The FBI should have followed up after it received a series of troubling e-mails from U.S. Rep. Mark Foley and a former House page, a Justice Department internal review found.
Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine also found that the FBI made “inaccurate” statements to the media about the e-mails it received in July, a full three months before Foley’s lurid messages to ex-pages were made public.
The FBI shelved an investigation after receiving a series of e-mails from Foley to an ex-page. Despite being told by the ex-page that the e-mails were “sick” and “freaked me out,” there was nothing lurid in them — as there was in text messages later made public.
Foley, R-Fla., resigned his seat ahead of the November elections and checked into a rehabilitation clinic, claiming he was an alcoholic.
The FBI’s decision to shelve the investigation didn’t rise to the level of misconduct, Fine said in Monday’s report.
“Yet, we believe that the e-mails should have raised enough concerns to warrant some actions,” Fine wrote.
The e-mails, which were included in Monday’s report, are conversational and show Foley asking the page such questions as “how old are you now?” and “what do you want for your birthday coming up … what stuff do you like to do?”
The e-mails also make remarks about another page: “acts much older than his age … and hes [sic] in really great shape.”
The ex-page who was sent the messages forwarded them on to a staffer in the House.
“Maybe it is just me being paranoid, but seriously,” the page wrote, “this freaked me out.”
On the surface, the e-mails are not threatening, Fine said in his report. But they “fell within the type of behavior that the FBI warns against in its Parent’s Guide to Internet Safety,” the report states.
In a statement issued Monday, the FBI said it “shares the OIG’s interest in ensuring that information regarding potential criminal activity is evaluated objectively and in conformance with established policies and practices.”
“Accordingly, the FBI will carefully examine the OIG review for any changes to existing policies or procedures that may be warranted,” the FBI statement said.
The e-mails were sent to the FBI last summer by the liberal watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
After the Foley scandals became a public matter, FBI officials told media groups that they halted the investigation because CREW wasn’t helpful enough. Those statements were “inaccurate,” Fine said in his report.
