Mark Foley
Mark Adam Foley (born September 8, 1954) is an American real-estate broker and former Republican politician who represented Florida’s 16th congressional district from 1995 until his resignation in 2006.[1] Earlier he was a Lake Worth city commissioner, state representative, and state senator. In Congress he served on the House Ways and Means Committee and co-founded the Congressional Caucus on Missing & Exploited Children, helping write the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act (2006).[2]
2006 congressional page scandal
On 28 September 2006 ABC News released sexually explicit e-mails and instant messages Foley had sent to male House pages aged 16–17.[3] Foley resigned the next day and entered treatment for alcoholism and “sexual compulsion.”[1] A House Ethics Committee report later blamed “systemic failures” in oversight but found no additional rules violations,[4] and state/federal investigators closed their probes in 2008 without criminal charges, citing statutes then requiring proof of physical contact.[5]
His hypocrisy is nonetheless evident in his sponsorship of legislation stipulating harsher penalties for intergenerational sex. He was a supporter and instigator of the sexual panic that is sweeping the nation, making sex with a junior, however either is defined, even up to age 18 [...] more severely punishable than murdering a youth. [6]