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Hastert: Ask Democrats about Foley, too

WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 (UPI) -- U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., says an ethics committee looking into a page scandal should be asking Democrats what they knew as well.

Hastert testified before the committee Tuesday behind closed doors about the scandal involving exchanges between former Rep Mark Foley, R-Fla., and teenage pages, but would not disclose what transpired when he left, The Washington Post reported.

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"I answered all the questions they asked to the best of my ability," Hastert said. "I also said that they needed to move quickly to get to the bottom of this issue, including who knew about the sexually explicit messages and when they knew about it."

Allegations have arisen that Foley's "over-friendly" messages had been reported as early as 2000 but aides in Hastert's office have said the matter didn't come to their attention until the fall of 2005 and that it was handled without Hastert's involvement.

Hastert said it wasn't purely a Republican problem, as Democrats may have known about the messages but didn't report them and decided to play them to the media before the Nov. 7 elections, the Post said.

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