(Jeff Trandahl) "He seemed to suddenly disappear in a puff of smoke."

[maddezmom]

~snip~

The divergent accounts have highlighted the holes in the public's understanding of Foley's undoing. And they are sure to ratchet up the pressure on Trandahl to come forward with his knowledge of events. As House clerk between January 1999 and November 2005, Trandahl had direct control over the page program.

Pages apparently saw Trandahl as a strict disciplinarian. In one instant-message exchange obtained by The Post, a former page, on his way to his first annual reunion in Washington, told Foley in January 2003 that "everyone is going to be pretty wasted a lot of the time in dc."

He then added, "well we dont have the clerk to fire us anymore. . . . we didnt like trandahl that much . . . he isnt a nice guy . . . and he gets really scarey when he is mad."

Trandahl's departure came within days of his confrontation with Foley over e-mails that the congressman had sent a former page. House aides say the circumstances of Trandahl's exit were oddly quiet. The departure of a staff member of long standing, especially one as important as the House clerk, is usually marked with considerable fanfare, said Scott Lilly, a former Democratic staff director of the House Appropriations Committee. Debate is suspended in mid-afternoon to accommodate a stream of testimonials from lawmakers.

Trandahl's departure was marked by a one-minute salute from Shimkus and a brief insert into the Congressional Record.

MORE:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/06/AR2006100601888_2.html?nav=rss_politics

The Sexual Predator and the Sock Puppet: Why Hastert Did Nothing

Why shouldn't the cover-up of a sexual predator roaming among the congressional pages have worked? For Dennis Hastert, Mark Foley's cruising was a trivial, forgettable non-issue to be assigned to a non-member, the Clerk of the House, Jeff Trandahl, to insure that the Speaker would never hear of such a matter again.

Trandahl, since last September appointed executive director of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, a sinecure at an organization established and controlled by the Congress, has himself virtually disappeared, refusing all comment

more:http://news.search.yahoo.com/search/news?p=jeff+trandahl+foley&rs=1
~snip~

[MADem]

1. Hastert is FUCKED......

The staff member said Hastert's chief of staff, Scott Palmer, met with the Florida Republican at the Capitol to discuss complaints about Foley's behavior toward pages. The alleged meeting occurred long before Hastert says aides in his office dispatched Rep. John M. Shimkus (R-Ill.) and the clerk of the House in November 2005 to confront Foley about troubling e-mails he had sent to a Louisiana boy.

The staff member's account buttresses the position of Foley's onetime chief of staff, Kirk Fordham, who said earlier this week that he had appealed to Palmer in 2003 or earlier to intervene, after Fordham's own efforts to stop Foley's behavior had failed. Fordham said Foley and Palmer, one of the most powerful figures in the House of Representatives, met within days to discuss the allegations.

Palmer said this week that the meeting Fordham described "did not happen." Timothy J. Heaphy, Fordham's attorney, said yesterday that Fordham is prepared to testify under oath that he had arranged the meeting and that both Foley and Palmer told him the meeting had taken place. Fordham spent more than three hours with the FBI on Thursday, and Heaphy said that on Friday he contacted the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct to offer his client's cooperation.

"We are not preparing to cooperate. We are affirmatively seeking to," Heaphy said.

[maddezmom]

2. this part is scary..were they sifting through Palmer's emails or scrubbing

them:

On Wednesday night, Palmer was described as highly emotional while aides sifted through e-mails and files to determine whether he had ever spoken to Fordham. Several people who spoke with Palmer said the chief of staff was emphatic in denying that he knew anything about Foley's questionable contacts with young male pages.


Who were the aides sifting through the files? Was this before or after the FBI called for all doc to be saved?

[maddezmom]

3. Justice only calls for Foley's records to be saved for the investigation

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Federal investigators have asked the House of Representatives to keep computer records and papers from former Rep. Mark Foley's office, a senior Justice Department official said Wednesday.

The move is a sign that a criminal investigation into the congressman's correspondences with teen pages is imminent, perhaps within days, Justice Department officials said.

The investigation remains a preliminary inquiry, but a full criminal investigation will pave the way for subpoenas, searches and grand jury testimony, Justice Department officials said.

House members are expected to cooperate with any necessary searches during the probe, according to federal law enforcement sources. (Watch the House speaker insist GOP leaders didn't initially see the messages to the page -- 2:25 )

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/10/04/foley.scandal/index.html


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2545544

[symbolman]

5. I want to know WHY

HIS office wasn't LOCKED DOWN by the Capitol Police, the computers confiscated, especially considering this was a CYBER game he was playing, his BLACKBERRY, his cell phone, his HOME computer, a search warrant for his HOME, look under his bed for BOY BOOKS, CHILD Pornography, etc.

This not very good police work, and puts no minds at rest other than right wingers.

Should have been done last week, they've been SCRUBBING it since this came out, but they won't get it out.. this is the STAIN that doesn't wash out :)

[maddezmom]

6. something keeps popping up in my mind...did Alexander inform Delay

instead of Hastert?? Delay was still in a leadership position at that time. Has anyone heard anything from that slimebucket on this??

The page worked for Rep. Rodney Alexander (news, bio, voting record), R-La., who said Friday that when he learned of the e-mail exchanges 10 to 11 months ago, he called the teen's parents. Alexander told the Ruston Daily Leader, "We also notified the House leadership that there might be a potential problem," a reference to the House's Republican leaders.

link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060929/ap_on_go_co/congressman_e_mails

House Leadership...did Alexander say Hasterts office or could the reason it's so vague is because it's DELAY? :shrug:

[symbolman]

13. Don't give them any ideas

if they can shuck this off on Delay that's all the better for them :)

I'm wondering myself.

