Posted on 10/04/2006 8:39:44 PM PDT by PhiKapMom
A former U.S. House page working on the gubernatorial campaign of Republican Rep. Ernest Istook may be a part of the scandal involving former Congressman Mark Foley, The Oklahoman has learned.
The former page, a Californian named Jordan Edmund, on Wednesday hired Enid attorney Stephen Jones to represent him, the attorney confirmed.
Jones would not say exactly why he was hired, but did say, “I understand the FBI and the House Ethics committee have an interest in the matter ... the allegations concerning Congressman Foley which have surfaced.”
Foley, a Republican from Florida, resigned abruptly on Friday after it was learned that he exchanged sexually explicit e-mails with former pages. The FBI is investigating.
Istook’s campaign manager, Chip Englander, who is also from California, declined comment Wednesday to an Oklahoman reporter.
However, Englander gave The Oklahoman a statement that was attributed to Istook.
The statement says, “The sad and sick behavior of Mark Foley was a total surprise to me when it was revealed. Law enforcement is doing its job, and I support that effort. Now we should all support and protect the victims, and they should not be hounded by the press.
“It was a complete surprise to learn this morning that one victim may be someone I know. Each one of the victims deserves their privacy. To every reporter I request, please have the decency to avoid making things worse for the victims, and just leave them alone. This happened years ago when the victims were minors.”
Reached at his home, Istook referred to the prepared statement.
Edmund’s name surfaced on Internet “blogs” that linked him to the instant message address used in communications with Foley.
One blogger got the instant message address from the Web site of ABC News, which has obtained the instant messages sent between Foley and a former page.
In the sequence of messages identified by the blogger, Foley tells the person to “strip down and get relaxed.”
It is not clear whether Foley’s other instant messages, including one in which he apparently conducted “instant message” sex with a person, were all to the same person.
Asked why Edmund needed an attorney, Jones said, “You read the blogs. You know why he needs an attorney.”
Jones, who represented Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh in his murder trial in Denver, confirmed Edmund was a U.S. House page.
“I’ve been retained in the last several hours,” Jones said. “I’m still reviewing matters.”
Jones said the two met Wednesday in Oklahoma City.
Edmund had an Internet page on the popular MySpace Web site.
On that page, he identified himself as being 21 years old and said he had been attending college at the University of California at Berkeley. He said he was going to Oklahoma to be deputy campaign manager for Istook’s gubernatorial effort, the Web site stated.
Edmund registered to vote in Oklahoma in March, records show.
The House Ethics Committee is scheduled to hold a closed-door meeting this morning about the Foley matter.
Rep. Tom Cole, R-Moore, one of the 10 members of the committee, flew back to Washington on Wednesday for what he called an “emergency meeting.”
He said the committee today would not hear from witnesses but would set the parameters of the investigation.
Contributing: Staff Writers Joe Wertz, Bryan Dean, Jennifer Mock and Ryan McNeill
Copyright 2006
If it's a prank... where did all these 'former pages' come from? ABC needs to be part of the investigation, as well as CREW/Sloan and SSP (who btw disappeared the emails when we saw they were altered Friday).
While Fordham said he has had no discussions with Reynolds about resigning himself over the ABC incident, Fordham acknowledged he has begun meeting with a lawyer, knowing that the FBI might want to interview him in its investigation of Foley.
While sources close to Foley's congressional office said he and Fordham used to socialize together, Fordham said: "The extent of my social involvement with him would be at political dinners, functions, things like that. . . . It was largely a professional relationship. We were close, I knew his family, but we spent all this time together with other people, as you usually do with politicians."
[BARF ALERT] And now, Fordham said he feels betrayed by his former boss.
"This was someone I had worked for for 10 years and had no inkling that this kind of blatantly reckless and just obscene behavior was going on behind our backs," Fordham said.
Asked why he rushed to Foley's aid when the crisis emerged, Fordham said: "We didn't know till we got that call [from ABC] how bad this stuff was. Frankly, if I had ever known this stuff was out there, I wouldn't be talking to him at all."
That's what I said.
Michael Medved doesn't even get it.
Maybe they are imploding?
I cannot believe that is is a coup by Republicans to take down Hastert. That would be too stupid a play for even the GOP. This is a Rat infested dirty political trick supported by George Sorus money to influence voters to vote Rat.
That lawyer doesn't come cheap.
Soros?
Excellent.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who sent a link to last night's thread on to the Drudge tip line.
Jones probably called the jerk and offered him his services for free....Cough.
This was NOT a PRANK...it was a COUP try!!
"vast corn hole conspiracy"
ROFL!
Good job, PKM! You were way ahead of the curve last evening when you reconized Jordan's pic and said something to the effect that he is not a nice person.
I wonder if this will affect Istook's campaign more than anyone else?
And where did this 21-year-old get the money for Jones? Are his parents wealthy? Are they active Republicans?
I love having you as an inside source, you are good! You proved it with your reports on that backpack bomber last fall.
BUMP for enchante.
Istook's campaign has been in trouble since it started because of his inept staff and other factors. His press conference today didn't do anything to help him. He was not clear cut on what he wanted to say and portrayed the kid as a victim. Not smart. Better to say no comment until the facts all came out! Right after that, Drudge broke the story the kid said it was a prank.
Channel 9 had the blogger on that outed this guy and turns out he kept trying to call the Istook campaign before he outed him but they wouldn't return his call. Not surprised.
You have brought up some really good points here. I am going to post a link that goes to a Dem site but the info is good from all accounts. I have the full story that has been sent to me numerous times but this link pulls out the Istook part over the past six months as quite a few of us were not supporting Istook for Governor in the primary:
http://www.demookie.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=28925
This kid taped Bob Sullivan's talk at our Meet and Greet for the Istook campaign.
How did the IMs and emails get into the hands of democrats? Were the dems snooping in other people's computers?
This could be the modern version of a watergate
Or it could be another Great Rovian Trick, HEHEHEHEHE!!! /sarc
He could make five times that amount in either Boston, D.C. of NYC doing the exact same thing. In OK, having a Mercedes for your kid makes to mega-rich.
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