheless, it would be nearly 10 months before a publication actually ran with the story.

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Topics: Mark Foley

Mark Foley

Report: Clerk Spoke of Hastert Aide's "Over-involvement" with Pages

Paul Kiel | December 8, 2006, 4:47PM

It sounds from the report that Ted Van Der Meid, Speaker Dennis Hastert's counsel, had his own problems with being too close with the House pages. From pages 39-40:

According to [House Clerk Jeff Trandahl], he raised his concerns about Rep. Foley to Van Der Meid "pretty often" in the context of raising similar concerns he had relative to Van Der Meid's over-involvement with pages assigned to the Speaker's office. Trandahl testified, "So here is my point of contact in the Speaker (sic), and I'm trying to have the conversation about him specifically, but also in a general sense." According to Trandahl, while Van Der Meid understood his concerns "politically," Van Der Meid's "pushback" was that "there is nothing wrong with people being mentors and caring about the kids." Trandahl responded that the page program had paid professionals to serve those functions. Trandahl felt that "there needed to be a very clear line between the page program and people who worked up here [in leadership]."

Van Der Meid did not report Trandahl's concerns about Rep. Foley's conduct to anyone else in the Speaker's Office... He explained that he did not elevate the Foley matter because he "got the impression that [Trandahl] was dealing with it."... He further testified that "[Trandahl] had never asked me to take any other action," and in any event, "I don't know what I would have done."

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Topics: Dennis Hastert, Mark Foley

Mark Foley

Report Drubs Hastert, Shimkus, Reynolds

Justin Rood | December 8, 2006, 3:52PM

Arizona Rep. Jim Kolbe (R) isn't the only guy to take a beating in the House Ethics Committee report on the Foley scandal.

The panel finds that Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) all but abandoned his responsibilities as chairman of the House Page Board. "Rep. Shimkus should have demanded copies of all relevant e-mails or other documents," the report states. "[A]t a minimum Rep. Shimkus had an obligation to learn more facts regarding the e-mails [between Foley and a page] before concluding that he could handle the matter himself without informing the other members of the Page Board or seeking their input."

They also pull up just short of accusing House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) of conspiring to obstruct justice, when he tried to rope other GOPers with conflicting stories into meeting with him to "prepare a statement." To the panel, that smacked of an attempt to coordinate a plausible lie:

[T]he efforts by the Speaker's office to prepare a statement under the direction of counsel could have had the additional effect of inhibiting the Investigative Subcommittee's ability to secure evidence. . . This effect was compounded by the appearance of [lawyer Randy] Evans and a law partner as counsel for the Speaker, Stokke and Kennedy during their testimony before the Subcommittee.

Some may recall that Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY) refused to attend the meeting. But that doesn't keep him clear of suspicion. He only did that on advice of his counsel -- the aforementioned Randy Evans, who had the thankless (though likely profitable) job of keeping all the men out of trouble.

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Topics: Dennis Hastert, Mark Foley

Jim Kolbe

Kolbe Takes Hit from Foley Report

Paul Kiel | December 8, 2006, 3:25PM

As we tear through the new House ethics report, we'll bring you updates of the juicy stuff we find.

First up, Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-AZ), who comes out looking very, very bad.

A former House page told the committee that he sent Kolbe, to his personal email account, a copy of an instant message he received from Foley in 2001 in which Foley had "made reference to the page's penis size."

When the committee asked Kolbe about this, he said he couldn't recall whether the page had contacted him or his assistant or whether it was by phone or email. What's more, he said he never knew the specifics of the young man's allegation against Foley, and "did not attempt to speculate."

As if that isn't bad enough, Kolbe appears to have tried to keep the kid quiet when the scandal broke: the former page also told the committee that he'd called Kolbe after the Foley story broke this September and asked for advice. He says Kolbe replied that "it is best that you don't even bring this up with anybody.... There is no good that can come from it if you actually talk about this. The man has resigned anyway."

Kolbe's side of the story? He told the committee that "the page had already decided that he was not going to report the IM, and the he merely responded, 'That's your decision.'"

