WASHINGTON – A former House page at the center of the Mark Foley cybersex scandal dished dirt on the disgraced former Florida congressman to the FBI yesterday during a 21/2-hour interview.
Jordan Edmund, 21, was interviewed by the FBI in Oklahoma City after being unmasked as a recipient of Foley’s Internet advances. His name came out when ABC News failed to redact his computer user name in portions of the exchanges it posted online.
“Jordan answered all of their questions, relying on his memory as it exists,” said his high-powered defense attorney Stephen Jones, who represented Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
“He was not served with any subpoenas to appear before any grand jury. He was not asked to return,” added Jones, with Edmund standing silently by his side.
The FBI is probing to see if the Republican congressman broke the law by preying on underage teens. Foley resigned and checked into rehab after his sexually explicit messages were made public.
Edmund, who was a House page in 2001 and 2002, is now deputy campaign manager for the gubernatorial bid of Rep. Ernest Istook (R-Okla.).
Jones said he was contacted by the House Ethics Committee – which is investigating a possible Foley cover-up by GOP chiefs – to determine if Edmund would testify.
On Thursday, Foley’s former chief of staff, Kirk Fordham, who claims he warned House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s staff three years ago of Foley’s inappropriate contact with pages, is set to appear before the bipartisan committee.
Fordham will insist he warned Hastert’s chief of staff, Scott Palmer, about Foley’s conduct in 2003 and possibly as early as 2002, Fordham’s lawyer Timothy Heaphy said.
Meanwhile, retiring GOP Rep. Jim Kolbe (Ariz.) said a former page he had sponsored contacted his office to complain of e-mails from Foley. Kolbe “passed along” the complaint to Foley and the House clerk’s office in 2001.