CREW asked FBI to investigate Foley last July

NPR is reporting this morning that Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) called for an FBI investigation of Mark Foley last July 21.

Yesterday, CREW called on the Department of Justice Inspector General's office to investigate why the FBI did nothing.

"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 [yesterday].
<...>
Sloan continued, "The American public deserves to know not just how and why members of Congress failed to take action to protect the youngsters entrusted to the care of the House of Representatives, but also why the FBI -- an agency charged with protecting the public -- failed to safeguard other youngsters from a potential sexual predator."

 

•  boo hoo hoo

  there goes the right wingers claim that CREW pulled this out right before the election.

  by dc 20005 on Tue Oct 03, 2006 at 03:33:58 AM PDT

  •  Please, let's not

    mention "pull(ing) things out" in connection with the Foley case.

    by davybaby on Tue Oct 03, 2006 at 04:06:05 AM PDT

    •  pulling things

      maybe its all cover for 9/11 and the state of denial and rices denials.

      unless the pull it people are right and there were explosives planted in all 3 wtc buildings all along. how many other steal builings have ever collapsed due to fire?

      http://www.rawstory.com/...

      On a Sunday morning talk show, one of the president's closest advisors, Dan Bartlett, denied that Bush was in a "state of denial," and suggested that investigative journalist Bob Woodward "had already formulated some conclusions even before the interviewing began."

      Appearing on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Bartlett also said that he had spoken to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice earlier that morning about a reported "impending terrorist attack" warning she allegedly "brushed off" two months before the 9/11 attacks. Rice told Bartlett that the account by former CIA director George Tenet in Woodward's book was a "very, grossly misaccurate characterization of the meeting they had."

      Stephanopoulos noted that Bartlett had endorsed Woodward's previous book, Plan of Attack...

      by Peter Pan on Tue Oct 03, 2006 at 10:34:44 PM PDT

•  ...and eBay is offering an "Amazing Mark Foley

  look-alike corn dog." Bidding starts at $5.

  by doorguy on Tue Oct 03, 2006 at 03:34:45 AM PDT

  •  Lol!

    by YetiMonk on Tue Oct 03, 2006 at 03:50:25 AM PDT

  •  hahahahahhaaaaaaa

    thank you

    by titotitotito on Tue Oct 03, 2006 at 04:28:06 AM PDT

•  I'd like more on this...

  Bento's diary from Sunday asked this same question.

  I wrote to Josh Marshall asking about this aspect of the story, and while I don't know if it was in response, yesterday, TPM did come out with an article about it, and there's an update today.  (The previous article is referenced within the second one that I linked to.)

  Apparently, they didn't feel the emails "rose to the level of criminal activity".  Maybe not, but I'm interested to know more, because I can't believe that creepy emails from a sitting member of Congress just go in a file with all the other unpursued complaints.

  by eebee on Tue Oct 03, 2006 at 03:38:00 AM PDT

  •  Well Duh

    Its a Congressman.  Do you think Denny Hastert would allow the FBI to investigate a Congressman during an election season?     Here have a federal prosecutor saying that these emails alone are suspicious and provide evidence of a certain pattern associated with people that commit these types of crimes and normally would incite an investigation, yet none happened.  So not only do we have clear evidence of a coverup going on in Congress, but there is evidence of the FBI being pressured into not running an investigation of a Congressman.  

    The FBI is not a political tool?  Bullshit.

    by tunaman on Tue Oct 03, 2006 at 07:28:58 AM PDT

•  Just found this deliciously ironic quote

  at MSNBC's website from May of '05:

  "We, after all, track library books better than we do our sexual predators, and it's time we balance the scales of justice, get tough with these people and also to let every citizen who evenly remotely has the idea that they're interested in a crime against a child, that do so at your own peril, because not only will Scarborough Country come find you, but so will authorities from every state in the union including federal prosecutors. We will track you down and you will ruin your life by creating this kind of violent, disgusting crime against our most vulnerable, and that is our children."

  That was Mark Foley, who was on Scarborough's show, after passing "get tough" legislation against child predators.

  by Dem In VA on Tue Oct 03, 2006 at 04:00:00 AM PDT

  •  Daily Show

    played a clip from that statement last night.  Words can't describe.

    by skwimmer on Tue Oct 03, 2006 at 05:22:13 AM PDT

•  He could always pull out the lame excuse

  I did it for research.

  by edalex on Tue Oct 03, 2006 at 04:20:08 AM PDT

•  This has been covered up by the FBI

  for a year? Why? No investigation? No questions?  Whoooo, boy.

  by jimreyn on Tue Oct 03, 2006 at 04:20:45 AM PDT

  •  Dey wuz all DRUNK!

    That's it. The entire FBI is checking into rehab today, soon to be followed by the House leadership and the Administration.

    by smartinez on Tue Oct 03, 2006 at 04:27:23 AM PDT

    •  pResident Bush only goes to war when

      he is drunk. Rice only has briefings on terrorism when she is drunk. Colin Powell only discusses WMD at the UN when he is drunk. Dick Cheney only shoots people when he is drunk (oh,yeah, we know that). Randy Kuhl (New York 29th) only pulls shotguns on his wife when he is drunk (oh, yeah, got that one, too).

      The rehab centers will be overflowing.

      by noelschutz on Tue Oct 03, 2006 at 04:44:39 AM PDT

      •  After November, grief counseling for Republicans

        will be a growth industry. Buy stock now.

        by doorguy on Tue Oct 03, 2006 at 04:47:47 AM PDT

•  It's the FBI's fault.

  Is that the spin du jour?  Eh, better.

  by cowgirl on Tue Oct 03, 2006 at 04:26:25 AM PDT

  •  Or More LIkely, If FBI Didn't See Enough

    ..to investigate how can we (Republican Leadership) have been expected to do so.

    by edward3615 on Tue Oct 03, 2006 at 05:32:33 AM PDT

•  So the FBI was asked to investigate

  was Hstert aware of this? Why didn't he ask the FBI to investigate?

  Who precisely did Hastert have handling this?

  by Tamifah on Tue Oct 03, 2006 at 04:31:26 AM PDT

  •  A former Foley

    staffer, now chief of Reynolds' staff, as diaried here.

    by wozzle on Tue Oct 03, 2006 at 06:23:01 AM PDT

•  My question is

  did CREW go to the media in July? If not, why not? If so, why didn't the media cover it?

  by leftilicious on Tue Oct 03, 2006 at 06:30:38 AM PDT

  •  I think it's reasonable that they went to the FBI

    and not the media at the time.  But it seems that when they did not get any traction with the FBI that these somehow mysteriously were received by the media.

    That seems to be a good way to do it. Also they probably should have filed a complaint with the inspector general's office earlier.

    The thing is, if Republican's did stop the FBI's investigation back in July...then they've just made it worse by now having it pop up so near the election.

    I hope they all get what they deserve.

    by Thom K in LA on Tue Oct 03, 2006 at 06:51:42 AM PDT