Reidblog [The Reid Report blog]

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has begun an inquiry into whether former congressman Mark Foley's sexually explicit Internet exchanges with congressional pages violated state law, an agency spokesman said Monday.

"We're trying to determine with some certainty whether a violation of Florida law may have occurred," FDLE spokesman Tom Berlinger said.

A key component of the probe will be to determine whether any of the emails or Instant Messenger exchanges occurred in Florida, he said.

"It seems apparent that some of the questionable activities may have occurred in Washington," Berlinger said. ...

The Florida Attorney General's office has offered to assist in the state investigation.

Berlinger said in Foley's case the FDLE had begun a "preliminary inquiry," an investigative designation used when FDLE is targeting public officials. He said calling it a "preliminary inquiry" spares public officials the humiliation of being labeled as "under criminal investigation," something that he said is "unfair to them in many instances."

But Berlinger was unable to explain any substantive difference between a "preliminary inquiry" and the early stages of a traditional criminal investigation.

"It's not a criminal investigation yet," he said. "It's a precursor to a possible investigation."

• What FoleyGate means
• Foley rides the lightning
• Throw Foley from the train
• Who wants to be a Foleynaire?
• Rehab: The last refuge of scoundrels
• Foley's 'a wreck' ... film at 11
• Congressional page grabbers: where are they now?
• Did the media participate in the Foley cover-up?
• Foley's parting shot
• Grand Old Pedophile protectors
• The unraveling of Mark Foley
• Sicko