Sources: Former congressman to avoid criminal charges

SCRIPPS HOWARD

WASHINGTON — Former Florida Congressman Mark Foley is unlikely to face criminal charges for sending sexually explicit e-mails to teenage boys, sources close to the yearlong investigation have told Scripps Howard News Service.

That could change if new evidence surfaces in the next week that proves Foley, 52, sent online messages to male teenagers with the intent to “seduce, solicit, lure, entice, or attempt to seduce a child,” a third degree felony under Florida law.

But as of now, the collapse of Foley’s political career may be the most severe consequence that the former Republican congressman faces for the revelations that stunned his longtime supporters and prompted his immediate resignation, just weeks before the 2006 election.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement said this week that the investigation should be completed within the next several days. Sources close to the investigation told Scripps that to date there has been no criminal finding against Foley. Once the investigation is completed, it will be turned over to prosecutors in Pensacola, Fla. Pensacola has jurisdiction in the case because that is where Foley was when he sent one of the explicit messages.

Joe diGenova, the former U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., said investigators likely could not prove the case had merit.

“My guess is they probably have been unable to find evidence of an actual relationship,” diGenova said. “Although the e-mails were suggestive, they didn’t violate a statute.”

Foley resigned from Congress last September after ABC News reported that he wrote e-mail messages to a former congressional page on his personal account. In the e-mails, Foley asked for the teenager’s picture and inquired about what he wanted for his birthday. The following day, ABC News released a series of sexually-charged online messages Foley had sent other teenage congressional pages, who act as messengers and couriers on Capitol Hill.