But The Washington Post caught wind of the page's story anyway. And soon after being contacted by a Post reporter about it, Kolbe called the page and left a message: "It looks like you did some talking."

We've posted the relevant section of the report here.

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Topics: Jim Kolbe, Mark Foley

Mark Foley

AP: House Ethics Report Clears GOP Leaders

Paul Kiel | December 8, 2006, 1:54PM

From the AP:

The House ethics committee has concluded that Republican leaders did not break any rules in handling ex-Rep. Mark Foley's improper advances to former male pages but were negligent in protecting the teenagers, a congressional aide said Friday.

Update: More, from Roll Call:

The executive summary of the panel’s report does, however, state: “In all a pattern of conduct was exhibited among many individuals to remain willfully ignorant of the potential consequences of former Rep. Foley’s conduct with respect to House pages.”

Update: You can download the report from the Ethics Committee Web site.

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Topics: Mark Foley

Mark Foley

House Ethics Announces Presser

Paul Kiel | December 8, 2006, 12:25PM

At 2:00 PM, to discuss their report on the Mark Foley investigation.

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Topics: Mark Foley

Mark Foley

AP: House Ethics Panelists Huddle

Paul Kiel | December 8, 2006, 12:06PM

The AP reads the tea leaves:

The House ethics committee met in closed session Friday, indicating the panel could be close to finishing its report on ex-Rep. Mark Foley's improper advances toward former male pages.

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Topics: Mark Foley

Mark Foley

Foley Report: Today's the Day (in Theory)

Paul Kiel | December 8, 2006, 10:39AM

It's the last day of the 109th Congress, which means that if the GOP-controlled House is going to release its ethics report on the Foley scandal, they have to do it today. So keep an eye out.

Signs are tiny, but promising: senior aides whispered to Roll Call earlier this week that the report "could" be publicly released this week. And ethics committee members murmured to the AP that they don't want to deal with this next year.

Still, no one's quite sure whether the committee will be delivering their long anticipated report.

The committee could, as the final act of the most inept board of overseers of the famously inept 109th Congress, simply pass the chore on to the new, Democrat-led ethics committee in January. That would undoubtedly delay the process even further, since the committee will be shifting membership along with the new Congress.

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Topics: Mark Foley

Mark Foley

Vanity Fair Slips Boxers off Foley Scandal

Paul Kiel | December 4, 2006, 3:43PM

Finally, Vanity Fair has delivered their take-out on the Mark Foley scandal (or Pagegate, if you prefer). And it's chock full of satisfyingly sordid details.

One figure in particular gets a drubbing: the out-going House Speaker, Dennis Hastert.

Here's Hastert, standing dumbly by when Kirk Fordham, Foley's former chief of staff and then Rep. Tom Reynolds' (R-NY) chief of staff, brings word of the coming calamity -- that ABC News has copies of sexually explicit instant messages sent by Foley to underage pages:

Fordham thought he made it clear that his old boss needed to quit, but Foley couldn't bring himself to do that. The N.R.C.C. headquarters was around the corner, and Fordham made it his next stop. There he found Representative Reynolds and Speaker Hastert. But before he could finish relaying the awful news, Reynolds's face got purple and he began to shout, "He needs to resign, and he needs to do it right now!" The Speaker just sat there, silent, according to Fordham: "He didn't react at all. This was weeks before the election, and they're thinking how this is going to impact us."

And here's Hastert trying to attempt damage control:

Hastert, believing the leadership needed to present a united front, as one by one his colleagues were repudiating his foggy recollections, called a Republican-leadership meeting. That same day, an ethics-committee investigation was pressed for by Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi (over the objections of those who wanted an independent counsel), its purpose to discover who knew what when about Foley. Blunt, Boehner, and Reynolds were all summoned "to basically get their stories straight for the press," according to a knowledgeable source, who adds, "That to me is where Hastert attempted a cover-up."

