FDLE won't charge Foley in page case, criticizes feds

Palm Beach Post ^ | September 19, 2008 | DARA KAM and JASON SCHULTZ

[South40]

TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Department of Law Enforcement Friday blamed federal justice officials, a U.S. House speaker and even Mark Foley himself for its failure to press charges against the disgraced former congressman involving the use of computers to solicit sex from minors.

And even if FDLE had found grounds to charge Foley, the state did not launch the investigation until six months after the three-year statute of limitations had passed.

"I am of course relieved ... the determination has been made that there is no probable cause to believe that I committed any crime," Foley said in a statement read by his lawyer at a West Palm Beach news conference Friday. "While I have recognized that my behavior was not illegal, that does not by any means make it proper or appropriate. I am deeply ashamed of my conduct."

[sphinx]

I didn't obsess on the Foley case when it happened, but my recollection of the original scandal, as it initially played out prior to the 2006 election, is that the pages he was emailing/texting were of legal age. If I recall correctly, they were in fact ex-pages who had already left Washington and gone on to other things.

Is there another set of Foley emails that have turned up in subsequent investigations or is the press simply making things up here?

[South40]

I know of no other emails.

I do find it interesting that dems were all over the Foley case while hypocritically "forgetting" the very similar case of Gerry Studds who had sex with an underaged page and went on to be reelected many times afterward.

Libs are nothing if they're not hypocrites.

[sphinx]

I take your point about democrat double standards, but the Studds case was not "very similar." Studds actually carried on an affair with a serving page, even taking his boy toy on official trips. I believe, however, that Studds' paramour was also of legal age.

Foley seems to have minded some self-imposed limits. At least with regard to the cases that figured in the 2006 elections, Foley apparently kept hands off while the pages were in Washington. The dastardly emails and text message occured after the pages had gone home. The ex-pages he was contacting were also of legal age.

I'm also not aware that Foley ever actually scored with an ex-page; there's a bit of a fantasy sex aspect to this whole matter. I said above that Foley kept hands off while the pages were in Washington. It might be more accurate to say he kept his thumbs off his blackberry -- it's not clear there was anything more than that involved.

About the only similarity in the Foley and Studds cases is that both were homosexual.

[NewsBee]

Now is good time to shine the light AGAIN on this erring Republican though......isn’t the media too cute!!!

It worked so well for the 2006 elections!!!!

Media=democrats!!!

[the Real fifi]

There never was a legal case here—just an October surprise and a lot of foolish voters taken in by it. Imagine thinking Dennis Hastert deliberately covering for a pedophile! I certainly hope people won’t be this dumb again in 2008.