Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), the chairman of the House page board, testifed for some three-and-and hours on Friday before the House ethics committee investigating the Mark Foley cyberspace page sex scandal. Shimkus flew back to Washington from his Collinsville home on Thursday.
Shimkus was accompanied by his Washington D.C.-based attorney, Barry Pollock with the firm Kelley Drye & Warren LLP. First soundings indicate Shimkus might not have said much beyond what he has talked about in a variety of media interviews. As of Friday afternoon, there are no plans for Shimkus to return to the committee.
Shimkus played a limited, but critical role in the Foley scandal. Last November he went to Foley to tell him to stop contacting a page--and to cut out any contacts with pages. Shimkus never told the Democrat and Republican members of the page board about his Foley intervention.
He has said in media interviews he was clueless that Foley might have had a history of being overly friendly with pages.
click here for Shimkus statement
statement from Shimkus
SHIMKUS TESTIFIES BEFORE HOUSE ETHICS COMMITTEE
Washington, DC.....Congressman John Shimkus (R, Illinois-19) gave sworn testimony
today before an Investigative Subcommittee of the House Committee on Standards of
Official Conduct, commonly referred to as the Ethics Committee. Shimkus is
chairman of the House Page Program.
"I voluntarily appeared before the Subcommittee today, in order to fully explain
what information I had available to me when I confronted Mr. Foley last fall,"
Shimkus said. "I hope that this process, along with the U.S. Department of Justice
investigation, will bring a quick resolution to this unfortunate event in the history of
this House and the page program."
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Lynn Sweet is a columnist and the Washington Bureau Chief for the 
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