On October 4, 2006, Fordham, Reynolds’s chief of staff, resigned after newspapers reported that he had requested ABC News not to report the text of the sexually explicit instant messages. When Foley’s sexually explicit prompt messages became public, a couple of members of the Republican Party condemned his actions. Fordham had beforehand served as Foley’s chief of workers. ABC reported that Fordham had provided to present them an unique on the resignation if they withheld the textual content of the IMs. On October 3, the Washington Times referred to as for Hastert’s resignation as Speaker over his dealing with of the scandal. The investigation validated Trandahl’s and Fordham’s studies and concluded that Hastert’s chief of employees first realized of Foley’s conduct in 2002 or 2003, and that Hastert’s chief counsel had been conscious of considerations for practically a decade. Other prominent conservatives referred to as for Hastert’s resignation, reminiscent of David Bossie, president of Citizens United; conservative columnist Richard Viguerie; and conservative columnist Michael Reagan, a son of former President Ronald Reagan.
In line with conservative columnist Robert Novak, Reynolds convinced a reluctant Foley to run for re-election even after finding out about his questionable e-mails. On that day, CREW turned over the e-mails to the FBI; nonetheless, the FBI found inadequate grounds to open a criminal investigation. The resulting Inspector General’s report concluded that (1) CREW had received the emails in July and turned them over to the FBI inside two days; (2) the FBI’s choice to not pursue costs towards Foley primarily based on the initial emails didn’t constitute misconduct; however (3) the FBI probably ought to have referred the case to the House Page Board or different authorities primarily based on what they acquired. On December 8, 2006, the committee reported the investigation’s conclusion, finding Hastert and other Republican leaders negligent, however not in violation of any House guidelines. On October 13, 2006, a Justice Department spokesman confirmed that they’d opened a preliminary investigation of the official rafting trip taken in 1996 by Kolbe with two 17 12 months-old former pages. The committee opened an expansive investigation into the unfolding scandal on 5 October 2006 by approving nearly 4 dozen subpoenas for witnesses and paperwork. Indeed, Reynolds won reelection by solely four percentage factors despite representing a district that had been altered particularly to guard him.
On Election Day, Mahoney gained the seat. Nevertheless, Reynolds won the race. Foley’s Republican-held seat was regarded as unlikely to change fingers earlier than the scandal broke, but CQPolitics changed its ranking of the race from Safe Republican – where it had stood since July – to Leans Democratic in early-October. A Pew Research Center poll launched on October 5 indicated no important change in registered voters’ occasion support; before and after the scandal broke, Democrats had 51 percent help in the upcoming congressional elections, whereas Republicans had 38 p.c support. Florida regulation prohibited Foley’s identify from being removed from the ballot at the time of his withdrawal from the race, however Republicans hoped that voters would recognize that a vote for Foley would switch to Negron as a substitute candidate. Many Republican candidates had announced that they were either returning contributions from Foley’s campaign or contributing any Foley cash obtained in the last a number of years to charity. Within a week of the scandal breaking, five candidates ran campaign ads in response to the scandal. Carl Forti, an NRCC spokesman, has mentioned the marketing campaign organization would gladly accept the $2.7 million campaign warfare chest that Foley managed upon his resignation, ought to Foley select to turn it over.
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