US: Republican leaders in Congress are under mounting pressure after a federal investigation into former congressman Mark Foley's contacts with teenage boys intensified and a congressional aide resigned over the scandal.
The justice department has told officials in the House of Representatives to preserve all records relating to Mr Foley's e-mail exchanges with congressional pages, teenagers who work as messengers in Congress.
Mr Foley (52) resigned last week after details of his lurid e-mails to boys were published. He then checked into a treatment centre for alcohol abuse and other behavioural problems. Mr Foley's lawyer said the former congressman wanted to tell the public that he was gay and that he had been molested by a clergyman when he was a teenager.
The lawyer did not identify the clergyman's denomination but Mr Foley was brought up as a Roman Catholic in Boston, where a number of priests have been charged with sexual abuse of minors.
Mr Foley has denied having any sexual contact with minors but the FBI has started interviewing current and former congressional pages as part of its investigation into his e-mails.
House speaker Dennis Hastert has sought to blame Democrats for leaking information about the e-mails in the run up to November's mid-term elections. However, Mr Hastert is under pressure to step down from his post on account of his failure to take action against Mr Foley when he first heard about the e-mails months ago.
Mr Hastert has claimed that he was not made aware of the e-mails and that the matter was dealt with by his staff. But Louisiana congressman Rodney Alexander, a sponsor of the page who received e-mails from Mr Foley, said yesterday the speaker "knew about the e-mails that we knew about", including one in which Mr Foley asked the teenager to send his picture.
The second-ranking House Republican, Ohio's John Boehner, and House Republican campaign chairman Tom Reynolds of New York, have said they spoke to Mr Hastert about a complaint concerning the former page from Louisiana last spring, after Mr Alexander told them about it.
The scandal has boosted Democratic hopes of winning control of the House of Representatives in November and has demoralised an already anxious Republican party. Republicans are especially concerned about the impact the scandal could have on conservative Christians, who have been among the party's most dynamic and reliable supporters in recent years.
The scandal has pushed other political issues off the front pages for almost a week, with fresh details emerging every day, and has derailed the Republican strategy of keeping the focus on national security.
Hopes that the scandal would be forgotten by November were dented when Mr Foley's lawyer said that the former congressman wants to give a comprehensive account of the affair when he leaves rehab in 30 days, about a week before election day.