ABC News is reporting that Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert has had his name turn up and is now a target of the FBI investigation into the Jack Abramoff Bribery scandal.

 

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dennis Hastert, is under investigation by the FBI, which is seeking to determine his role in an ongoing public corruption probe into members of Congress, ABC News has learned from high level government sources.

 

Federal officials say the information implicating Hastert was developed from convicted lobbyists who are now cooperating with the government.

 

Part of the investigation involves a letter Hastert wrote three years ago, urging the Secretary of the Interior to block a casino on an Indian reservation that would have competed with other tribes.

 

The other tribes were represented by convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff who reportedly has provided details of his dealings with Hastert as part of his plea agreement with the government.

 

The letter was written shortly after a fund-raiser for Hastert at a restaurant owned by Abramoff. Abramoff and his clients contributed more than $26,000 at the time.

Dennis Hastert was the #1 recipient of contributions from Mr. Abramoff from 1998 to 2004. Take with a grain of salt, as it is based on anonymous sources, but anywho...would anyone now like to guess why he's so angry about the FBI being able to search Congressional offices if they get a warrant?

Something tells me that he has little to be worried about in that regard.

Wonderful... Lets keep cleaning house.

Damn, I like the guy. I really am sad whenever any of our leaders let us down so I hope this is all smoke and bulls***.

At this point, the DOJ is denying that Hastert is under investigation, fwiw.

DOWN WITH THE MAJORITY! BUNCH OF CORRUPT ASSHOLES!

Hastert isn't taking this laying down. His lawyers just released contents of a letter sent to ABC accusing them of slander and libel for sticking by their story abfter the DOJ denied it. Called ABC's actions perpetuating a 'known falsehood'.

ABC stuck to their story overnight, despite the DOJ denials.

 

Despite a flat denial from the Department of Justice, federal law enforcement sources tonight said ABC News accurately reported that Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert is "in the mix" in the FBI investigation of corruption in Congress.

 

Speaker Hastert said tonight the story was "absolutely untrue" and has demanded ABC News retract its story.

 

Law enforcement sources told ABC News that convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff has provided information to the FBI about Hastert and a number of other members of Congress that have broadened the scope of the investigation. Sources would not divulge details of the Abramoff’s information.

 

"You guys wrote the story very carefully but they are not reading it very carefully," a senior official said.

 

...

ABC’s law enforcement sources said the Justice Department denial was meant only to deny that Hastert was a formal "target" or "subject" of the investigation.

 

"Whether they like it or not, members of Congress, including Hastert, are under investigation," one federal official said tonight.

 

The investigation of Hastert’s relationship with Abramoff is in the early stages, according to these officials, and could eventually conclude that Abramoff’s information was unfounded.

 

Officials said the next logical investigative step would be for the FBI to seek a wide range of documents from the members of Congress named by Abramoff, including letters and business documents.

ABC stuck to their story overnight, despite the DOJ denials.

 

Lot of smoke. Probably some fire.

Damn, I like the guy. I really am sad whenever any of our leaders let us down so I hope this is all smoke and bulls***.

 

Hastert characterized opposition to the war in Iraq by members of congress as "treasonous". Treason is punishable by death. Hardly a likeable quality, IMO.

ABC will win if they can prove it was reliable sources in the past...libel casees are hard to win against the media

 

"i wonder if ABC is hiring"

i was wondering why he was pretty quick to protect that (D) congressman from Louisana after the FBI sting caught him. Hastert quickly went to Bush to complain about the investigation and Bush quickly sealed the documents today.

 

Now why would the lead Congressional Republican come to such a quick defense of a Democrat when the Republican party is struggling to keep control of the house this fall???

i was wondering why he was pretty quick to protect that (D) congressman from Louisana after the FBI sting caught him. Hastert quickly went to Bush to complain about the investigation and Bush quickly sealed the documents today.

 

Now why would the lead Congressional Republican come to such a quick defense of a Democrat when the Republican party is struggling to keep control of the house this fall???

Well, the strange bedfellows notions aside, it comes down to it being apparently unprecidented, and two Constitutionally separate branches of government colliding. That's my 4th-grade level understanding of it anyway.