ABC News isn’t backing down on Hastert story

May 25, 2006

As posted last night, [tag]ABC News[/tag] reported late in the afternoon that House [tag]Speaker[/tag] [tag]Dennis Hastert[/tag] is “under [tag]investigation[/tag] by the [tag]FBI[/tag], which is seeking to determine his role in an ongoing public corruption probe into members of Congress,” according to “senior U.S. law enforcement officials” who spoke to ABC’s [tag]Brian Ross[/tag]. The investigation reportedly stems from the Jack [tag]Abramoff[/tag] probe. The Justice Department denied the accuracy of the report and Hastert’s office demanded a [tag]retraction[/tag].

As of now, ABC News is not only sticking to the original report, [tag]Ross[/tag] is adding to it. As of 10:21pm last night:

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 [tag]corruption[/tag] in Congress. […]

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 [tag]investigation[/tag]. 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.

According to Ross, the law-enforcement sources who leaked word of the investigation said the official denials are a semantics game. Hastert is facing a formal probe, they said, but the DoJ denial was meant only to deny that Hastert was a formal “[tag]target[/tag]” or “[tag]subject[/tag]” of the investigation. One of the ABC sources said, “Whether they like it or not, members of Congress, including Hastert, are under investigation.”

Also curious was Hastert’s choice of words when asked about the investigation. From last night’s World News Tonight:

Justice Department officials describe the 64-year old Illinois Republican as “very much in the mix” of the corruption investigation.

Something the speaker told ABC News he was unaware of.

Question: You know nothing about it?

Hastert: Somebody [tag]leak[/tag]ed it out.

Question: Completely untrue?

Hastert: I know nothing about it.

Hastert’s office was far more categorical later in the evening, but “somebody leaked it out” is an odd way to phrase a flat denial.

Paul Kiel put it this way: “Let there be no doubt – Jack Abramoff has spilled the beans on Hastert.” I think the “[tag]culture of corruption[/tag]” story may be poised to get even more interesting.

No wonder he/they are shitting their pants about Congressional office searches…

  • One could argue in the wake of said searches that it’s more executive branch intimidation of the legislative. Although in the context of all the other corruption scandals, probably not. The investigative technique of a DoJ operative right now is probably: “Throw a rock in the vicinity of the right side of the aisle”

  • This is what happens when you play the appeasement game with a crocodile. Eventually, only the “appease-ors” are left—and yet, the “appease-ee” is still ravenously hungry….

  • Tick.. Tick…Tick
    In politics, timing is everything.
    Abramoff implications are oozing into Republican high places with only six months left until elections.
    The voters are getting the timely message…. It’s not just a Bush leadership failure. It’s a Republican leadership failure.

  • Yes, this is typical Republicanite practice. Read the story wrong than complain about stuff that is not there.

    I’m glad to see ABC standing up for itself.

  • Speaker Hastert gets into a “heated” discussion with VP Cheney over firing of Goss, then carried over into demanded audience with the President.

    Speaker Hastert gets into “heated” discussion with White House staff over FBI raid of Rep. Jefferson’s Congressional office.

    Days later: Speaker Hastert “in the mix” of corruption investigation.

    F**k me? No, f**k you!

    I read “federal law enforcement sources” as someone in the Office of the Attorney General or Bush/Cheney buds at the FBI.

    There are four other signatures on that letter sent by Speaker Hastert. Wampum has the letter: http://wampum.wabanaki.net/

    The long knives are out. Hard 20s job approval and we’ll see the artillery.

    P.S. Long time reader, keep up the good work.

  • If this is the stuff Abramoff spills to get a lesser conviction, just think of the shit he would be giving up if they water-boarded him in Gitmo

  • There is nothing I would love more than to see the Rethugs eat their own between now and the 06 and 08 elections. Hastert’s involvement would really drive home the culture of corruption and make it hard to claim “isolated incidents.”

    Still, some of the commenters last night and today raise a good point that has me a little uneasy. This really does start to look like executive branch disciplining the legislative branch out of vengeance or spite — and if the WH gets away with it that sets a bad precedent in terms of balance of power.

  • And yet the GOP in Illinois is trying to sell a line about corrupt Democrats in the state.

    One Ryan disgraced, another convicted, Hastert under investigation, and more.

    I think the GOP is in for a hard sell.

  • Curiouser and curiouser

    Speaking to The Chicago Sun-Times, Hastert’s deputy chief of staff Mike Stokke said he didn’t blame ABC News for bad reporting but rather questioned the timing of the “leak.” He referred to a stinging challenge Hastert and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., made on Sunday that the FBI surrender documents it seized during an unprecedented weekend raid on the office of Rep. William Jefferson, D-La.

    “We’ve been in discussion with them since Sunday, with the Department of Justice, on this other matter of unconstitutional search and seizure.” Stokke told the newspaper. “I don’t recall any threats being made, but this is what is called in baseball a brushback pitch. ABC News got this from somewhere. I don’t think they made this up.”

    I guess they are now denying their denial.

  • This is obviously the Cheney/Bush revenge machine in motion. They GOP with Delay’s help managed to get the Dems into a minority (and largely marginalized) position and now the Big Boys in the WH are out to stab their Congressional brethren in the back in an effort to eliminate the only threat to Executive power remaining: The (suddenly uppity) Congress. Sure, the Supreme Court might have a say someday, but by then the Cheney/Bush machine will have propped up their lackeys on the bench and grabbed total control of the power that is (was?) the United States of America.

  • From CNN

    President Bush stepped into the Justice Department’s constitutional confrontation with Congress on Thursday and ordered that documents seized in an FBI raid on a congressman’s office be sealed for 45 days.

  • Bush’s action as reported by CNN may be one more manuever to avoid judicial review of the adminstration’s actions. Recall that Jefferson has already filed suit in Federal District court to have the seized documents returned. Don’t be suprise if the BushCo. claims in court that sealing the documents has mooted the motion.

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