ABC's John Yang reports: A current House staffer has told ABC News that Scott Palmer, House Speaker Dennis Hastert's (R-IL) chief of staff, met with disgraced former Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) to discuss the time and attention he was giving House pages many months before the Speaker's office has said it became aware of the issue.
The staffer, who asked not be identified because of the ongoing FBI and House Ethics Committees invesgitations, told ABC News that the meeting between Palmer and Foley came to light in November 2005, around the time when Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL), head of the House Page Board, and then-House Clerk Jeff Trandahl, who was administrator of the page program, met with Foley about an e-mail exchange Foley had with a former page, sponsored by Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-LA).
"At that time, I became aware that there was a previous meeting" between Foley and Palmer, the staffer told ABC News.
This corroborates the account of Kirk Fordham, Foley's former chief of staff, who said he had gone to Palmer to seek the intervention of the Speaker's office to try to change Foley's behavior. Earlier, Palmer said that "what Kirk Fordham said happened didn't happen."
LINK: http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2006/10/second_source_t.html
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