Foley Timeline (Repukes, Dems AND Media knew long before 2006)

[n2doc]

Interesting that even sending the e-mails to the press in 05 didn't do anything...

Democrats and the Foley e-mails
Posted by Mike Dorning at 11:55 am CST.

Had it not been for a Democratic political operative, former Republican Rep. Mark Foley's inappropriate e-mails to under-age former pages might never have come to light. Among the many fascinating details contained in the 89-page House Ethics Committee report on the Foley scandal is the chain of events that led to broader dissemination of Foley's e-mail exchanges. It all started when a junior staffer in a congressional office received a complaint from a former page about Foley's e-mails to him and was rebuffed when she tried to raise the matter with another staff member in the office. She then did what many many people now do when pondering an e-mail: She forwarded it to a friend. And as often happens, the forward button was pressed again and again, until it reached a Democratic operative.

Here is the chain of events, as laid out in the report:

Between July 29, 2005, and August, 29, 2005, Foley sent a series of seven e-mails to a 16-year-old former House page who had just completed the program for high school students earlier that July.

Among other things, Foley asked "what do you want for your birthday," which was 5 months away, and commented on the physique of another teenage boy who was in the page program at the time, noting the other page was "a nice guy" who is "in really great shape." Finally, the middle-aged congressman asked the boy to e-mail a "pic" of himself.

That request alarmed the former page, who then raised his concerns with Danielle Savoy, a young congressional aide whom the page had befriended from the office of the page's congressional sponsor, Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-La.).

At Savoy's request, the former page then forwarded portions of Foley's e-mails to her, calling them "sick, sick, sick." On August 31, the former page sent her the entirety of five e-mails that Foley had sent her and asked her opinion.

The next day, Savoy raised the e-mails with another employee of the congressman, the office scheduler, Jonathan Johnson. She testified that she told him the contents of the e-mail in detail, including the request for the picture and the references to the birthday gift and the physique of the former page. Johnson told her he did not think the exchanges were particularly significant.

Seeking another opinion, Savoy then forwarded the Foley e-mails, including her e-mails back and forth with the former page, to a girlfriend, Kelly Halliwell, who was a former House employee working at a small lobbying firm. Upon receiving the e-mails, Halliwell forwarded them to her boyfriend, Justin Field, who then worked for the Democratic caucus, and also to her boss Mike Grisso, a registered lobbyist, who said he did not share them with anyone else. But Field, who said he was disturbed by the e-mails, shortly after he received them took them to his friend and boss, Matt Miller, who was then the communications director of the Democratic Caucus in the House.

Miller said he believed the e-mails were inappropriate, and suggested that they be given to the press. Miller testified that he considered giving the e-mails to the Ethics Committee or the House Page Board. But he said he feared that "nothing would come" of such an action. About two months later, in approximately November 2005, he redacted the e-mail headers of Savoy and Field from the messages, printed them out and faxed them to reporters that he knew from two major Florida newspapers, the Miami Herald and the St. Petersburg Times. Later in November, he also provided the e-mails to a reporter for Roll Call, a Washington newspaper that covers Congress.

Miller testified that some time in the fall of 2005--the report is not clear on the precise month--he also shared the e-mails with the communications director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the party organization responsible for electing Democratic candidates to Congress. Miller testified that he did this as a "gut check." The report does not name the DCCC communications director, but a spokesman for the organization confirmed that the report was referring to Bill Burton, who is the communications director.

more:
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/news_theswamp/2006/12/democrats_and_t.html#more