I'm confused, who found Foley's emails and IM's?

[bamademo]

I haven't seen a clear cut explanation of how the press discovered the scandal? Who squealed?

[napi21]

1. As far as I've heard, they were turned over to ABC.

I don't think anyone has said who turned them over.

[merh]

2. pages and former pages

From what I understand, the abc reporter posted on his blog about the emails and how the government was trying to buy his cooperation in exchange for not publishing the worst of 'em, they would give him an exclusive.

pages and former pages read that and sent him emails and Im's. (as I understand it).

[peacetalksforall]

10. If true, isn't this BIG?

[merh]

11. yes, one would think it is big

not Foley, as much as the cover up and the attempts to diminish the "sleeziness" of the communications.

[peacetalksforall]

14. I think I should have said, isn't this prosecutable? Cover up is what

drove freepers and the despicable self acclaimed moralist Republicans wild during the attempt to take down Clinton.

[merh]

15. I believe that the US Attorney, the Louisiana Attorney General

and prosecuting attorney, and the FLorida Attorney General and prosecutors are looking into whether or not the communications constitute criminal acts (and if there was a cover up).

[Canuckistanian]

12. Details, we need details!

WHICH ABC reporter, WHICH blog?

And was there any detail on on which government official?

Any recollection, any clues?

[merh]

16. There is a thread on it in GD from earlier this evening.

Brian Ross with ABC said he was offered the exclusive if he was willing to not report the really bad parts or something like that.

[Canuckistanian]

22. Thanks, checking it out now

One would almost believe that ABC was "compensating" for something....

[merh]

25. I think Brian Ross has tried to maintain his intergrity through all of

this, he has had some hard hitting reports that are mostly ignored or subject to nightline against football games or something.

you are welcome! :hi:

[NicoleM]

18. Brian Ross, The Blotter

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/10/emails_show_fol.html

I don't know how he got the original 2005 email. But after he posted it, apparently one or more former pages sent him the text files of the IMs they'd had with Foley in the past. Ross contacted Foley about the IMs and that's when Foley and his former chief of staff tried to broker a deal to keep ABC from publishing the IMs.

[Canuckistanian]

19. Thanks, sometimes you never hear how these things start

Not that I'm complaining....

:toast:

[merh]

21. here's the link to the thread from earlier

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=2286245

[KittyWampus]

17. you squished the sequence. ABC posted the tamer email story and then

other pages began sending in IM's that were more heinous... and THEN the GOP started offering to pay up for silence.

IIRC

[merh]

20. Well, I didn't muck it up that badly, he had wind of the story

and had gotten some emails and asked FOley's staff, they were willing to give him exclusives if he didn't report the bad stuff.

On Friday afternoon, a strategist for Rep. Mark Foley tried to cut a deal with ABC's Brian Ross.

The correspondent, who had dozens of instant messages that Foley sent to teenage House pages, had asked to interview the Florida Republican. Foley's former chief of staff said the congressman was quitting and that Ross could have that information exclusively if he agreed not to publish the raw, sexually explicit messages.

"I said we're not making any deals," Ross recalls.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=2286245

[benddem]

3. Having never sending one

I wonder how you go about saving them. These guys must have been holding on to this stuff for some time. Wonder what they had in mind. Blackmail???

[Gruenemann]

4. Copy and paste

Very easy.

[Union Thug]

5. Two possibilities..

You can configure your IM client to save conversations. Secondly, people should realize that these are not p2p clients. There is a server in the middle that backlogs all your conversations. Having worked for two very large Internet providers, I can tell you that people had better be very careful about what they send over IM! :-)

[IChing]

6. Give me a break "Blackmail???"

How about protection and self preservation from sexual predators,
who wrote the laws for this nation.

Yeah 15 year old boys doing blackmail


get a life.

[Sydnie]

7. You can choose, in most IM type programs

to save the log as a text file. If you wanted to document something that someone said, you would save the chat log and have it for later.


Wonder how long before they say that amounts to illegal wiretapping because Foley didn't know the page would save the chat? Stranger things have happened ....

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

8. Most IM programs allow you to save a log of your chat as a file.

Simple matter to print out, copy/paste, whatever. Naive for IMers to think that just because THEY aren't keeping a log, that the person on the other end is not.

[Canuckistanian]

13. Or the person in the middle

Remember, this is going UNENCRYPTED through a server somewhere.

And certain intelligence agencies now have free rein to monitor, capture and disseminate almost ANY internet traffic.

Just sayin'...

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

9. Perhaps it has occurred to you that a teen page, getting chatted up on

Instant Messenger by a powerful/famous person like a congressman, might save the chat for posterity. They might not have known it was going to involve whacking off, towels, cast fetishes and what not.

[barb162]

24. what does this mean: cast fetishes

[Justice Is Comin]

27. I take it to mean plaster cast...like when you break your arm.

Everybody has a different thing that floats the boat.

[barb162]

33. that's really strange

[karlrschneider]

28. One of the former pages said he had a 'cast fetish'.

I don't explain 'em, just report.
;-)

[barb162]

29. wow, now I am even more confused

[karlrschneider]

30. Yeah, I know...

:eyes:

[TahitiNut]

32. I wonder if an investigation might show a time Foley wore a cast ...

... and that (former) page was around. It could be a little saunter down Nostalgia Lane. :shrug:

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

31. Not for the faint of heart:

http://abcnews.go.com/images/WNT/02-02-03b.pdf

(extended IM chat log between Foley and intern)

[Imagevision]

23. The same people who Foley tried to bribe to not report the emails content

ABC's Brian Ross investigated and exposed Foley

[Justice Is Comin]

26. Fortunately Brian Ross must have a little bit of Ted Koppel in him.

[Contrary1]

34. Wow...look at this comment I found...

"I am sick and tired of the liberal media trying to steal Republican issues. Foley has done more good trying to stop child predators than the entire Democrat Party. He obviously has a problem and he is trying to deal with it in rehab. If the kid didn't have a problem with the IM relationship and his parents didn't have a problem why all of a sudden do we rake the entire Republican party through the muck. If Democrats spent more time on family values and less time on same sex marriage we wouldn't have this problem. Cllinton is much worse and HE must be stopped. Foley may have had a long distance relationship with the kid, Clinton was obviously close enough to spit. The Democrats just disgust me dragging everyone including Rick Santorum and George Allen through this sordid affair. What about Hillary?"