Best in-depth explanation of this bombshell of a breaking story that i've been able to find!....all of the news outlets ('outlet'; Merriam Webster; a compaction of outhouse and toilet, as in 'news outlet') are echoing the same three sentences of teleprompter, explaining nothing....talk about tip of the iceberg!....the fuckface hails from 25 miles away from me....

Happy trails, Bradster, enjoy a little down time!....we'll behave ourselves, no need to turn the car around....

Couldn't have said it better ChicagoMel.

What, you mean they couldn't turn whatever this treasonous crime was into a vacation at taxpayers expense?

Sorry, but when you leave the door open like this, I can't help but speculate. I've never heard of anything like this before. We're probably never going to be told what this slug did.

What am I saying? I'm sure the Republicans will demand that the public be told what Hastert was up to.

All the media is going to be talking about is Hastert and Turkey,Hastert and Turkey until we're sick of hearing about it.

Right?

People need to read Edmonds's recent novel The Last Gladio. A character in the novel, a Majority Whip in the House whose name I do not recall (it isn't Haster), is pretty obviously meant to be Hastert. He is blackmailed into taking stands in the House that the CIA wants after he is discovered in flagrante in an Oriental country with a teenage girl. If memory serves, the girl ends up dead.

Sent the link for this article to Edmonds and posted it in a reply at boiling frogs post.

Who could it be, the person extorting $3.5M who has known him most of his life?
Media is mentioning his old job as a teacher/coach, but none question how the retired Speaker of the House could AFFORD to just withdraw $3.5 Million from multiple bank accounts??

And I actually felt sorry for Hastert, who was buying up land from Chicago area farmers, only for Republithug Gov. Bruce Rauner to bury forever the Illiana Expressway from Indiana.

When he disappeared so quickly after Sibel Edmond's revelations about him, you knew there were very real bombshells being hidden.
It should be quite interesting to see the convolutions to ignore though, maybe Martians will land smack dab in the middle of carl rove gop ville.

This morning the media was telling us Hastert was being publicly indicted, but they wouldn't tell us why. That was one of the strangest things I've ever heard.

Now this story pops up the same day.

Something smells fishy to me.

Another family values guy going down in flames. Simply google Republican sex offenders and you will be reading for a very long time. They preach and vote one way and then get caught with their you know what where it should not have been. Then they go on Fox and complain it's just those mean old liberals picking on them.

Spseaking of criminals, Judge Mark Fuller will resign. http://www.montgomeryadv...er-will-resign/28178951/

http://www.addictinginfo.../30/creepy-hastert-call/

Judith Miller’s “trial and error” approach to journalism!

http://illinoispaytoplay...-approach-to-journalism/

One note about the Sibel Edmonds transcript: It does occasionally transcribe inaccurately, usually on items that are minor but occasionally in rather egregious ways. In one case the video shows her answering "no" and the transcript writes her answer as "yes." So when quoting the transcript it's best to compare with video first. Kudos to Brad for making both video and transcript available.

On its surface the Hastert indictment has nothing to do with the allegations by Sibel Edmonds, which are of bribery related acts on behalf of Turkish representatives and/or corporate operatives.

The current indictment strongly implies that it relates to an extortion action apparently by a former student of Hastert's, or former person Hastert coached, prior to taking public office, while he was a teacher and coach in Yorkville Illinois. The extortion apparently began in 2010, after Hastert left public office.

However. The Edmonds deposition details how Turkish interests actively researched sexual habits of persons in public office for use in extortion.

Hastert and others were never prosecuted for the Sibel Edmonds allegations. I don't know what the statute of limitations was on those, and John Ashcroft was A.G. at that time. There is little chance that Ashcroft would have imploded a political grenade against his own party.

The current indictment, though unrelated, provides a second bite at the apple. Kinda reminds me of how O.J. Simpson got nailed for kidnapping while trying to regain his football trophy, after avoiding conviction on murder. Hastert perhaps skips past statute of limitations on bribery but gets nailed on a structuring charge. (Structuring is a federal crime involving breaking up cash transactions with a bank in order to evade bank reporting requirements used to catch money launderers).

Certainly very interesting and "to be continued." Good reporting, Brad, as always.

Yeah, Bev Harris, The person who first got me going on this election fraud nightmare, all those years ago.

Thanks a lot.

But, seriously, thanks a lot! I wish I had a smidgen of your drive and commitment.