WASHINGTON, Oct. 8 — For all the questions and curiosities, for all the contradictions and inconsistencies in the tale of Mark Foley, the investigation into how Republicans handled concerns about his conduct may hinge on what transpired on a fall afternoon last year, when a private meeting was hastily convened in his office.
Jeff Trandahl, the clerk of the House, and Representative John Shimkus, an Illinois Republican who leads the board overseeing the Congressional page program, had come from the House floor to confront Mr. Foley, a Republican congressman from Florida, about reports that he had been exchanging e-mail messages with a Louisiana teenager who had worked as a page on Capitol Hill.
What took place at this meeting — only four people were present, none of them Democrats — holds the answers to at least some of the pertinent questions in the case of Mr. Foley, who resigned abruptly from Congress late last month after learning that a series of sexually explicit messages had landed in the hands of ABC News.
“It was a brief meeting,” said a senior Republican Congressional aide who was familiar with the session and spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter was under investigation. “Looking back, it was probably far too brief of a meeting.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/09/washington/09foley.html?hp&ex=1160366400&en=3a8734c05207a8a2&ei=5094&partner=homepage