I'm not sure if Foley has broken the law. It doesn't appear that the boy was his page but rather another congressmans. If that is the case it might be hard to get him for sexual harassment. Also, I don't know the age of consent in the Capital. The boys parents and presumably the boy asked for the matter to be dropped. I don't know if a prosecutor could charge him if the victim doesn't want to pursue it in court. In Canada I don't think there would be a case because our age of consent is so low and he wasn't directly working for the congressman.
If the victim and his parents requested the matter dropped and there was no reason to believe that he could be charged I could see the Republicans letting it rest with perhaps a private conversation with Foley warning of consequences if such a thing happened again.
I personally am more interested in the timing of the ABC news release. Weren't they the same station that released the false Bush national guard story just before the last federal election? I wonder if they had a political motive in choosing the timing of this story.
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