OPINION:
A day after J. Dennis Hastert was indicted on charges of “structuring” and lying to federal agents, an odd video clip has emerged showing the former House Speaker taking questions on C-SPAN.
The caller, who identified himself as “Bruce” and called in on the independent line, says “Hello, Denny,” using the Speaker’s nickname. “Hi, how’re you doing,” Hastert says.
Then there is a long pause in which Hastert looks a bit confused. After a few seconds, “Bruce” says, “Remember me from Yorkville?”
The host of “Washington Journal, Pedro Echevarria, cuts in, “Bruce you’re on, go ahead with your question.” “Yeah, go ahead,” Hastert says. But the caller just laughs and hangs up. “I think he’s gone,” Echevarria says and moves on to the next caller.
The call took place on Nov. 13, 2014, seven years after the 73-year-old lawmaker left Congress. He was appearing on the show to discuss the congressional mid-term elections, which had taken place a week before.
The indictment, handed down on Thursday, does not identify who Hastert was paying off to cover up “past misconduct.” But in 2010, “Individual A” showed up and demanded Hastert pay for his “prior misconduct,” the indictment says. He agreed to pay $3.5 million “to compensate for and conceal his prior misconduct against Individual A.”
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The indictment says: “Individual A has been a resident of Yorkville, Illinois, and has known John Dennis Hastert most of Individual A’s life.” Plus, the individual met with Hastert several times “and discussed past misconduct by defendent against Individual A that had occurred years earlier.”
There’s no connection to the man who identified himself as “Bruce,” but the phone call now looks odd in retrospect.
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