AP reporting:
The Justice Department ordered House officials to âpreserve all recordsâ related to disgraced Rep. Mark Foley’s electronic correspondence with teenagers, intensifying an investigation into a scandal rocking Republicans five weeks before midterm elections. . . .
Acting U.S. Attorney Jeff Taylor for the District of Columbia sought protection of the records in a three-page letter to House counsel Geraldine Gennet, according to a Justice official speaking on condition of anonymity.
Such letters often are followed by search warrants and subpoenas, and signal that investigators are moving closer to a criminal investigation.
At the same time, FBI agents have begun interviewing participants in the House page program, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. The official declined to say whether the interviews were limited to current pages or included former pages.
Justice Department spokeswoman Tasia Scolinos stressed that the investigation is still preliminary.