Reynolds balked at having such a meeting. "This is stupid! We can't all go and meet privately and try to get our stories straight, because this matter was just referred to the ethics committee," he told Hastert, according to the same source. "In fact, none of us are supposed to be talking to each other, because we are not supposed to talk to potential witnesses." Worse, added Reynolds, "I can tell you anything we say at this leadership meeting is something we have to share with the ethics committee."

The meeting eventually became a conference call, but without Reynolds's participation.

Read the whole thing here.

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Topics: Dennis Hastert, Mark Foley

Mark Foley

Republicans Huddled for "Damage Control" before Foley Story Broke

Paul Kiel | November 2, 2006, 5:05PM

In the days before ABC News first reported Mark Foley's "over friendly" emails toward a congressional page, top Republican political staffers huddled with Foley in conference calls, helping him handle political fallout from story, The New York Daily News reports.

In other words, when top Republicans learned of Foley's inappropriate emails, they appear to have circled the wagons and helped Foley himself spin the story, rather than alert the House Page Board or any other responsible authority to look into the matter.

Rep. Tom Reynolds' (R-NY) communications director at the National Republican Congressional Committee, Carl Forti, was on the calls, along with Reynold's chief of staff Kirk Fordham and Foley's top staffers. A source told the Daily News the calls were focused on "damage control"; Forti confirmed that the calls took place.

The Republican leadership, of course, has been under fire for not dealing more aggressively with Foley after the emails came to light months earlier (there's been no evidence that top Republicans knew about the sexually explicit IMs turned up after ABC News' initial story). This is actually an example of top Republicans helping Foley deal with fallout from the emails.

An open question from the story is whether Reynolds, who's locked in a tight reelection battle due in part to his role in Foleygate, was involved in the damage control effort -- which involved two of his top staffers. He refused to answer questions for the piece, citing his testimony before the House ethics committee.

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Topics: Mark Foley

Mark Foley

Foley: Terrible Congressman, Worse Actor

Paul Kiel | November 2, 2006, 11:39AM

Over at Radar, they've got your mid-morning muck diversion, a clip from the 2003's action thriller Strike Force -- starring Mark Foley.

In it, Foley gives a straight-to-video performance as Congressman Fairchild, a lawmaker who pays a sack of money to a group of vigilantes (called "The Librarians") to rescue his kidnapped daughter.

The only other scandal figure we can think of who's matched Foley's contribution to cinema is Jack Abramoff, who infected the world with the action flick Red Scorpion, only to redouble the accomplishment with Red Scorpion 2.

Update: From TPMm Reader GN: "You're forgetting Gary Condit's cameo in the film Return of the Killer Tomatoes."

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Topics: Mark Foley

Mark Foley

AP: Foley Staying in Rehab

Paul Kiel | November 1, 2006, 4:18PM

Mark Foley may have resigned from Congress, but he's still a Republican. And he's not going to exit rehab right on the eve of the election. Foley's extending his 30-day stay (which started October 1st), his lawyer announced today.

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Topics: Mark Foley

Jim Kolbe

ABC: Rep. Kolbe Was "Problem" for Page Program, Source Says

Justin Rood | October 26, 2006, 3:09PM

ABC News reports:

A source close to former House Clerk Jeff Trandahl told ABC News that Arizona Congressman Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) was one of a small number of "problem members" of Congress who page program supervisors complained spent too much time socializing with pages, taking them to dinner or sporting events outside of official duties.

Mark Foley was also on the list.

The source said Trandahl frequently cautioned both congressmen that "adults should hang out with adults, pages should hang out with pages," a message Trandahl also conveyed to pages during their orientation.

Kolbe is already facing a preliminary FBI inquiry for allegations arising from a 1996 trip that included two teenaged former House pages.

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Topics: Jim Kolbe, Mark Foley

Mark Foley

Final Foley E-Mail Mystery Solved (Sorta)

Justin Rood | October 26, 2006, 12:04PM

One of the last mysteries in the Mark Foley e-mail saga has been solved, for the most part: who was behind an anonymous Web site which first revealed select e-mails from the disgraced former congressman to young men.

