Congressman questions what Hastert knew
By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer
16 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - A senior House Republican said Wednesday that Rep. Mark Foley (news, bio, voting record)'s inappropriate e-mails to a page — now at the center of an intensifying federal investigation — should have been thoroughly pursued at the time.
As conservatives debated whether House Speaker Dennis Hastert should resign over his handling of the complaint, the House majority whip, Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said he would have handled it differently if he'd known about it. He was the acting majority leader when the complaint was raised.
Although he did not criticize Hastert, his remarks to reporters in Springfield, Ill., were no endorsement of the speaker's actions.
"I think I could have given some good advice here, which is you have to be curious, you have to ask all the questions you can think of," Blunt said. "You absolutely can't decide not to look into activities because one individual's parents don't want you to."
On the federal investigation into Foley's communications with teenagers in the congressional page program, acting U.S. Attorney Jeff Taylor for the District of Columbia told Hill officials to "preserve all records" related to the matter, according to a Justice Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Taylor's three-page letter, dated Tuesday, was sent to House counsel Geraldine Gennet, according to the Justice official. Such letters often are followed by search warrants and subpoenas, and Taylor's request signals that investigators are moving past initial assessments and closer to a criminal investigation.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061004/ap_on_go_co/congress_pages
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