A timeline for events involving Mark Foley's e-mails to House Pages

http://www.dailycomet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061002/APN/610021844
October 02. 2006 7:38PM

October 02. 2006 7:38PM

A timeline for events involving former Rep. Mark Foley's e-mails to House pages

By The Associated Press

Some key dates in the controversy involving the messages former Rep. Mark Foley reportedly sent to then-current or former House pages.

- 2003: Foley, a Florida Republican, reportedly writes sexually explicit instant messages to a male House page.

- May 2003: Foley faces questions about his sexual orientation as he prepares to run for a Senate seat in Florida. He later drops out of the race.

- Fall 2005: A former page contacts the office of his sponsor, Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La., about e-mails he had received from Foley that asked about the boy's age, then 16, and his birthday and requested a picture.

- Alexander's chief of staff calls House Speaker Dennis Hastert's office about the e-mail exchange. Alexander's aide declines to show the message to Hastert's staff and to the clerk of the House, who administers the page program, but says it is not of a sexual nature and that the family simply wants the contact to stop.

Hastert said last week he was not aware of "a different set of communications which were sexually explicit ... which Mr. Foley reportedly sent another former page or pages."

The clerk and Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., meet with Foley, who assures them he was only acting as a mentor to the boy. Shimkus orders Foley to cease contact with the boy and Foley agrees.

- November 2005: The St. Petersburg Times says it assigned two reporters to investigate after being given copies of the e-mail exchange with the Louisiana teenager. The paper said Saturday it decided not to publish at the time because of the seriousness of what would be implied and because the boy and the family would not go on the record.

The Miami Herald says it, too, had a copy of the e-mail but decided not to go public because the message was not sexually explicit and was subject to interpretation.

- Spring 2006: Alexander mentions the Foley issue to Rep. Tom Reynolds, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Republican Campaign Committee. Reynolds says he raises the issue at a meeting with Hastert. Hastert later says he does not explicitly recall this conversation but does not dispute Reynolds' recollection that he reported on the problem and its resolution.

- Sept. 28, 2006. ABC News reports on the e-mail exchange with the Louisiana teenager.

Foley's Democratic challenger, Tim Mahoney, calls for an investigation into the exchange.

- Sept. 29: Revelations emerge of sexually explicit instant messages Foley sent in 2003 to former pages. Foley resigns. The House votes to refer the matter to the ethics committee.

- Sept. 30: Hastert says he is setting up a hot line for current and former pages and their families to report problems about the page program.

- Oct. 1: Hastert writes a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales asking for an investigation of Foley's conduct. Hastert writes a similar letter to Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

- An FBI spokesman confirms the agency is "conducting an assessment to see if there's been a violation of federal law."

- Oct. 2: Foley's attorney says the former congressman is battling alcoholism and has checked into a rehabilitation facility.

link: http://www.dailycomet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061002/APN/610021844