US: An investigation into former congressman Mark Foley's lewd internet exchanges with teenage boys will hear today from a crucial witness, Jeff Trandahl, who ran the congressional page programme the boys were involved in.
Mr Trandahl is expected to tell the house ethics committee that he heard about Mr Foley's inappropriate e-mails as long ago as 2000 and that he confronted the congressman about them. He is also expected to corroborate a claim by Kirk Fordham, a former aide to Mr Foley, that he told the office of speaker Dennis Hastert about the congressman's behaviour a number of years ago.
Mr Hastert claims he did not know about Mr Foley's contacts with congressional pages until the scandal broke last month.
Mr Trandahl's testimony comes as a second Republican congressman, Arizona's Jim Kolbe, is under investigation for his contacts with teenage pages. A former page has told the House clerk's office and the FBI about an encounter with Mr Kolbe about five years ago when the young man was 16. The former page told authorities he was "uncomfortable with a particular social encounter" that involved physical contact when he and Mr Kolbe were alone.
The only openly gay Republican in Congress, Mr Kolbe is retiring this year but he has promised to co-operate into any investigation into his behaviour. The House page board is looking into a camping trip Mr Kolbe took with teenage pages and claims that he allowed pages to stay at his Washington house.
The Foley scandal has added to Republican woes as they face the prospect of losing their majorities in the House of Representatives or the Senate next month. Some evangelical Christians have sought to blame gay Republican staffers for covering up Mr Foley's activities, although Mr Trandahl and Mr Fordham, who are gay, appear to have tried harder than most to stop the congressman and alert others.
Family Research Council president Tony Perkins said last week there should be an investigation into whether gay congressional staffers were responsible for a cover up and he has questioned whether gay Republican staffers on Capitol Hill have blocked evangelical priorities, such as a federal marriage amendment that would ban civil unions for gays.
"Has the social agenda of the GOP been stalled by homosexual members and/or staffers?" he asked in an e-mail to supporters.
The latest incident to outrage social conservatives was last week's remarks by secretary of state Condoleezza Rice to the new head of the federal Aids programme. With first lady Laura Bush looking on, Ms Rice swore in Mark Dybul, while his partner, Jason Claire, held the Bible. Mr Claire's mother was in the audience, and Dr Rice referred to her as Mr Dybul's "mother-in-law."