Foley Scandal Update

Major players in the Foley inquiry
(Cox News Service, October 6, 2006)

These are the key congressmen, staff members and pages who are part of the unfolding drama over e-mails and Internet messages that Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., sent to teenagers in the Capitol Hill page program:

Kirk Fordham, former longtime chief of staff for Foley, resigned Wednesday from his post as chief of staff for Rep. Thomas Reynolds, R-N.Y. He told The Associated Press that, several years ago, "I had more than one conversation with senior staff at the highest level of the House of Representatives asking them to intervene when I was informed of Mr. Foley's inappropriate behavior."

Scott Palmer, chief of staff for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, contradicted that account. "What Kirk Fordham said did not happen," Palmer said in a statement.

Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La., contacted Hastert's office in the fall of 2005 about Foley's e-mails to a 16-year-old page from Louisiana. Alexander's staff declined to disclose the content of the e-mails but characterized them as "over-friendly" if not sexual. This spring, Alexander raised the issue with House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, who referred him to Reynolds, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., chairman of the House Page Board, was notified of the complaint in the fall of 2005 and met with Foley to order him to cease contacts with the Louisiana teenager.

Rep. Thomas Reynolds said in a statement that he raised the e-mail issue in a meeting with Hastert this spring.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said he had no memory of being informed of the Foley e-mails by Reynolds. However, a preliminary report issued by the speaker's office this week said Hastert "has no reason to dispute" Reynolds' recollection. The report says no one in the speaker's office was made aware of the more salacious instant messages until ABC News aired them in late September.

House Majority Leader John Boehner recalled in an interview with Cox Newspapers that he learned about the improper e-mails this spring from Alexander. He said he was "99 percent" sure he had discussed the situation with Hastert.

House Ethics Committee Chairman Richard "Doc" Hastings, R-Wash., has the reputation of being a party loyalist. In a statement released Thursday, Hastings pledged that "our investigation will go wherever the evidence takes us."

House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said in a statement Thursday: "We all now realize that this terrible situation could have been handled differently."

Page: A congressional page from Louisiana, whose name has been withheld for privacy reasons, and his parents raised concerns after Foley sent e-mails to the 16-year-old asking for his picture, his age and other personal questions. The teenager forwarded the e-mails to a congressional staffer and reportedly called them "sick, sick, sick."

Page: A teenage former congressional page from San Diego received instant messages from Foley, including one saying "I would drive a few miles for a hot stud like you," broadcast first by ABC News.

Former Capitol Hill page Tyson Vivyan, now 26, told NBC News that after he returned to his home in Tennessee as a 17-year-old, he began receiving instant messages from Foley asking about his sexual habits. "I was completely shocked," said Vivyan, who added that he did not report the incidents earlier because he thought no one would believe him.