Foley Scandal: Page’s Lawyer Softens Stance; More Trouble for Hastert

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Two developments in this morning’s news: First, the lawyer for an ex-page who IMed with Mark Foley now says he can’t rule out the possibility that his client’s lewd chats were a prank, as had been reported previously, but it “sounds” like “a piece of fiction.”

Earlier Stephen Jones, lawyer for former House page Jordan Edmund, stated decisively that the “prank” report was untrue.

Second, a current GOP staffer has told the Washington Post that Hastert’s chief of staff told Foley to knock off his page hijinks long before the House speaker says his aides knew about the problem. Over at TPM, Josh has the full breakdown on what this means — in short, it’s not too good for Hastert.

Of course, the chair of the panel investigating the matter says “I think the Speaker has done an excellent job,” so who are we to disagree?

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