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It took 20 years for Jolene Reinboldt to have anyone take her story seriously. After her brother Steve died of AIDS in 1995, she was shocked to see Dennis Hastert, her brother’s teacher and coach in high school, show up for the viewing. She followed Hastert out to the parking lot and told him she knew his secret, and then tried for years to get law enforcement and news agencies to investigate it, all to no avail. Two weeks ago, though, the FBI came calling and wanted to hear her story for themselves as part of an investigation into...

Monday on HuffPost Live, former Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) criticized former Republican Speakers Newt Gingrich, Bob Livingston and Dennis Hastert for their hypocrisy in participating in former President Bill Clinton’s impeachment stemming from his sexual misconduct, when they all have sexual misconduct or infidelity allegations of their own. Frank said, “Then these people get together to impeach Bill Clinton, who looks like almost a virgin in that crowd.”

Denny Hastert — the former House speaker now indicted for violating regulations on bank withdrawals that were originally meant to snare drug dealers — was a man of integrity according to his former House colleagues. By the sketchy standards of Illinois politics, that might well have been true. But his fall from grace should prompt other questions about how a former high-school teacher who held elective office from 1981 to 2007 could leave Congress with a fortune estimated at $4 million to $17 million. When he entered Congress in 1987, he was worth at most $275,000. Hastert was the...

This FROM THE EDITOR: We will have a major update to the Dennis Hastert child sex ring story here tonight. Witness, sworn statement. Stay tuned... We will begin our coverage of the so-called "Dennis Hastert Sex Scandal," with a video from the early 1990s, from a trusted source of this website. The documentary was set to air on the Discovery Channel in 1994, but was pulled at the last minute, and never ran on cable TV. Some blog sleuths eventually dug it up, years later. It contains some mind-numbing accusations and earth shattering evidence against some Nebraska politicians at the...

It has come to my attention that standards for what constitutes a scandal around Washington have been modified over the past few years. David - oh my, look at those trouser creases!- Brooks explains:"President Obama has run an amazingly scandal-free administration, not only he himself, but the people around him. He’s chosen people who have been pretty scandal-free," Butt one thing that remains a certifiable Washington scandal is sex. Especially if it involves either “gay” or “Republican.” Note: Democrats are immune to even these minimum standards. See David Brooks article cited above.So, if you’re still interested, there should be...

On Oct. 24, 2001, then-House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) shepherded the Patriot Act through the House of Representatives. It passed 357 to 66, advancing to the Senate and then-President George W. Bush’s desk for signing. Hastert took credit for House passage in a 2011 interview, claiming it “wasn’t popular, and there was a lot of fight in the Congress” over it.

Former Speaker of the House Denny Hastert, now a K Street lobbyist, is gathering with several Chicago Republicans for a public event aimed at yet again building support in Washington for amnesty, Roll Call reports. Hastert, now a lobbyist for Dickstein Shapiro, has been pushing comprehensive immigration reform for some time. In a February Politico op-ed, he endorsed the House GOP leadership immigration “principles” writing of illegal aliens that “we should provide them with a path to citizenship.”

Did Denny Hastert, former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, really think he could get away with it? He must have. He kept paying and paying, until the FBI came knocking, asking about all that cash he was withdrawing from his bank accounts. And you know the rest. Whether you consider it hush money to cover up sexual misconduct when he was a teacher and coach, or an attempt to right what he considered to be the wrongs of his past, there's one thing we do know:

Judge orders Clinton Foundation racketeering case to trial BY SARAH WESTWOOD | MAY 29, 2015 | 7:39 PM A Florida judge has set a trial date in the racketeering case against the Clinton Foundation and Bill and Hillary Clinton. Judge Donald Middlebrooks of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida ordered the racketeering, influenced and corrupt organizations, or RICO, case to head to trial January 20, 2016. The order, entered Friday and obtained by the Washington Examiner, came days after Larry Klayman of Freedom Watch filed a lengthy civil complaint against the Clintons and their foundation in...

dicted former House Speaker Dennis Hastert was paying a former student from Yorkville, Ill., to conceal his alleged sexual abuse of the youth that took place while Hastert was a teacher and wrestling coach at a high school there, federal law enforcement officials said Friday. A top official, who would not be identified speaking about the federal charges in Chicago, said investigators also spoke with a second person who raised similar allegations that corroborated what the student said. The second person was not being paid by Hastert, the official said. Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert indicted Federal prosecutors have announced...

Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert paid a man to conceal sexual misconduct while the man was a student at the high school where Hastert taught, a federal law enforcement official told NBC News on Friday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity. Tribune newspapers reported earlier in the day that two unnamed federal officials said that Hastert paid a man from his past to conceal sexual misconduct. Hastert was indicted Thursday on charges that he structured bank withdrawals to avoid federal reporting requirements and later lied about it to the FBI. The indictment said that Hastert was paying an unidentified...

President Bush said Tuesday he was "dismayed and shocked" at disgraced lawmaker Mark Foley's behavior and supports House Speaker Dennis Hastert's call for a full investigation. -snip- Some, including a Washington newspaper, have called for Hastert (R.-Ill.) to resign, but Bush expressed confidence in the speaker's ability to resolve the matter, calling him a "father, teacher, coach." "I know Denny Hastert. I meet with him a lot. He is a father, teacher, coach who cares about the children of this country," Bush said.

What We Know So Far Hastert, the former Speaker of the House, was indicted Thursday on federal charges of evading reporting requirements and lying to the FBI The Illinois Republican allegedly agreed to pay an unnamed individual $3.5 million for previous misconduct Source: Investigators considered including a second alleged victim in the Hastert indictment, but ultimately chose not to do so. A source familiar with the investigation told BuzzFeed News that U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon considered but did not pursue additional charges against former Speaker Dennis Hastert, which would have included a reference to an Individual B, one of potentially...

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.

There was an odd exchange between former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and an unidentified C-SPAN caller from his hometown in light of Thursday’s surprise indictment that he illegally transferred $3.5 million to a Yorkville resident to “conceal prior misconduct.” The call came in while Hastert appeared on CSPAN’s "Washington Journal" on Nov. 13, a week after last year's midterm elections. The caller identified himself only as “Bruce" from Illinois. “Hello, Denny,” the caller said. “Do you remember me from Yorkville?” he added, before laughing and hanging up. CSPAN’s host Pedro Echevarria immediately moved onto the next caller and Hastert...

Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury in Chicago. The Illinois Republican, 73, is charged with trying to evade cash withdrawal requirements, and with lying to the FBI about it.

Former House Speaker Hastert indicted on federal charges(1:13) Former House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert was indicted on federal charges Thursday, including lying to the FBI in an alleged effort to hide $3.5 million in payments to a person to conceal past misconduct. (Reuters) J. Dennis Hastert, the longest serving Republican speaker in the U.S. House, was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury on charges that he violated banking laws in a bid to pay $3.5 million because of “past misconduct” against an unnamed individual from their hometown west of Chicago. Hastert, 73, who has been a high-paid lobbyist in...

An immigration overhaul may not have enough GOP support to pass the House, but the idea has found some Republican support in Illinois. Former Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., is slated to join a number of prominent Illinois Republicans and CEOs on Tuesday to call on GOP leaders to pass a national immigration overhaul. Republican Reps. Aaron Schock and Adam Kinzinger are also scheduled to give video testimonials on the subject.

Federal prosecutors on Thursday charged former Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert with illegally structuring cash withdrawals from bank accounts to make payments to someone he committed “prior misconduct” against and lying to the FBI about it

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has indicted former House Speaker Dennis Hastert on reporting evasion charges and lying to the FBI as part of an effort to pay off victims of “prior bad acts.” In an indictment handed down in the District Court of Northern Illinois, the Department of Justice and IRS charged Hastert, 73, with illegally transferring funds in an effort to avoid detection by the IRS, a scheme known as “structuring.” In the indictment, Hastert is accused of agreeing to pay one individual $3.5 million. Although the indictment specifies neither the “bad acts” nor the victims, sources said...