Federal Prosecutors Order Electronic Communications Preserved
Foley's Former Chief of Staff Resigns
By Dan Eggen and Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; 3:54 PM
Federal prosecutors today ordered the House to preserve all documents and other materials possibly related to former Rep. Mark Foley's electronic communications with teenage pages on Capitol Hill, signaling an intensifying investigation by the FBI and Justice Department into possible criminal activity connected to the scandal.
The three-page "preservation letter," sent to the House counsel from the office of Acting U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor in Washington, indicates that law enforcement officials are getting closer to seeking grand jury subpoenas for records or searches of Foley's Capitol Hill office, according to law enforcement officials and legal experts.
Foley resigned Friday after sexually explicit comments he made to pages in e-mails and electronic instant messages began to become public. He later checked himself into a alcohol treatment program. The resulting scandal has rocked Capitol Hill.
FBI agents around the country have begun seeking to locate and interview former pages who may have had contact with Foley (R-Fla.), and the Justice Department and FBI are discussing the use of administrative subpoenas to obtain subscriber information for the e-mail and instant-messaging accounts at the heart of the case, according to law enforcement officials.
Although still classified as a preliminary investigation, the demands to preserve records and other steps increase the chances that federal prosecutors will open a full criminal investigation and bring the case before a grand jury, officials said.
The focus of the probe so far is on whether Foley might be liable for charges of crossing state lines in order to entice or engage a minor in sexual acts, but investigators "have not ruled out any number of possible crimes that could be looked at," said one law enforcement official, who along with others requested anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.
Also this afternoon, Foley's former chief of staff, Kirk Fordham, announced that he was resigning from his current job as chief of staff for Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-N.Y.). In the days leading up to Foley's resignation, Reynolds allowed Fordham to advise the Florida congressman and Fordham played a role in helping Foley after an ABC News reporter told the congressman he had copies of his sexually charged exchanges with pages.
Brian Ross of ABC told The Post Sunday that when ABC approached Foley with the graphic exchanges, Fordham intervened and offered ABC the exclusive story of Foley's resignation, if ABC withheld the instant messages. Ross refused the deal.
In his statement, Fordham said he felt betrayed by Foley's "indefensible behavior" and was resigning because it was "clear the Democrats are intent on making me a political issue in my boss's race, and I will not let them do so."
He said his help to Foley was based on concerns about his "emotional well-being."
But he strongly denied that he sought to impede any investigation. "I want it to be perfectly clear that I never attempted to prevent any inquiries or investigation of Foley's conduct by House officials or any other authorities," he said.
FBI Contacting Pages; Evidence Foley Solicited Sex
October 03, 2006 6:51 PM
FBI agents have begun to contact former congressional pages in the growing investigation of disgraced former Congressman Mark Foley, according to federal law enforcement officials.
At least one former page has reportedly offered evidence that Foley sought to solicit sex during instant message exchanges over the Internet.
The "preliminary investigation" appears to be heading towards a full field investigation, according to one official.
THE BLOTTER RECOMMENDS
Officials say Foley's extensive knowledge of child exploitation laws may have helped guide him as to how far he could go without violating the law.
Instant messages obtained by ABC News indicated Foley met or arranged to meet young men under the age of 18 who had been pages.
Despite the fact that Foley's attorney has said Foley admits to sending the "totally inappropriate" e-mails and IMs, the FBI has still not seized his computer and hard drive.
"Mark has absolutely agreed on his own and with our counsel not to do anything with any computer, not to delete any messages, not to obliterate or attempt to obliterate any IMs, e-mails, Internet communications," said Roth.
The FBI confirmed today that it has not drawn up a search warrant for the equipment because the investigation is still preliminary, and they are still examining the messages they've obtained so far.
