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OK, nonsuit it is. Foley only hit on those 16 years or older. He obviously knows his own statute better than I do.

Well, there may be another law, federal or state that I'm missing. The age of consent in Florida is 18, with a close-in exception for 16 year-olds, but only if their partner is under 24. The age of consent in D.C. is 16. And there probably ought to be a federal law, even if there isn't one currently.

In any event, Foley should have resigned and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Republicans ought not to tolerate this crap. The Democrats usually don't care - it's just about sex, after all. It is a travesty that Democrats let Congressman Gerry Studds (D-MA) remain in office and reelected him despite actually having sex with a 17 year old male page - he showed absolutely no remorse for his actions.

The set of federal laws dealing with the sexual exploitation and other abuse of children do apply to those under the age of 18, but generally require visual depictions child sex acts. A text chat probably wouldn't be a visual depiction.

This might be a case of there ought to be a law, but there isn't anything directly on point that I've found so far.