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Thursday, October 05, 2006
Conflicting stories on Freeh's proposed role in Foley page scandal
From CNN Congressional Producer Deirdre Walsh

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Aides to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Illinois, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, offered conflicting accounts Thursday night as to what role Hastert was proposing for former FBI Director Louis Freeh in the Foley page scandal.

Hastert's spokesman Ron Bonjean took issue with Pelosi's spokeswoman's account to CNN that the speaker was "notifying" the minority leader of a "unilateral decision" to bring in Freeh to head an independent inquiry of the page program.

Jennifer Crider, Pelosi's spokeswoman, stood by her description of the discussion between Hastert and Pelosi. Crider repeated that Hastert called Pelosi and said, "I'm notifying you," and that Hastert stated, "Louis Freeh will investigate the Page Program."

Bonjean stressed that the Hastert was focused on reviewing security measures, not launching an outside investigation.

"The speaker reached out to leader Pelosi to offer her the suggestion of having Louis Freeh come in and oversee the new security measures of the page program," he said. "She rejected that."

Bonjean added, "The speaker reached out and offered her a suggestion, because we were being criticized for not reaching out in a bipartisan way. We want to make sure people are moving forward to take control of the situation."

Bonjean said the speaker still wants a security review. "It's left in leader Pelosi's court," he said. "We believe that the safety of our pages is a top priority. There are pages working on the Hill as we speak."

Crider said the current rules governing the page program are sufficient and the ethics committee process needs to move forward to find out who knew what and when about former Rep. Mark Foley’s, R-Florida contact with pages.

Asked about Hastert’s focus on safeguarding pages, Crider said, “The Republican leadership had an opportunity to put the safety of these young people first a year ago, and they chose to protect Mark Foley over pages' safety."
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