As viewers of C-SPAN know, call-in shows can produce some bizarre moments. But a strange call from last year has taken on new intrigue following Thursday’s indictment of former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.
The call, to C-SPAN’s Washington Journal in November was from Yorkville, IL, where Hastert was a high school teacher and coach. The caller, who gave the name “Bruce”, asks Hastert “do you remember me from Yorkville?”
As Talking Points Memo notes, Yorkville is described in the indictment as the place where the unnamed “Individual A” lived most of his or her life:
Hastert was indicted Thursday on charges of structuring bank withdrawals to evade federal reporting requirements and lying to the FBI about those withdrawals. The indictment alleges Hastert agreed to pay $3.5 million to an unidentified individual in compensation for “past misconduct” against that person that had occurred years earlier. The misconduct is not specified in the document.
> Update: The LA Times reports “Individual A” was a man and that the alleged misconduct was unrelated to Hastert’s tenure in Congress. Asked why Hastert was making the payments, the LA Times source said it was to conceal Hastert’s past relationship with the male. “It was sex,’’ the source said.