The
Florida
Attorney
General’s
office
and
the
FBI
continue
to
mull
over
whether
to
charge
former
U.S.
Rep.
Mark
Foley
(R-Fla.)
with
a
crime
for
sending
sexually
explicit
messages
to
teenage
former
pages.
Six
months
after
Foley
resigned
his
House
seat,
Florida’s
Child
Predator
Cybercrime
Unit
is
investigating
the
disgraced
former
congressman
for
possible
violation
of
a
state
law
that
prohibits
the
sexual
solicitation
or
seduction
of
a
juvenile
by
an
adult
over
the
Internet.
A
spokesperson
for
the
cyber
unit
said
investigators
are
looking
into
online
messages
that
Foley
sent
to
a
male
teenager
and
former
House
page
from
a
hotel
room
in
Pensacola,
Fla.,
where
Foley
was
staying
during
a
trip
in
2003.
Foley’s
online
communication
from
Florida
with
at
least
one
former
page
under
age
18
opened
the
way
for
Florida
authorities
to
get
involved
in
a
probe
that
began
in
Washington
last
October
with
the
House
Committee
on
Standards
of
Official
Conduct.
“We
are
still
conducting
an
active
investigation
into
the
matter
and
continue
to
work
with
the
Florida
Attorney
General’s
Cypercrime
Unit,”
said
Kristen
Perezluha,
a
spokesperson
for
the
Florida
Department
of
Law
Enforcement.
FBI
spokesperson
Debbie
Weirman
said
the
FBI
is
still
conducting
its
own
“preliminary
investigation”
into
Foley’s
actions,
which
it
also
began
last
October.
“It’s
going
on
out
of
our
Washington
Field
Office
and
we
are
working
together
with
Florida
law
enforcement,”
Weirman
said.
Foley
resigned
from
Congress
last
Sept.
29
after
ABC
News
published
transcripts
of
sexually
explicit
instant
messages
that
Foley
exchanged
with
two
former
House
pages,
one
16
and
the
other
17.
News
of
his
improper
overtures
toward
current
and
former
pages
and
reports
that
House
Republican
leaders
knew
about
Foley’s
actions
but
did
not
take
sufficient
steps
to
intervene,
triggered
a
national
uproar
that
some
believe
helped
Democrats
win
control
of
Congress
in
the
November
elections.
Shortly
after
his
resignation,
Foley
announced
through
his
attorney
that
he
was
gay
and
had
entered
an
Arizona
facility
for
treatment
of
“alcoholism
and
other
behavioral
problems.”
He
has
since
sold
his
Washington
house
and
returned
to
Florida
where
he
has
remained
in
seclusion
according
to
reports
in
the
South
Florida
Sun
Sentinel.
At
the
request
of
House
Speaker
Nancy
Pelosi
(D-Calif.),
the
Democratic-controlled
Congress
earlier
this
year
passed
legislation
that
changed
the
composition
of
the
House
Page
Board,
the
body
that
had
been
criticized
for
taking
too
long
to
discover
Foley’s
behavior
toward
pages.
The
legislation,
which
President
Bush
signed
into
law,
requires
that
an
equal
number
of
Republicans
and
Democrats
be
appointed
to
the
Page
Board
regardless
of
which
party
controls
Congress.
The
legislation
also
creates
two
new
seats
to
the
board,
one
for
a
former
page
and
the
other
for
a
parent
of
a
current
or
former
page,
and
requires
the
board
to
meet
regularly.
In
the
six
months
since
Foley’s
resignation,
three
gay
men
who
played
a
key
role
in
either
uncovering
Foley’s
action
toward
pages
or
helped
in
the
investigation
have
also
kept
low
profiles.
Jeff
Trandahl,
the
openly
gay
former
Clerk
of
the
House
of
Representatives,
whom
House
investigators
say
had
repeatedly
urged
staff
members
of
House
GOP
leaders
to
rein
in
Foley’s
inappropriate
behavior,
is
now
a
member
of
the
board
of
the
Human
Rights
Campaign.
Trandahl,
a
Republican
who
had
also
been
involved
behind
the
scenes
with
the
gay
group
Log
Cabin
Republicans,
now
holds
the
post
of
executive
director
of
the
National
Fish
and
Wildlife
Foundation.
Trandahl
and
his
spokesperson,
John
Butler,
a
former
officer
with
the
Gay
&
Lesbian
Activists
Alliance
of
Washington,
have
declined
to
comment
on
anything
associated
with
the
Foley
matter.
Trandahl
resigned
from
his
post
as
House
Clerk
and
announced
his
new
job
with
the
National
Fish
and
Wildlife
Foundation
in
the
fall
of
2005,
shortly
after
Trandahl
began
questioning
Foley’s
behavior
toward
pages
in
private
conversations
with
both
Foley
and
House
GOP
staffers.
The
timing
of
his
departure
has
raised
speculation
over
whether
GOP
leaders
forced
him
out
of
his
job.
Trandahl’s
friends
insist
he
had
been
looking
for
a
career
change
and
that
he
left
his
job
with
the
House
of
his
own
volition,
but
some
Capitol
Hill
insiders
remain
skeptical,
citing,
among
other
things,
an
unusually
brief
and
terse
announcement
on
the
House
floor
of
his
departure
as
House
Clerk.
Information
released
on
the
National
Fish
and
Wildlife
Foundation
web
site
shows
that
Trandahl
has
joined
environmental
and
conservationist
leaders
to
push
for
ways
to
protect
shoreline
habitats
as
a
means
of
reversing
a
dramatic
decline
in
fish
populations
in
U.S.
territorial
waters.
Kirk
Fordham,
Foley’s
chief
of
staff
until
2003,
also
played
a
prominent
role
as
a
witness
in
the
House
investigation
into
Foley’s
actions
toward
pages.
Fordham,
who
is
gay,
told
investigators
that
he
informed
Scott
Palmer,
chief
of
staff
for
then
House
Speaker
Dennis
Hastert
(R-Ill.),
about
Foley’s
inappropriate
behavior
toward
pages
in
2003,
more
than
two
years
before
Hastert
claimed
to
have
had
any
knowledge
about
Foley’s
actions.
Fordham
said
Palmer
met
with
Foley
to
address
the
situation,
but
Hastert
and
other
House
GOP
leaders
did
little
to
curtail
Foley’s
actions.
Palmer
has
disputed
Fordham’s
version
on
the
timing
of
his
meeting
with
Foley,
and
others
have
pointed
...
