Denny Hastert indicted

[RogueBeaver]

Lying to the FBI and illegally structuring cash withdrawals from bank accounts to make payments to someone he committed "prior misconduct" against years ago.

[retromike22]

Yay!

[Illuminati Blood Drinker]

It would be hilarious if this got tied into the FIFA mess somehow.

[NewYorkExpress]

Time to ask again, is Illinois the most corrupt state in the union or is it New York?

[TDAS04]

Good, hope he pays.

[IceSpear]

At least he didn't use a .com rather than a .gov e-mail address (media).

[Torie]

As I recall, hopefully somewhat accurately, Hastert bought some land near where a state highway was subsequently built per his political heft, and got heat for that, which I think may have forced his retirement. Whether this has anything to do with that, remains to be seen.

[Joe Biden 2020]

Time to ask again, is Illinois the most corrupt state in the union or is it New York?

I think New Jersey is the most corrupt followed closely by Illinois.  Both parties are corrupt in both states.

[Ebsy]

Rhode Island, Arkansas, and Louisiana are up there too.

[© tweed]

it sounds like he got blackmailed somehow, if he's giving these cash withdrawals to this unknown 3rd person.  the real dirt might lie with that third person.

[RFayette]

It's amazing how Speaker of the House becomes a nobody in less than a decade.  No one cared about this guy until today

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

WTF is in the water in IL that causes this?   

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

WTF is in the water in IL that causes this?   

[Likely Voter]

Looking at the indictment it appears "Individual A" was blackmailing Hastert over something that happened back when he was a HS wrestling coach in the 60s and 70s. So this may not be your typical Illinois political  corruption. 

[Adam Griffin]

Looking at the indictment it appears "Individual A" was blackmailing Hastert over something that happened back when he was a HS wrestling coach in the 60s and 70s. So this may not be your typical Illinois political  corruption. 

Live boy, obviously.

[CountryClassSF]

109th has to be the most corrupt Congress ever.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

For all that posters complain about an overly partisan House, I'm surprised that none rate Hastert better. He came in after the impeachment and had a good relationship with both Clinton then Bush. It was only after the 2004 election that he adopted the Hastert doctrine requiring that a majority of House Pubs support a bill before it would go to the floor.

LOL

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Good, hope he pays.

for what?   Given how little we know about this case, I don't see how anyone could be emotionally invested in punishing him unless it is purely a matter of partisan schadenfreude.

[muon2]

For all that posters complain about an overly partisan House, I'm surprised that none rate Hastert better. He came in after the impeachment and had a good relationship with both Clinton then Bush. It was only after the 2004 election that he adopted the Hastert doctrine requiring that a majority of House Pubs support a bill before it would go to the floor.

LOL

And if this is in fact about activities before he became a public official it is totally shameful, but it doesn't change the analysis of the years of the Speakership.

[© tweed]

Looking at the indictment it appears "Individual A" was blackmailing Hastert over something that happened back when he was a HS wrestling coach in the 60s and 70s. So this may not be your typical Illinois political  corruption. 

Live boy, obviously.

yeah, "gay sex scandal" is always at the top of the list in these situations.  makes you wonder how somebody would have proof of having sex with Denny Hastert in 1970.  or maybe it's worse... we can let our imaginations runs wild, but this is all but certainly a blackmail.

in most cases you'd figure the prosecutors would want to cut a deal w/Hastert to get to the blackmailer, but at this point they even seem to be taking steps to protecting his identity?  Hastert is the bigger fish, which is never good.

[Likely Voter]

It is definitely blackmail, that is spelled out.

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[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I have always regarding the man as Tom Delay's front man. This guy entered the House in the mid 1980's as a middle class guy and left a millionaire in 2007. That doesn't necessarily imply that he was corrupt, but it certainly does exemplify that he was focused on cashing in for his own benefit.

Also, he presided over what was arguably the most corrupt string of Congresses, led from behind by the hammer. The notion that the arm twisting and such started with the Hastert rule post 2005, fails to acknowledge the actions prior to that like the votes that went on for three hours past their end time, whilst Tom Delay practically cracked skulls to get the necessary votes to achieve passage by 1 vote in a Congress that the GOP had at least a ten seat majority over the Democrats.

In 2005, when it came time for the hammer to face the block, he cleared all the Republicans off of the ethics committee, including honest people like Steve Latourette and replaced them with cronies like Jo Bonner, who had his own ethics issues so much so that he was featured in a 2008 Fox News documentary along with Hastert himself for the Prarie Parkway that Torie mentioned, Ken Calvert (also property but with an airport I think not a highway) and Don Young (something about highway offramp in Florida. What the hell does a Congressman from Alaska want with a highway ramp in Florida?). Also you must be pretty fing dirty as a Republican to get called out by Fox News.

Hastert was a willing co-conspirator in the Washintonization of the House Republicans and the resulting destruction of the Republican Revolution of 1994 and the restoration of the culture of corruption they had promised to end, not merely replace with one of their own. After they took control in 1998, pursuit of honesty had become a mere hyprocritcal partisan tactic and burned them with the impeachment. Instead of targetting Washington corruption, they were going to co-opt it to build a right wing conservative machine built on money and special interest perks, sweet heart deals and gerrymandering bought with illegal donations (Delay and Texas). In so doing they destroyed the GOP's reputation as a limited gov't party opposed to corruption, enraged the GOP base to the point of revolt and led to the creation of the Tea Party (The saddest thing is that the Tea Party didn't stick to a reformist, anti-corruption agenda, the like that made it so popular at first and instead got coopted by kooks and fringe candidates seeking to use it to get their moment in the spotlight).

What goes around comes around and you'll be coming down my friend!

[Landslide Lyndon]

Well, it certainly explains somewhat why Hastert was so willing to turn a blind eye when it came to Mark Foley's shenanigans.

[Suburbia]

I'm surprised. He was the clean GOP member in the era of DeLay and Foley.

[RogueBeaver]

The misconduct was sexual abuse, per LAT.