Leak: Hastert Made Secret Payments to Pay Off Male Victim of Sexual Abuse

I was asked yesterday what I thought Denny Hastert's big secret was.

I said, "Diddling a boy during his wrestling coach days."

Ding ding ding ding, says the LA Times.

Indicted former House Speaker Dennis Hastert was paying an individual from his past to conceal sexual misconduct, two federal law enforcement officials said Friday.

One of the officials, who would not speak publicly about the federal charges in Chicago, said "Individual A," as the person is described in Thursday's federal indictment, was a man and that the alleged misconduct was unrelated to Hastert’s tenure in Congress. The actions date to Hastert’s time as a Yorkville, Ill., high school wrestling coach and teacher, the official said.

"It goes back a long way, back to then," the source said. "It has nothing to do with public corruption or a corruption scandal. Or to his time in office." Thursday's indictment described the misconduct "against Individual A" as having "occurred years earlier."

Flashback to Hastert's fall from power: It was over an alleged cover up of Rep. Mark Foley's flirtation with a (male) Congressional page.

He stepped down after Republicans lost the House majority in the 2006 midterm elections. Those elections took place in the middle of an investigation into the GOP leadership’s handling of allegations that a Republican Florida congressman, Mark Foley, had engaged in inappropriate explicit communications with House pages, who were of high school age.

posted by Ace at 02:50 PM

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