Hastert Aides Interest Ethics Panel

Now, a rapidly escalating ethics investigation is trying to determine who is right. Peggy Sampson, a former Capitol Police officer who has supervised Republican pages since 1986, went before the committee yesterday. According to several former pages, Sampson was the adult who warned them to stay away from Foley, and she may be able to confirm his alleged visit to the pages' dormitory.

A current staff member who has corroborated Palmer's meeting with Foley has also offered to cooperate with investigators. House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), who said he told Hastert about the Foley matter this spring, yesterday afternoon received an invitation to testify and "looks forward to cooperating fully," said spokesman Kevin Smith.

Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-La.) and his chief of staff are to testify next week, presumably about e-mails Alexander's staff received from a former page. The 2005 e-mails from Foley, which asked the youth for a picture and what he wanted for his birthday, came to the attention of Stokke and Van Der Meid that fall, the speaker's office said.

For an institution replete with glory seekers, Hastert's inner circle has been virtually invisible to the outside world. Palmer has known Hastert for 28 years and worked on his first political campaign; he is the speaker's gatekeeper, a policy expert who swoops into negotiations to untie knots and seal deals.

Stokke, an old Illinois political hand, is tasked with getting GOP lawmakers what they need for their faltering campaigns, such as an appearance by Hastert, a fundraiser or vital legislation.

Van Der Meid is the relative newcomer -- he came to the speaker's office after guiding the ethics committee's probe of then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.). Known by some as the mayor of the House, Van Der Meid has the institutional knowledge of the chamber's customs. He handles legal matters but has been known to intervene angrily on a shade of carpet or which paintings to hang on the Capitol's walls.

The speaker's own timeline points to Van Der Meid and Stokke as central players in the Foley matter. After Alexander's staff alerted a low-level Hastert aide in the fall of 2005, Stokke directed the information to Van Der Meid. Later that day, Stokke met with Alexander's chief of staff, then summoned Trandahl to the speaker's office. Later, Trandahl informed Van Der Meid that action had been taken to stop Foley's communications with the Louisiana youth.

A senior GOP aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, said it made little sense to have a political hand such as Stokke handle the Foley matter, a delicate issue involving personnel questions and possible legal violations.

"Did they make an affirmative decision to have the political guy work on this?" the GOP staffer asked. "It clearly was a bad damn idea."

Nowhere in the speaker's timeline is Palmer mentioned. But former leadership aides question how a powerful chief of staff could have been left out of such complicated deliberations and how they would have been kept from Hastert.

The latter point is especially true if Foley's behavior came to Palmer's attention in 2003, one former aide said. In recent months, as the House has become consumed in scandal and political trouble, Hastert has been less engaged in the day-to-day activities of the House, he said. That was not true in 2003, however, the former aide added.

Staff writers Jim VandeHei, Jose Antonio Vargas and Juliet Eilperin contributed to this report.