Simply Politics & News

[AKvetch]

Foley may not be a pedophile...

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Disgraced congressman not a pedophile: lawyer
Tue Oct 3, 2006 7:32 PM ET

MIAMI (Reuters) - Former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, at the center of a scandal involving explicit messages he sent to young aides in Congress, is an alcoholic gay man who was molested by a clergyman when he was a teenager, but has never had sexual contact with a minor, his lawyer said on Tuesday.

"Any suggestion that Mark Foley is a pedophile is false, categorically false," Foley's attorney, David Roth, told a televised news conference in Florida. "Mark Foley denies ever, ever having any sexual contact with a minor."

Foley accepted full responsibility for sending lewd instant messages to teenage pages in Congress and in no way blames his conduct on the trauma he suffered as a sexually abused teenager, Roth continued.

Congressional pages are teenagers assigned to answer phones, deliver documents and run errands for members of Congress.

"Between the ages of 13 and 15 years he was molested by a clergyman," Roth said of Foley. He did not identify the clergyman or his denomination. Nor did he say whether the cleric was associated with the Catholic schools Foley attended as a teenager.

Foley, who resigned on Friday after the messages were made public, is at an undisclosed alcohol rehabilitation center and authorized the disclosure as part of his treatment, which will last at least 30 days, Roth said.

He said Foley was a secret drinker who believed himself to be an alcoholic and that "He is a gay man."

Roth claimed Foley was under the influence of alcohol when he sent the lewd messages, but added: "He continues to offer no excuse whatsoever for his conduct."

The FBI, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and House ethics investigators are all looking into Foley's electronic communications with Congressional pages.

Roth said all Foley's computer records would be saved for investigators. "Nothing will be altered, nothing will be touched, nothing will be changed," he said.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyID=2006-10-03T233145Z_01_N....