Hastert ended up as Speaker the same way Anthony Kennedy ended up as SC Justice. First guy (Newt/Bork) was killed by a thousand cuts, second guy (Livingston/Douglas Ginsberg) had something in his past that blew up in their faces, third guy (Hastert/Anthony Kennedy) was a non-offensive vanilla choice that nobody could object to.
Personally I haven't read about the indictment, but given that is the Obama administration going after Hastert, either they came up with another bogus "charge" to silent a Republican who was going to make them look bad, OR Hastert is a legitimately guilty scumbag who finally got caught up by the feds once he was out of the public spotlight.
Hastert's a combiner, Obama is slime, and this is Illinois, so either scenario is possible.
After hearing the deats of this I’m not sure how this would qualify as “corruption” (though he was corrupt in office this does not appear to be related in any way). The government is pissed he ‘violated’ IRS reporting BS in withdrawing his own money.
I am very curious who he’s paying off and why (sexual misdeed?) but absent the formal accusation by someone that Hastert committed some crime against them it’s not really any concern of the FBI.