Hastert’s chief of staff questioned about Foley

WASHINGTON – The House ethics committee questioned Speaker Dennis Hastert’s top aide for more than six hours Monday, as investigators tried to determine whether Hastert’s office knew at least three years ago of Rep. Mark Foley’s come-ons to male pages.

The closed-door testimony by Hastert’s chief of staff, Scott Palmer, could help determine who is telling the truth about when the speaker’s office first learned of Foley’s conduct. Hastert has said it was in the fall of 2005.

Campaigning for a Republican candidate in Tennessee, Hastert said he plans to testify before the committee this week.

“What Mark Foley did was wrong. It was ethically wrong. It’s a shame. It’s actually disgusting,” Hastert told reporters after a campaign rally.

In Washington, Palmer’s lawyer, Scott Fredericksen, said his client hasn’t changed his version of events. The Hastert aide has disputed one account that he personally was notified about Foley in 2002 or 2003.

Fredericksen said the testimony was “consistent with the position he’s taken all along.”

Palmer spent longer in the committee offices than any other witness, entering at 1:57 p.m. and leaving at 8:18 p.m. This is the third week of testimony, as the committee tries to learn how the Republican leadership handled Foley’s inappropriate conduct.

The speaker has a lot riding on the outcome. He has fended off calls for his resignation with statements that his staff acted properly after the 2005 notification and quickly had a lawmaker and the House chief clerk confront the Florida Republican.

Hastert said he didn’t learn about Foley until late September, when the scandal became public and Foley resigned.

The speaker’s timeline could be shattered if the committee believes former Foley chief of staff Kirk Fordham, who already has testified before the ethics panel. Fordham has said publicly that he told Palmer about Foley in 2002 or 2003 and that he subsequently learned that Palmer spoke with Foley on the subject.

“What Kirk Fordham said did not happen,” Palmer said weeks ago in his lone public statement on the matter.

Hastert’s version, issued as an internal report, said his staff learned in the fall of 2005 that Foley had sent overly friendly e-mails to a former Louisiana page. The report said the staff did not see the texts of the e-mails, which asked about the 16-year-old’s birthday and requested a picture.