The site, StopSexPredators.blogspot.com, was run by a "junior staffer" at the gay rights group, Human Rights Campaign (HRC), according to the New York Times. According to HRC spokesman David Smith, the group learned of the employee's handiwork this week, and immediately fired him for "misusing the group's resources." HRC would not disclose the name of the staffer, the paper reported. Hence our "sorta."

HRC's Smith told me this morning that the fired employee had worked organizing HRC members to volunteer for political campaigns in Michigan. In the past, the group has supported Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) and Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI).

Shortly after the HRC staffer anonymously posted Foley e-mails to his Web site, ABC News -- which had obtained the e-mails independently -- ran a story on them. That story led to tips of more graphic instant-message transcripts between Foley and former pages, which led to Foley's resignation, and the story took off from there. (You can relive the magic via our archives.)

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Topics: Mark Foley

Dennis Hastert

House Foley Probe Conducting Last Interviews?

Paul Kiel | October 25, 2006, 10:49PM

From the AP:

An aide to House Speaker Dennis Hastert on Wednesday went before ethics investigators in private to explain how the office handled complaints about former Rep. Mark Foley's behavior toward former pages.

Ted Van Der Meid, who oversaw the page program for Hastert, R-Ill., appears to be one of the last witnesses. The House ethics panel is investigating whether lawmakers and staff aides acted properly when learning of Foley's too-friendly messages to ex-pages and other possible inappropriate behavior.

The panel is in its third week of hearing testimony and seems unlikely to complete its probe before the Nov. 7 elections.

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Topics: Dennis Hastert, Mark Foley

Dennis Hastert

Hastert Testifies in House Foley Probe

Justin Rood | October 24, 2006, 3:37PM

Armed with his personal lawyer, House Speaker Dennis Hastert began his private testimony today before the House panel investigating the Foley affair, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

"Shortly before the speaker appeared, his security detail arrived and went inside the ethics committee room, where testimony is taken in secret sessions. Hastert then arrived with his attorney, J. Randolph Evans of Atlanta," the paper says.

Also testifying today was Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY), chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), which works to get Republicans elected to Congress. The two men disagree on who knew what, when about Foley's misbehavior with teenaged pages.

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Topics: Dennis Hastert, Mark Foley

Mark Foley

Worries Persist over Fairness of House Foley Probe

Justin Rood | October 23, 2006, 4:58PM

A close review of the ties connecting House Speaker Dennis Hastert to the GOP lawmakers overseeing the House probe into his handling of the Foley scandal helps explain why no fewer than seven public interest groups have called for the matter to be turned over to an impartial outside counsel.

When the scandal erupted earlier this month, the ten-member House ethics committee created a special four-member panel to investigate the matter, ignoring calls to use an impartial outsider. That investigatory panel is led by the top Republican and Democrat on the committee, Reps. Doc Hastings (R-WA) and Howard Berman (D-CA); joining them are Reps. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones (D-OH) and Judy Biggert (R-IL).

But oh, the conflicts. House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) is so close to Hastings, the top Republican, he's rumored to have put Doc's name on a secret "succession list" to take his place in case of a catastrophe.

Hastings, who's called a "loyalist" and "protege" of Hastert -- which are terms about as close to "brown-noser" as Washington insiders ever use -- was given the ethics chair by Hastert, who used him to replace Rep. Joel Hefley (R-CO), the last ethics committee chairman, who upset the speaker by ruling against former majority leader Tom DeLay.

Hastings isn't the only GOP member of the panel with ties to embattled House speaker. Leadership ambitions, which need a Speaker's help to become real, are dishearteningly present among Republican members of the ethics committee, as Congressional Quarterly recently noted (sub. req.).

Read more »

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Topics: Mark Foley

Mark Foley

Foley Probe Hears from GOP Aides

Justin Rood | October 23, 2006, 3:50PM

After a quiet Friday and a relaxing weekend, the House panel investigating the Foley scandal is back in business.

