FACTBOX-Washington no stranger to sex scandals

(Reuters) - The resignation of the director of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Randall Tobias, after his name was linked with a prostitution ring was the latest of many sex scandals that have rocked the city's elite.

The woman behind the prostitution ring, Deborah Jeane Palfrey, who was indicted last month on racketeering and conspiracy charges, gave telephone records of some of her clients, including Tobias, to ABC News, saying she hoped they would uncover witnesses to aid her defence.

Some other notorious cases in the past:

* Mark Foley, a Florida Republican, resigned from the House of Representatives in 2006 after it was disclosed he had sent sexually explicit text messages to teen-aged boys who served as interns in the House. The revelations led to charges that Republican leaders tried to cover up the matter.

* Former Rep. Gary Condit admitted having a "close relationship" with a young intern, Chandra Levy, after she went missing in the city in 2001. Her remains were later found in a park. Condit maintained he had nothing to do with her disappearance and was not charged.

* President Bill Clinton had a sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky, a 21-year-old White House aide, which led to his impeachment after he denied the relationship while under oath. He survived the impeachment process in Congress in 1998 and served out his presidency.

* Sen. Gary Hart, a Colorado Democrat, saw his second presidential bid ended in 1987 when it was learned he spent the night on a yacht, named the Monkey Business, with a woman who was not his wife.

* Wilbur Mills, a powerful Democratic Representative from Arkansas, was caught in 1974 with stripper Fanne Foxe, who performed as "the Argentine firecracker." The relationship came to light when Foxe leapt from his limousine late one night and jumped into the Tidal Basin, a body of water off the Potomac River in downtown Washington.

* In 1983, both Rep. Dan Crane, a Republican from Illinois, and Rep. Gerry Studds, a Democrat from Massachusetts, were censured for illicit affairs with underage pages working in Congress. Crane, found to have had sex with a teenage girl, was voted out of office. Studds, who had an affair with a boy, was returned to office many times.