Foley Follies takes a new twist....

This is off The Washington Post:

Federal prosecutors today ordered the House to preserve all documents and other materials possibly related to former Rep. Mark Foley's electronic communications with teenage pages on Capitol Hill, signaling an intensifying investigation by the FBI and Justice Department into possible criminal activity connected to the scandal.

The three-page "preservation letter," sent to the House counsel from the office of Acting U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor in Washington, indicates that law enforcement officials are getting closer to seeking grand jury subpoenas for records or searches of Foley's Capitol Hill office, according to law enforcement officials and legal experts.

FBI agents around the country have begun seeking to locate and interview former pages who may have had contact with Foley (R-Fla.), and the Justice Department and FBI are discussing the use of administrative subpoenas to obtain subscriber information for the e-mail and instant-messaging accounts at the heart of the case, according to law enforcement officials.

Although still classified as a preliminary investigation, the demands to preserve records and other steps increase the chances that federal prosecutors will open a full criminal investigation and bring the case before a grand jury, officials said.

The FBI is now investigating the Foley scandal--especially since they've sealed Foley's office so that FBI agents can go through the documentation and records there. Who knows what the FBI will find in Foley's office.

Of course, the scandal is taking another turn here:

Also this afternoon, Foley's former chief of staff, Kirk Fordham, announced that he was resigning from his current job as chief of staff for Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-N.Y.). In the days leading up to Foley's resignation, Reynolds allowed Fordham to advise the Florida congressman and Fordham played a role in helping Foley after an ABC News reporter told the congressman he had copies of his sexually charged exchanges with pages.

Brian Ross of ABC told The Post Sunday that when ABC approached Foley with the graphic exchanges, Fordham intervened and offered ABC the exclusive story of Foley's resignation, if ABC withheld the instant messages. Ross refused the deal.

In his statement, Fordham said he felt betrayed by Foley's "indefensible behavior" and was resigning because it was "clear the Democrats are intent on making me a political issue in my boss's race, and I will not let them do so."

He said his help to Foley was based on concerns about his "emotional well-being."

But he strongly denied that he sought to impede any investigation. "I want it to be perfectly clear that I never attempted to prevent any inquiries or investigation of Foley's conduct by House officials or any other authorities," he said.

So Forham resigned from Reynolds' chief of staff position. Fordham is also so deep into this scandal here--first for taking a leave from Reynolds's staff to advise Foley, and then for the revelations that Fordham tried to bribe ABC in not publishing the Foley IMs. And now Reynolds claims that he never knew of Forham's consultations with Foley on the scandal? This is really becoming a case of where the Republicans are standing around in a circle, firing on each other. They are trying to find a scapegoat for which they could blame this entire scandal--and Fordham has become the latest casualty here. Now, if Fordham willing to fall on the sword for protecting Roberts, Hastert, and Boehner, or is he going to refuse to become the scapegoat?

More to come.