Where was the FBI?

October 2, 2006

Nearly all of the questions about neglect in the Mark Foley scandal relate to the House GOP leadership and what some are calling The Foley Five — House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), and Reps. Tom Reynolds (R-N.Y.), John Shimkus (R-Ill.), and Rodney Alexander (R-La.) — all of whom were made aware of Foley’s emails.

But there’s also the FBI to consider. The law enforcement agency has opened a preliminary inquiry, but as Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) noted today, it received copies of the emails that started this scandal on July 21, 2006. Suspecting possible illegalities, CREW forwarded the emails to the FBI. Like the House GOP leadership, there’s no evidence the FBI did much of anything to deal with the issue.

“As a former prosecutor who handled sex crimes in the District of Columbia, the emails set off alarm bells. Grown men simply do not send emails requesting photographs to teenagers over whom they have had some degree of authority,” Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW wrote today.

It appears only now, at the instigation of the House of Representatives leadership’s request, that the FBI has begun a preliminary investigation into former Rep. Foley’s conduct. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert sent a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales requesting an investigation into Rep. Foley’s actions as well as who knew about Rep. Foley’s conduct, when they knew it and why they did not forward that information to law enforcement authorities.

Sloan stated today, “Since the FBI has known about Rep. Foley’s emails since July, the question arises: Did the administration help to cover up Rep. Foley’s conduct and leave a potential sexual predator on the loose? Was the administration more concerned with protecting a powerful ally in Congress than with protecting children?”

Three entities saw Foley’s emails earlier this year: House GOP leaders, the FBI, and a non-profit organization called CREW. Unfortunately, only one took the notes seriously, and it’s the one that isn’t directly accountable to the public.

CREW today asked the Inspector General at the Department of Justice to investigate why the FBI did not pursue an investigation of the Foley emails. It seems like a reasonable question.

“CREW today asked the Inspector General at the Department of Justice to investigate why the FBI did not pursue an investigation of the Foley emails. It seems like a reasonable question.” – Cb

And the answer is because the Republican’t leadership didn’t really want the FBI to pursue it.

  • Digging through tons of intercepted e-mails from supposed A-Q terrorists would be my guess. I’m being slightly serious. Every law enforcement agency has been overburdened by the WoT, especially since the powers that be keep coming up with brilliant ideas like: Look through all of these phone records and see if there are any patterns, and Go question everyone this guy might have spoken to in the past decade. Right, chief.

    I must say that I challenge anyone, especially those with children and younger siblings to read even the “too friendly” e-mails and not feel their “creep alert” go off. If my sister showed me a message in which a virtual stranger asked for her photo and what she wanted for her birthday there would be t-r-o-u-b-l-e. If I found out the creep had a bunch of friends who tried to cover for him, I’d have a very loud word with them too.

  • “If my sister showed me a message in which a virtual stranger asked for her photo and what she wanted for her birthday there would be t-r-o-u-b-l-e. If I found out the creep had a bunch of friends who tried to cover for him, I’d have a very loud word with them too. ” – TAIO

    Which raises the interesting question, if Rep Foley and “Coach” Hassert were writing the laws defining digital communication sex crimes, were they writing them to protect the children…

    … or the predators?

  • Here’s a message for all those corrupt Repubs who are going into rehab: Drinking doesn’t cause organized bad behavior. It doesn’t cause you to carefully pick pages that are out of the program. It doesn’t cause you to take bribes and invest them. Hell, Mel Gibson has a better excuse than they do.

  • I’m still suffering from the residue of “surely they wouldn’t do that!” disease. My first reaction was that surely the FBI would not help cover this guy. But slowly I’m learning that this is a different government. And yes, they might do that.

  • Maybe this is the October surprise Karl Rove was promising us? We did speculate that it might involve a sex scandal. Maybe the Repugs just misunderstood his instructions and nailed one of their own guys by mistake?

  • If there is any justice left in Washington DC, the leadership of the Repblican party will have to answer for their negligence. The Catholic Church is nearly bankrupt paying for their cover-up and many pedophile priests are in jail. What’s good for the goose. . . . etc.

    I wonder what else is out there; I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. The arrogance of the Republi-thugs knows no bounds, so I should be shock-proof, but I am still more shocked by the torture bill than any sex story. Sadly the torture bill is just last week’s news. GOP=Gangsters, Opportunists, and Perverts

  • So now that we know Foley was actually having dinner dates with his ex-page “friends”, have we gotten to the point that Karl Rove’s surprise will have to be a “dead boy in the bed”?

    The month is wearing away Rove. And frankly, between Clinton and Woodward I’m not sure the plan to elevate “Terrorism and Security” as campaign issues is actually going to work out that well for the Republican’ts. Remember, always attack their strengths. And God knows, the Bushites are vunerable on both Terrorism and Security, no matter what THE BASE thinks.

  • “Digging through tons of intercepted e-mails from supposed A-Q terrorists would be my guess. I’m being slightly serious.” TAIO

    If the cost of the WoT is that we can no longer have the FBI investigate domestic crimes than we seem to be losing this WoT in a spectacular fashion. I know you are only being suggestive here but if the result of the breakdown of the wall between the CIA and the FBI is that the FBI is full time on anti-terror tehn we are in deep shit and I am going to become a bank robber.

    Republicans are sacrificing domestic safety for supposed internation security.

    Put me down for Administration influenced cover-up at the FBI. Looking at you Gonzales!

    Interesting to note who Rep Alexander reported this whole business to originally, the RCCC not the ethics comittee or the FBI. This was obviously a political and not a legal problem from the first day is appeared.

  • This current Republican leadership is more akin to a royal court than public servants in a small d democracy. They don’t care for the law unless it favors them. They make profit instead of doing the people’s business. They initiate a pre-emptive strike to help their oil buddies out while out brave and good young men give their lives senselessly for “royal” interests.

    Foleygate, I fear, is merely the tip of the Republiphiles’ iceberg of troubles. The Foley five need to be defeated at the polls this year as a minimum response to these “royal” leaders cavalier attitudes toward us common Americans. Since 1994 the Republiphiles have had more than enough opportunities to “clean up Congress.” As far as I can discern, as of late these “royal” leaders have been turning a blind eye to those of their same party who have perhaps been attempting to soil the very pages they relie upon to do the nation’s business.

    I count myself as a conservative. I count all “self-proclaimed conservatives” such as Gringrich, Limbaugh, O’Reilly, Savage et al. as opportunists who use America’s penchant for conservatism to hock their perversions. These self-proclaimed defenders of the decent need to make clear statements of comdemnation in regard to Rep. Foley. Their lack of force on this issue is very transparent. They only attack others, never their own! Our founding framers are no doubt feeling the shame of these Republiphiles in their centuries’ old afterlive.

    Vote the Rascals Out in ’06 and’08! -Kevo

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