The special four-member subcommittee heard from Hastert confidante, housemate and chief of staff Scott Palmer, as well as Sally Vastola, the executive director of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC). The group, which works to elect Republicans to House seats, is chaired by Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY), who's under fire for knowing about Mark Foley's inappropriate communications with pages. Vastola is also a senior aide on Reynolds' congressional staff.

Reynolds himself is expected to testify tomorrow. Later this week, the panel is expected to hear from Hastert's counsel Ted Van Der Meid, and his deputy chief of staff, Mike Stokke. Top Hastert aides have retained defense lawyers, ABC News reports. Van Der Meid has chosen K. Lee Blalack, who also represents former GOP Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, now in prison for accepting bribes.

Hastert may testify this week, although CQ reports (sub. req.) that members of his staff say he has not been contacted by the panel. Another possible witness may also be interviewed by the panel, CQ says: Tim Kennedy, a staff assistant in Hastert's office who heard of Foley's icky emails back in 2005.

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Topics: Dennis Hastert, Mark Foley

Mark Foley

IL Lawmaker Refers New Page Incident to Panel

Justin Rood | October 20, 2006, 2:06PM

The Daily Journal of Illinois reports:

Rep. Jerry Weller, R-Morris, through his election attorney, moved Thursday to inform the House that a former page or intern may have been the subject of inappropriate attention from another lawmaker, Weller's campaign manager said Thursday.

Steven Shearer said the congressman was not prepared to reveal the identity of the youth, the timing, nor the identity of the lawmaker, but felt confident that a former page or intern was "inappropriately invited to a social function by another congressman."

Kind of raises more questions than it answers, doesn't it?

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Topics: Mark Foley

Mark Foley

Foley Probe Quiet Today

Justin Rood | October 20, 2006, 1:50PM

It looks like the House ethics probe into the Foley scandal won't hear any new testimony today. A dedicated klatsch of journalists staked out the hearing room all morning, but no witnesses have entered or left, I'm told; the FOX News camera has since packed up.

The panel does not make its schedule publicly available, and requests for information are routed to its chief of staff. It's not clear how long the investigation will take, although a Democratic spokesman says the leadership still believes the matter will be resolved in "weeks, not months," as they promised two weeks ago when they announced the effort.

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Topics: Mark Foley

Mark Foley

CNN: Clerk Raised Alarms on Foley

Paul Kiel | October 19, 2006, 4:30PM

CNN adds to ABC's reporting on former House Clerk Jeff Trandahl's testimony before the House ethics committee today:

Former House Clerk Jeff Trandahl repeatedly raised red flags about former Rep. Mark Foley years before GOP leaders said they knew about Foley's inappropriate conduct with pages, sources said....

Two sources close to Trandahl told CNN that he had been monitoring Foley's interaction with pages after being told of troubling behavior by the congressman in the House cloakroom and elsewhere. Trandahl took his concerns to Kirk Fordham, Foley's former chief of staff, many times, the sources said.

So Trandahl has corroborated a key point of Kirk Fordham's testimony. But did he also tell the committee, like Fordham did, that Speaker Hastert's chief of staff interceded way back in 2003 to warn Foley about his advances?

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Topics: Mark Foley

Mark Foley

ABC: Clerk Fingers Hastert Staffer

Paul Kiel | October 19, 2006, 3:16PM

ABC News has a taste of Trandahl's testimony:

The former clerk of the House of Representatives, Jeff Trandahl, who testified for more than four hours before the House Ethics Committee today, is believed to have testified that a top aide to House Speaker Dennis Hastert was informed of "all issues dealing with the page program," according to a Republican familiar with the investigation.

The Republican source said Trandahl planned to name Ted Van Der Meid, the speaker's counsel and floor manager, as the person who was briefed on a regular basis about any issue that arose in the page program, including a "problem group of members and staff who spent too much time socializing with pages outside of official duties." One of whom was Mark Foley.

Van Der Meid, you might remember, was one of the Hastert staffers who was involved in the fall, 2005 response to the "overly friendly" emails that Foley had sent to a staffer. Hastert had described Van Der Meid as "the Speaker's Office liaison with the Clerk's Office."

