Excerpt:
"But Democrats are attempting to make hay by alleging that the Republican leadership may have known about the inappropriate emails and covered them up for months. Their hope, no doubt, is to discourage turnout by disillusioned evangelical and other voters sensitive to moral issues. But the emerging background detail suggests that this is simply not the case, and that an attack strategy has been devised by parties anxious to damage the GOP and swing the coming election."
from fox news website:
ReplyDeleteStill, some Republican aides told FOX News that they are upset with The Washington Times editorial board, suggesting hypocrisy on its part because the paper's own human resources director was recently arrested for Internet solicitation of a minor and the managing editor has not been asked to step down in the wake of that scandal.
"The Washington Times editorial doesn’t make a great deal of sense so I have to question their motives here. The speaker was clear that, like Foley’s newspaper, they were only aware of those non-explicit e-mails asking how the one kid was after Katrina, and not the very disgusting other e-mails," said one Republican aide. "The Times editorial doesn’t differentiate between the two. ... I think the speaker’s office [did] a good job yesterday of being very transparent and I’m not sure what the Times’ motivation was but did find it suspicious that they saw fit to leak it to (cybergossip Matt) Drudge last night."
The FBI announced on Sunday it was opening a preliminary investigation into the matter. One law enforcement official said the agency had received some Foley-related e-mail correspondence in July, but concluded that no federal law had been violated. The official would not say how many e-mails the FBI initially received or whether they came from multiple sources
As the questions fly about Foley's legal prospects, government lawyers and investigators have questioned whether a probe will yield any criminal proceedings against Foley.
For now, it appears that investigators do not have the sort of solid probable cause needed to draft a search warrant and conduct a raid to confiscate hard drives and other computer equipment. The instant messages between Foley and one male page do not demonstrate any criminality, attorneys say.
In the IMs published in the press and attributed to Foley, he told the page he wanted to see him, but made no effort to press the issue. In the exchange, even the page alluded that Foley was fishing for promises of some sort of illicit activity, but the page didn't take the bait and apparently Foley didn't press the issue.
Telling the page he wanted to see him may fall just short of enticement, say attorneys, and that is one of the things the FBI's preliminary investigation is trying to determine. Having an intimate familiarity with the laws governing this sort of communication as co-chairman of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, Foley may have known where the legal line was not to be crossed.
If more obvious communications surface in which Foley clearly pressures a young person for sex, then the FBI has a more solid case.
FOX News' Major Garrett, Kelly Wright, Trish Turner and Ian McCaleb and The Associated Press contributed to this report.