Hastert is linked to early reports

WASHINGTON — A former congressional aide said Wednesday that House Speaker Dennis Hastert's office knew about reports of "inappropriate behavior" by Rep. Mark Foley far earlier than Hastert's office has acknowledged.

Hastert's chief of staff, Scott Palmer, denied the account of the former aide, Kirk Fordham, who said in an interview that he informed Palmer of the concerns about Foley before 2004. Hastert's office had previously said it first learned of concerns about Foley in the fall of 2005.

Fordham worked in Foley's office until January 2004, and on Wednesday he resigned as chief of staff to Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds of New York, chairman of the House Republican campaign committee.

Fordham's assertion raised additional questions about whether Hastert and his staff had failed to respond quickly and forcefully enough to multiple warnings about the conduct of Foley, the Florida Republican who resigned on Friday from the House after being confronted with sexually explicit messages he had sent to teenage pages.

The statement further clouded Hastert's prospects of holding on to his job as speaker as his party reached for a strategy to deal with a scandal that appears to have undermined its chances of keeping control of Congress on Election Day next month.

"I had more than one conversation with senior staff at the highest levels of the House of Representatives, asking them to intervene when I was informed of Foley's inappropriate behavior," Fordham said after resigning from Reynolds' staff. "I have no congressman and no office to protect."

Fordham said he had informed Palmer of the concerns while working for Foley after House Clerk Jeff Trandahl had approached him. Trandahl had told him, Fordham said, that pages had come forward with accounts about Foley's behavior.

The stories did not include accusations of overtly sexual advances and did not involve e-mail or instant messages of the sort that surfaced last week, Fordham said. Instead, they encompassed reports that Foley had been "way too friendly" toward the pages, he said.

A spokesman for Hastert, Ron Bonjean, said, "What Kirk Fordham said did not happen."

Fordham's statement delivered a setback to Hastert after his allies had earlier in the day thought that they were making progress in solidifying the rank and file behind him for the moment as lawmakers issued generally supportive remarks.