FBI will investigate Foley's sex messages to teens

WASHINGTON — The FBI announced Sunday night that it is looking into whether former Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., broke federal law by sending inappropriate e-mails and instant messages to teenage House pages.

The announcement came hours after House Speaker Dennis Hastert asked for a Justice Department investigation into not only Foley's actions but also Congress' handling of the matter once it learned of the contacts.

In his letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Hastert, R-Ill., acknowledged that some of Foley's most sexually explicit instant messages were sent to former House pages in 2003. That was two years before lawmakers say they learned of a more ambiguous 2005 e-mail that led only to a quiet warning to Foley to leave pages alone.

Foley, 52, abruptly resigned Friday, and Democrats have since been hammering Hastert and other GOP leaders. They have accused Republicans of covering up the matter and allowing Foley to remain co-chairman of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, instead of launching an inquiry into the 2005 incident and possibly uncovering the raunchier communications.

Hastert maintained at first that he had learned only last week about the e-mails. But Rep. Thomas Reynolds, head of the House Republican election effort, said Saturday he had told Hastert months ago about concerns that Foley had sent inappropriate messages to a teenage boy. Reynolds, R-N.Y., is under attack from Democrats who say he did too little to protect the boy.

Hastert acknowledged over the weekend that his aides had, in fact, referred the matter to the House clerk and to the congressman who was chairman of the board that oversees the page program. Hastert's office said, however, it had not known the e-mails were anything more than "over-friendly."

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada called the Foley case "repugnant, but equally as bad is the possibility that Republican leaders in the House of Representatives knew there was a problem and ignored it to preserve a congressional seat this election year."

Reid said the case should be handled outside Congress.

"Under laws that Congressman Foley helped write, soliciting sex from a minor online is a federal crime," Reid said. "The alleged crimes here are far outside the scope of any congressional committee, and the attorney general should open a full-scale investigation immediately."

" If this gets out ... "

Also Sunday, a former House page said that at a 2003 page reunion, he saw sexually suggestive e-mails Foley had sent to another former page. Patrick McDonald, 21, now a senior at Ohio State University, said he eventually learned of "three or four" pages from his 2001-2002 class who were sent such messages.

He said he remembered saying at the reunion, "If this gets out, it will destroy him."

Foley has said nothing since announcing his resignation.

Hastert, in his letter to Gonzales, said Foley's electronic messages crossed state lines, so "there should be a complete investigation and prosecution of any federal laws that have been violated."

FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko declined to elaborate on his announcement of the agency's investigation of Foley.

Hastert also wrote that, because some of the more sexually explicit instant messages were written in 2003, "there should be an investigation into the extent there are persons who knew or had possession of these messages but did not report them to the appropriate authorities."

The speaker asked that the investigation extend to "all individuals who may have been aware of this matter — be they members of Congress, employees of the House of Representatives, or anyone outside the Congress." He said that "no one in the House leadership was aware, to my knowledge," of the explicit messages from 2003 until ABC News reported on them last week.

In one instant-message exchange with a high-school boy, ABC News reported, Foley made repeated references to sex acts and body parts.

Former page Matthew Loraditch said Sunday he has known for years about the "creepy" messages that three 2002 classmates received from Foley. He said Foley sent them after the boys had finished the House program. Each began innocuously but took a turn in tone, said Loraditch, a senior at Towson University in Maryland.

"They became explicit and similar to what we are seeing on the Web sites right now," said Loraditch, 21, who runs the U.S. House Page Alumni Association's Internet message board. "They didn't do anything beside telling other pages about it."

Exceedingly friendly

Foley was known as a House member who was exceedingly friendly to young pages, most of whom are 16- and 17-year-old high-school juniors who come to Washington for an intensive, yearlong civics lesson. Unlike most House members, he memorized their names and talked politics with them during lulls in late-night sessions. Foley was the only House member to attend the Class of 2002's graduation, according to McDonald, and he wore a tuxedo.

McDonald and Loraditch said they received no improper messages from Foley. Loraditch said he had viewed several "cut-and-paste excerpts" of messages Foley sent to one of the three in their class who received the contacts. "Some went along with it, others cut it off," Loraditch said. "I'm pretty sure none met with him."

None of the three former pages is yet willing to step forward, according to McDonald and Loraditch.

Loraditch said no one wanted to report Foley for fear of damaging their job prospects.

"That's part of your concern about coming forward," he said. "You take down a Congress member, and you can't end up trying to do something later."

Material from The Associated Press is included in this report.

Former page, on responses of some who received messages