Jim Kolbe

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In testimony to the House ethics committee, the former top administrator for the Congressional Page Program described Tucson Rep. Jim Kolbe as a "nuisance" who "spent far too much time socially interacting with the pages."

The comments from former Clerk of the House Jeff Trandahl were part of an investigative report released Friday that found no evidence any current lawmakers or aides violated any rules, and recommended no sanctions in their handling of the Mark Foley page scandal.

In its findings and recommendations, however, the panel went on to say there were a "significant number of instances" where members of Congress or aides failed to act diligently and with oversight about inappropriate conduct and sexually explicit messages Foley, a Republican from Florida, sent to former pages.

The report criticizes Kolbe's handling of complaints about Foley's conduct. In addition to Trandahl and Kolbe, the committee interviewed numerous people including Speaker of the House J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.

Foley was not interviewed. Although he was subpoenaed, he invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to testify.

Foley resigned his seat Sept. 29 after the messages were reported in the media. He then disclosed that he was gay and entered alcoholism treatment in Tucson.

Kolbe, a fellow Republican who is also gay, has represented Southern Arizona's 8th District for 22 years and is retiring.

A former page, he was a member of the Page Board from 1995 to 2001.

During Kolbe's tenure on the board in the late '90s, Trandahl notified Kolbe and several of his staff members "on multiple occasions" about Foley's overly friendly attention to pages. Trandahl said he was concerned about the political fallout for both men, according to the report.

"The whole reason it was discussed the way it was discussed was because I viewed Jim Kolbe the same way, I viewed him as putting himself at risk," Trandahl said. Also in question is a sexually explicit instant message Foley sent in fall 2001 to a former page Kolbe had appointed.

The former page, who served during the 1999-2000 academic year, forwarded Foley's message to Kolbe's personal e-mail account, asking him to "take care of it," the report says.

Kolbe has stated that he never viewed the message, in which the former page says Foley made reference to penis size.

Late Friday, Kolbe issued a statement reiterating that he had not viewed the message, which was sent in an e-mail attachment.

"As I testified before the committee, I did not review a copy of the communication Congressman Foley sent the college student and I never knew whether or not it was sexually explicit," he said. "The simple fact that Foley had made the student feel uncomfortable was enough for me to take action by, among other things, notifying the Clerk of the House."

About a week later, the former page received an apology from Foley, and the matter seemed settled.

Foley and the page even went out to dinner sometime later.

In Kolbe's testimony to the panel, he said it was unclear if he received the message and that by his "best recollection" his assistant Patrick Baugh notified him about the e-mail.

However, Baugh said the former page contacted Kolbe directly, according to the report.

Whatever way the message was delivered, it was Baugh who contacted Foley's office to stop the messages.

The matter did not arise again until after Foley resigned, when the former page called Kolbe on his cell phone for advice if the instant message were brought up by the ethics committee.

The page told investigators that Kolbe asked him not to bring it up. The page quoted Kolbe as saying, "There is no good that can come from it if you actually talk about this. The man has resigned anyway."

A few days later, however, the former page told the committee that Kolbe had left him a message accusing him of talking to the media because of a pending story in The Washington Post. He said Kolbe also wanted to make sure he had legal representation.

In a return call, the former page said he had not been the source for the story and referred Kolbe to his attorney.

Because of a possible federal investigation into a camping trip to the Grand Canyon Kolbe took with two former pages in 1996, Kolbe was limited in his testimony to the committee.

The committee found any allegations against Kolbe to be inconclusive.

In its findings and recommendations the panel said it found no evidence, based on testimony, that any member of Congress or aide knew of Foley's instant messages before their publication on Sept. 29.

But, the report adds, "If Rep. Kolbe was not shown the instant message he should have asked for it.

"He knew that Rep. Foley was gay, knew that the communication made the former page ... uncomfortable, and recognized that the communication may have been sexual in nature.

"He also knew that he was being asked to confront another member about the member's conduct on a potentially extremely sensitive issue. In light of those facts, the investigative subcommittee believes that Rep. Kolbe should have asked for the instant message (if he did not already have it) in order to make sure that his response was the correct one," the report says.

Florida authorities have opened a criminal investigation into whether Foley broke any laws related to his communications with the teens. Federal authorities are also investigating.

The panel acknowledged that the release of the messages may have been for political reasons, as it hurt the Republican Party in this year's election. Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., and Howard Berman, D-Calif., the committee's leaders, said the report reflected the bipartisan conclusions of a four-member investigative panel.

"This is not the jury-rigged result of a series of compromises but rather the right report on this subject," Berman said at a news conference in the Capitol.