Rep. Jim Kolbe breaks silence on camping trip inquiry

Rep. Jim Kolbe breaks silence on camping trip inquiry




Kolbe breaks silence on camping trip inquiry


Arizona Congressman Jim Kolbe breaks his silence about the inquiry into a 1996 camping trip.

A trip he took with two former, male pages and others.

The Justice Department opened an inquiry about the Grand Canyon trip after a complaint was filed at the U.S. Attorney's office in Phoenix two weeks ago.

The inquiry was initiated a few weeks after Kolbe's name was brought up in connection with the congressional page scandal, involving former Congressman Mark Foley.

Foley resigned last month after his racy emails to young, male pages surfaced.

A page, concerned about alleged inappropriate emails from Foley, visited Kolbe's office in either 2001 or 2002.

Kolbe claims he never read the emails or knew of their content and referred the matter to the house clerk.

A complaint was given to the Phoenix office but it's not clear if it accused Kolbe of inappropriate behavior on the Grand Canyon trip.

For weeks, Kolbe has been out of the country and speaking only through his office until Wednesday.

Congressman Kolbe spoke very briefly to the media Wednesday about the inquiry but his message was clear, "I didn't do anything wrong."

He said, "I know there are a number of inquiries that are underway and we are cooperating fully with all those inquiries and I'm sure at the end of the time it will show that we've acted appropriately and did the exactly right thing."

The justice department is looking into a complaint about a 1996 camping trip Congressman Kolbe took with two 17 year old boys, both former pages, along with his sister, staff members, and park employees.

There are conflicting details about what went on.

NBC news interviewed a source who claimed to be "uncomfortable" with Kolbe's attention to one of the pages. The page in question told NBC he didn't want to get into the details.

But a park official and the other page say they didn't see anything inappropriate.

Kolbe said, "It's certainly not fun, there's no question about that and we didn't do anything wrong and I'm think that'll be demonstrated at the end."

Kolbe wasn't willing to discuss former colleague Mark Foley, who's under investigation for sending inappropriate emails to pages.

Kolbe said, "It's not appropriate for me to be get into talking about all the individual things nothing inappropriate was done and I'm sure that will be demonstrated in the end."

The House Ethics committee is also looking into the camping trip.

As for Foley, News 4 learned Wednesday that he checked into the Sierra Tucson treatment facility on October 1st.

Kolbe says he wasn't aware that Foley was in town, Tucson, and has no plans to visit him.

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