Drudge: Ex-Page Not Gay, IMs with Foley Were Just “Prank”

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Thanks to a technical error on the part of ABC, bloggers recently determined the identity of one of the former pages who chatted online with disgraced former congressman Mark Foley (R-FL).

Last night, the Daily Oklahoman was the first newspaper to publish the name of the former page, now a 21-year-old Oklahoma resident.

The former page, Jordan Edmund, did not comment for the story, and the paper reported that he has hired a lawyer, Stephen Jones, to represent him. Edmund currently works on Rep. Ernest Istook’s (R-OK) gubernatorial campaign.

Today, the Drudge Report has reported that two anonymous sources familiar with Edmund are saying that Edmund is not gay, and the IM transcripts published by ABC were a “prank.”

“Edmund, a conservative Republican, goaded Foley to type embarrassing comments that were then shared with a small group of young Hill politicos,” Drudge reports. Drudge does not include a comment from Jordan, nor is it clear if he has contacted him.

Our call to Edmund’s lawyer, Stephen Jones, was not immediately returned.

In its article, Drudge reports that “the saved IM sessions got into the hands of political operatives favorable to Democrats.” The article does not elaborate further.

ABC has said it received its chat transcripts from former pages. “Friday morning [Sept. 29], I received transcripts from two different former pages that were instant messages between former pages and the congressman, and they were very sexually explicit, and they were very similar,” explained ABC producer Maddy Sauer, who helped break the scandal, on the radio show Democracy Now this Tuesday.

“I have talked to, now, I would say, almost ten former pages from different years, a few of whom have had direct email interactions with the congressman that were like this, a couple of whom are just friends of people that had these experiences,” Sauer said.

ABC did not immediately respond to our email for comment.

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