Officials stand by story on Foley
WASHINGTON – Two key congressional figures testified before a House ethics panel Thursday about their roles in the Mark Foley scandal, reportedly sticking to accounts indicating that Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., or his top aides were alerted to concerns about the disgraced Florida Republican lawmaker’s behavior toward teenage pages before it became public.
The committee spent more than four hours questioning Jeff Trandahl, a central figure who has remained publicly silent about the affair. As House clerk from 1999 through last year, Trandahl oversaw the page program and dealt with several complaints about the actions of Foley, who abruptly resigned Sept. 29 as ABC News was reporting on sexually graphic electronic messages he exchanged with former pages.
Trandahl joined Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., chairman of the House Page Board, in quietly confronting Foley last fall about e-mails that the lawmaker had sent to a Louisiana boy, which the youth and his parents found troubling. Those e-mails were not nearly as explicit as the messages that emerged later from other sources.
Hastert’s office has said that two high-ranking aides knew about the meeting with Foley but did not tell the speaker or his chief of staff, Scott Palmer. The Page Board’s other members, including a Democratic lawmaker, also were not told.
Trandahl did not speak with reporters Thursday as he left the ethics committee’s office in the Capitol basement. His lawyer, Cono Namorato, said in a statement that Trandahl “has cooperated fully with the investigation being conducted by the FBI” and the ethics committee, and “stands ready to render additional assistance if needed.”
A source who has spoken with Trandahl since the scandal broke said the former clerk indicated he had alerted Hastert’s staff in recent years to concerns that Foley was showing inappropriate attention to teenage pages. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he had no reason to think Trandahl would give a different version to the FBI or the four-member House ethics panel. Trandahl’s main contact on Hastert’s staff appeared to be counsel Ted Van Der Meid, the source said.
Also Thursday, House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, became the highest-ranking lawmaker to testify to the ethics panel on the Foley matter. Speaking to reporters after about an hour of questioning, he said, “I told the committee the same thing that I have told many of you.”
Boehner originally told the Washington Post that he had spoken with Hastert earlier this year about Foley’s e-mails to the Louisiana boy. He later said he was not sure he had told Hastert, and still later said he was fairly certain he had told the speaker.