[Sydnie]

19. When was the last time they were given a heads up to an investigation

BEFORE they received official notice to keep all documents secure? Hummmmm .... think about it? Nothing says that they didn't get a "courtesy call" this time too, does it?

[MADem]

11. I wouldn't be too concerned--they want Foley's stuff SPECIFICALLY

but there are rules for file preservation in government. Any one scrubbing a computer now will be accused of being an accessory or destroying evidence. And with the forensics nowadays, a scrub isn't always a scrub, anyway!

[MADem]

10. It's all on the server, they can't scrub them. I have a feeling the fink

(from the GOP view; the "hero" from anyone else's) is IN the clerk's office. The clerk 'owns' the responsibility for the computers. And by now, anyone trying to 'disappear' any files would be clearly an accessory after the fact.

[Olney Blue]

16. Palmer was "highly emotional"- that speaks volumes.

[maddezmom]

4. Rep's Letter Is Bad News for Former House Clerk

Earlier this week, Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-OH) sent a letter to the clerk of the House requesting a probe into rumors that a drunk Mark Foley was turned away from the House page dormitory.

That part got a lot of attention, and for good reason. But Pryce repeated a second allegation in her letter, something she also heard during a GOP conference call on Oct. 2, that didn't get much play: Jeff Trandahl, onetime House clerk at the time of much of Foley's newly-revealed transgressions, had been warned about Foley by the director of the page program.

"nother claim was brought forth that the director of the Republican pages brought specific concerns about then-Congressman Foley's behavior to the attention of the then-Clerk of the House," Pryce wrote.

Our attempts to reach Trandahl were unsuccessful, although we learned he has hired a lawyer to represent him. An assistant in his office was unable to tell us his lawyer's name.

more:http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001746.php

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

7. If the FBI is interviewing people like Fordham, why the FUCK has FOLEY not

been interviewed yet?

[MADem]

12. It's the "Noelle Bush" defense

I was in REEEEEE-Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaab......

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

14. So, if I shot a bunch of people, then I can just enter Scientology Rehab

Institute in Clearwater, FLA and I'm good for a month?

What if I opt for an extended stay?

[pooja]

21. That place is super scary in itself... I call it a cultic jail... those

people are like zombies walking around downtown in the same uniform. Most have given up their life's savings to live in the Fort Harrison hotel.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

8. I almost missed this little tidbit at the end...

Congressional aides point to another factor that links Trandahl to the Foley matter. A member of the board of the national gay rights group Human Rights Campaign, Trandahl is openly homosexual and personally close to the now-disgraced former lawmaker, who announced through his lawyer this week that he is gay.

Staff writers Jim VandeHei, Charles Babington, Dan Eggen and Allan Lengel contributed to this report.

Good Lord where is it all leading?

[JimDandy]

22. So, what is the implication?

Are Trandahl and Foley sexually involved right now? If so, perhaps they were involved with each other in 2005, but then Trandahl found out that Foley was cheating on him with a page and in a fit of jealousy, he quit.

Stayed tuned to: "As the Closet Opens" (que music) :popcorn:

[malaise]

9. No wonder the Repukes are so

nervous and scared.
Oh what a tangled web we weave
When we first practice to deceive.

This is one sordid mess and more than a few rethugs are going down before the dust settles. The suicide (or suicided)rate may climb in the coming days and weeks.

[Diane R]

15. I have a question

If the FBI and House Ethics Committe are now investigating this, does that give the participants a cover for not commenting to the press? Is this just another way to put a lid on the issue until after the election?

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

17. That's one angle they're trying to play. I already read where one of the

Republicans, Hastert or one of the rest of the gang, was encouraging anyone involved to say no more because there's now an "ongoing investigation".

[Justice Is Comin]

18. That voluntary visit of Fordham with the FBI

for three hours has given them all cold sweats. Too bad puke-ohs, history don't work with Wite Out. And usually most people would prefer they send some one else to jail rather than reporting for their own cell duty when the jig is up.

[maddezmom]

20. he's going before the Ethics panel, too

But I doubt we'll hear the whole story before the elections.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2551321&mesg_id=2551321

[maddezmom]

23. 4 people at Foley meeting: Elizabeth Nicolson, Foley, Trandahl and Shimkus

Jeff Trandahl, the clerk of the House, and Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., who leads the board overseeing the congressional page program, had come from the House floor to confront Foley, a Florida congressman, about reports that he had been exchanging e-mail messages with a Louisiana teenager who had worked as a page on Capitol Hill.

When they arrived in Room 104 of the Cannon House Building that day, Foley was in his office. Elizabeth Nicolson, a longtime aide who had recently been named chief of staff, joined Foley for a meeting that lasted no more than 30 minutes.

What took place at this meeting -- only four people were present -- holds the answers to at least some of the pertinent questions in the case of Foley, who abruptly resigned from Congress late last month after learning that a series of sexually explicit messages had landed in the hands of ABC News.

"It was a brief meeting," said a senior Republican congressional aide who is familiar with the session and spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter is under investigation. "Looking back, it was probably far too brief of a meeting."

more: http://www.startribune.com/587/story/729813.html


’05 Meeting Could Clarify G.O.P. Role in Foley Case
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/09/washington/09foley.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[maddezmom]

25. Nicolson:emails totally innocent, part of opposition...smear campaign

Elizabeth Nicolson, Foley's Chief of Staff, said they believe the e-mail exchange began when the page asked Foley for a recommendation and that the subsequent exchange was totally innocent. She said Foley's office believes the e-mails were released by the opposition as part of an "ugly smear campaign."

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/09/sixteenyearold_.html

[Sapphocrat]

24. I CANNOT believe...

...WaPo would misspell "scary" as "scarey".

Nothing else in this article surprises me.