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Second Source Tells ABC of Earlier Role by Hastert's Office
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ShareOctober 07, 2006 3:54 PM
ABC's John Yang reports: A current House staffer has told ABC News that Scott Palmer, House Speaker Dennis Hastert's (R-IL) chief of staff, met with disgraced former Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) to discuss the time and attention he was giving House pages many months before the Speaker's office has said it became aware of the issue. The staffer, who asked not be identified because of the ongoing FBI and House Ethics Committees invesgitations, told ABC News that the meeting between Palmer and Foley came to light in November 2005, around the time when Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL), head of the House Page Board, and then-House Clerk Jeff Trandahl, who was administrator of the page program, met with Foley about an e-mail exchange Foley had with a former page, sponsored by Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-LA). "At that time, I became aware that there was a previous meeting" between Foley and Palmer, the staffer told ABC News. This corroborates the account of Kirk Fordham, Foley's former chief of staff, who said he had gone to Palmer to seek the intervention of the Speaker's office to try to change Foley's behavior. Earlier, Palmer said that "what Kirk Fordham said happened didn't happen." Wednesday, Fordham was forced to resign as chief of staff to Rep. Thomas Reynolds (R-NY), who heads the effort to elect Republicans to the House in this fall's midterm elections. Earlier, sources had told ABC News that Trandahl had called Fordham several times to complain that Foley was paying too much attention to pages. Fordham would talk with Foley about the matter, according to these accounts. Usually, Foley's behavior would change for a short time only to return--and Trandahl would call Fordham again. After this happened several times, the sources said, Fordham and Trandahl discussed seeking the help of Hastert's office, which led to Fordham's meeting with Palmer.
October 7, 2006 | Permalink | User Comments (23)
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bush(president) campained say that he was going to bring family morals to the federal gov!t and down size the fed!s and provide more state gov!t.well he has so much power and so much coruption,that every thing he stood for is not valid,he has let cheney & rumsfeld lie and mislead him he never imagined the magnituede of the job he wanted,his mission accompliched on top of the carrier,was so miss leading,if he actually would have known what his admimistration was doing he would have never made such a foolish statement, i think mr. bush and all of the repubicans in powers should resign for selling themselves and lying to the american people how many more tom delay foley or hasters do we not know about yet,mr. bush needs to ask them to resign that would help get his message across.this people have really done the united states wrong.
Posted by: adan c diaz | Oct 10, 2006 6:02:48 PM
Charlie, Foley told ABC News he was resigning 20 minutes after he learned that they had the messages in hand. Hastert had nothing to do with his resignation.
Do you think Foley should still have the post that was given to him by the Republican Leadership? Should he still be at his desk, typing messages to pages? That is where he would still be if this hadn't come out.
Posted by: Robert O | Oct 12, 2006 12:14:57 AM
I feel as though I have punched in the stomach, but my voice will be strong. I am a Veteran of over 40 years and served in Korea. I know many buddies who were sent to Iraq, some are still in hospitals. Cheney said he is no longer an employee of Halliburton. Yeah Right. Over $2 million a year, plus whatever he and George W is skimming from the BILLIONS being spent to support that war. How stupid do they think we are. PLEEEESE wake up America. Way too many dollars are being spent and human lives are being sacrificed.
It makes me sick at my stomach to know the only thing I can do is wait for NOVEMBER. This is all wrong!!!
Posted by: antonio | Oct 13, 2006 2:50:37 PM
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