Evading Accountability

August 24. 2007

Former congressman Mark Foley, who quit his job this year after it was made public that he has been sexually harassing underage boys (pages) in Congress, is not being cooperative with federal investigators, by not handing over his computers for inspection.

I read on a news site some of the emails he sent to the underage male pages in Congress and they were sick. He made these illicit communications from his computers. There should be more evidence on those computers, providing they haven't been reformatted multiple times (evidence tampering), as anyone who saw it fit to write such things to a minor, is capable of doing other things they should not.

I am not for shielding wrongdoers in Congress. The authorities and the people of the nation, A/K/A the taxpayers, should be able to access pertinent evidence for investigative purposes. Hiding behind Congressional privilege is no excuse. Where is the accountability in that? Doing so is just as bad as a president and his cabinet evading answering to the people of the country via dodging congress.

Between the Gonzales/Rove/Cheney/Bush evasions of accountability in Congress, to congressman Jefferson fighting to keep incriminating congressional documents secret, to Foley in essence hiding his computers from the authorities during an investigation, the people of the nation are being lied to, deceived and patronized.

Innocent men don’t run nor do they hide.

Foley Won't Let Investigators Examine His House Computer

POSTED: 9:36 pm EDT August 22, 2007 - WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Neither former U.S. Representative Mark Foley nor the House will let investigators with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement examine his congressional computers.

Florida's top police agency said that's hindering its investigation into Foley's lurid Internet communications with teenage boys.

The department hopes to conclude its investigation next week. Foley, a Florida Republican, resigned from Congress in September after being confronted with the computer messages he sent to male teenage pages who had worked on Capitol Hill.

An FDLE spokeswoman said the U.S. House of Representatives cited case law restrictions that prohibited them from releasing Foley's computers. Heather Smith also says the House claims the computers are considered congressional work papers, and that only Foley can release them for review.

Florida investigators are working with the FBI and Foley's attorney to try to reach an agreement.

http://www.wpbf.com/politics