 |
|
Register Domains
|
|
|
|
|
Namibian Towns
|
|
|
|
|
Languages
|
|
|
| | |
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An ex-congressional aide spent more than four hours testifying to a House ethics panel Thursday about concerns he had regarding former Rep. Mark Foley's Internet exchanges with teen congressional pages.
Kirk Fordham, who once was Foley's chief of staff, has declined to discuss his behind-closed-doors testimony.
However, a source familiar with the ex-aide's account said earlier Thursday that Fordham was to tell the panel that he delivered warnings to House Speaker Dennis Hastert's top aide years ago.
Fordham also planned to testify under oath that he warned more than one congressional official several times about Foley's inappropriate behavior, the source said.
Fordham has said he issued the warnings earlier than Republican leaders have reported.
Before his testimony, Fordham said he was "pretty comfortable" with providing details to the committee.
"I slept very well last night. I had a good night's sleep," Fordham told reporters outside his Washington home. "I talked to my family, and I am going to tell the truth."
The source said Fordham was to say he notified Scott Palmer, Hastert's chief of staff, three or four years ago about a report that Foley had shown up drunk at the dormitory that houses the teenage messengers. (Watch how the scandal has affected Foley's district -- 1:23 Video)
Two sources familiar with Fordham's account said that Fordham maintains he arranged a meeting between Foley and Palmer about that report and accounts of other behavior he found troubling.
In a statement last week, Palmer denied Fordham's version of events, insisting that "what Kirk Fordham said did not happen." Palmer has made no further comment.
Page board testifies
Also Thursday, the ethics committee questioned a member of the House Page Board, Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-West Virginia. At the time the scandal broke, Capito said that she was never consulted about Foley.
"I want to see this investigation go forth quickly and reach a conclusion," Capito said Thursday after about 90 minutes in the committee room.
The chairman of the page board, Rep. John Shimkus, R-Illinois, is scheduled to appear before the committee Friday.
Foley, a Florida Republican, resigned September 29 after sexually explicit instant messages from the six-term lawmaker to male pages became public. The House ethics panel and Justice Department are investigating how the House GOP leadership handled the matter, and FBI agents interviewed Fordham last week.
House Republican Conference Chairwoman Deborah Pryce of Ohio asked House Clerk Karen Haas to investigate the dormitory allegation last week. Capitol Police are looking through files for any record of the incident, a spokeswoman said.
Another GOP lawmaker, Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite of Florida, said she conducted her own investigation two weeks ago and learned that Foley "showed up at the page dorm one night inebriated." Brown-Waite has not released any details.
Fordham resigned last week as chief of staff to Rep. Tom Reynolds, R-New York, after ABC News reported that he offered the network an exclusive on Foley's resignation if it agreed not to air transcripts of the most explicit messages.
After his resignation, he said he warned Hastert's office about Foley well before 2005, when the speaker's office says it first learned about nonexplicit but "overly friendly" e-mails between Foley and a Louisiana teen who had been a page earlier that year.
On Wednesday, the ethics committee heard from the supervisors of both Republican and Democratic pages. Next week, the Louisiana congressman who raised concerns in late 2005 and his top aide will appear before the committee.
Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-Louisiana, brought Foley's e-mails to a former page to House leaders' attention in 2005. His chief of staff, Royal Alexander, said he would testify on Monday, while the congressman will testify Wednesday.
Royal Alexander, who is not related to his boss, said. "We are happy to go voluntarily. Neither he nor I have retained attorneys yet, either."
The Louisiana lawmaker was the sponsor of a 16-year-old male who was a page, or messenger, on Capitol Hill. In November 2005, the teen reported receiving e-mail from Foley asking him what he wanted for his birthday and whether he would send Foley a picture of himself. The teen characterized the requests as "sick," but the e-mails were not sexually explicit.
Who knew what, when?
Rep. Alexander brought the e-mail from his constituent to the attention of Hastert's office, resulting in a private warning to Foley from then-House Clerk Jeff Trandahl and Shimkus, the House Page Board chairman. Both Alexander and the teen's family have said that they did not want the issue made public and wanted the contact to stop.
Hastert and other top GOP lawmakers have said they were not previously aware of the sexually explicit instant messages between Foley and other pages. But sources familiar with the situation told CNN that Trandahl had raised alarms about Foley's contacts with the teens long before he resigned his post in November 2005.
And in a statement Tuesday, Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Arizona, said that a young man he had appointed as a page told his office that he had received an e-mail from Foley "that made him uncomfortable." Kolbe's office said the complaint was from 2000 or 2001.
| |
|
|
News Categories
|
|
|
|
|
Main Menu
|
|
|
|
|
Login
|
|
|
|
|
Online
|
|
|
|
|
Ads
|
|
|
| |