That brings to two the number of staffers in Hastert's office who allegedly knew about Foley's pursuit of House pages before last fall. According to Kirk Fordham, Foley's former chief of staff, Trandahl also alerted Hastert's chief of staff Scott Palmer about Foley's behavior.

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Topics: Dennis Hastert, Mark Foley

Mark Foley

The Man Who Knew Too Much

Paul Kiel | October 19, 2006, 2:01PM

This morning, former House Clerk Jeff Trandahl testifed before the House ethics committee. What did he say?

In a statement, his lawyer would only say that Trandahl "has cooperated fully" with the investigation being conducted by the FBI and the House ethics committee, and that "he answered every question asked of him."

According to various accounts, Trandahl, a Republican, knew for several years that Foley had a problem of pursuing House pages.

In 2000 or 2001, Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) says he notified Trandahl after a page told him he'd received inappropriate messages from Foley.

According to Foley's former chief of staff Kirk Fordham, Trandahl warned him several times, starting in 2001, of Foley's worrying interest in the pages. Fordham says that in 2003, he and Trandahl agreed to go to the Speaker's office about the problem.

And then in 2005, Trandahl was again central when a page received emails from Foley. Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) says that he and Trandahl sat down with Foley to talk about the problem.

So amidst all that back and forth, did Trandahl ever mention anything about the earlier run-ins to Speaker Hastert's staff or other members of the leadership? We'll have to wait to find out.

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Topics: Mark Foley

Mark Foley

Judge Nixes Signs in Foley's District

Paul Kiel | October 19, 2006, 8:59AM

Florida Republicans had been hoping that they could hang signs at polling places in Rep. Mark Foley's district pointing out that, even though Foley's name is on the ballot, all his votes go to the GOP's replacement candidate, Joe Negron. Democrats objected, saying that big signs explaining how to vote Republican amounted to state subsidized campaigning.

Yesterday, a judge ruled with the Dems.

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Topics: Mark Foley

Mark Foley

ABC: Foley M.O. Was To Wait?

Paul Kiel | October 18, 2006, 1:45PM

ABC News reports:

After interviewing some 40 former congressional pages, FBI agents have yet to turn up any evidence of direct sexual contact between underage pages and former Congressman Mark Foley.

Instead, according to law enforcement officials and several former pages, a pattern is emerging of seduction by Foley that began when the boys were 16 and 17. In cases where actual sex followed, it was not until the boys were at the legal age of 18.

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Topics: Mark Foley

Mark Foley

AP: House Page Panel Discusses Kolbe Page Trip

Paul Kiel | October 17, 2006, 2:01PM

Yesterday, Rep. Dale Kildee (D-MI) revealed that the House Page Board had discussed allegations of improper behavior toward pages by a second lawmaker.

It's Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-AZ), the AP reports. More:

Overseers of the House page program this week discussed a camping trip that Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz. took with two former pages and others in 1996 — an outing now under review by the Justice Department, a congressional source said Tuesday.

The House Page Board, consisting of three lawmakers and two senior House officials, did not have any new information beyond recent news stories on the Kolbe trip. The source is familiar with the discussions but is not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

Last week, NBC reported that the FBI had started a "preliminary assessment" of the trip.

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Topics: Mark Foley

Mark Foley

Another Lawmaker Has Page Problem?

Justin Rood | October 16, 2006, 11:46PM

Reuters reporting:

A U.S. congressional board which oversees a Capitol Hill internship program rocked by a sex scandal, discussed allegations on Monday involving a second lawmaker, said Rep. Dale Kildee, a Michigan Democrat.

Kildee made the comment as he emerged from a closed-door meeting of a House ethics committee, which has been focused on the case of former Republican Rep. Mark Foley of Florida, who resigned last month following disclosure he sent inappropriate electronic messages to male teenage interns, known as pages.

"It's only been allegations made," Kildee told reporters of the House page board's discussion about a second lawmaker, who he declined to identify.

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Topics: Mark Foley