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Dennis Hastert, longest-serving Republican House Speaker and convicted child molester, dies at 84

Dennis Hastert, longest-serving Republican House Speaker and convicted child molester, dies at 84

The late House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) was an accidental speaker. And it was a sheer accident that the world learned a dark secret about Hastert, years after he left Capitol Hill. It was twenty years ago, almost to the date. House Republicans were on the verge of losing their majority in the 2006 midterms. And their Speaker, Dennis Hastert, was in meltdown. HIGHEST-RANKING US OFFICIAL TO EVER SERVE JAIL TIME, FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER DENNIS HASTERT DEAD AT 84 Word had just broken that then-Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) had sent inappropriate messages to high school-age male teens, serving as House pages. The Republican-led House was meeting on September 29, 2006, trying to escape town so the GOP could defend their majority. But nothing was going right for Republicans. The public was growing weary of President George W. Bush and the war in Iraq. Democrats were poised to retake the House in November. Yours truly and Deirdre Walsh — then of CNN — spotted the portly Hastert lumbering across Statuary Hall toward the Speaker’s office. “Did he call you?” Walsh asked Hastert about Foley. “What are you going to do about it?” I inquired. “We’ll talk about that shortly,” mumbled Hastert under his breath, his wide glasses nearly tumbling over the bridge of his nose as he huffed into the Speaker’s suite. An hour later, Hastert, outgoing Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) and other top Republicans convened a brief press conference to tout a national security bill they just passed. The legislation was designed as the GOP sendoff as lawmakers went home to campaign. “Ok, we’ll take questions. Only on the bill,” instructed Frist. “Only on the bill.” No one even squeaked. Finally, I piped up. “We have questions about other subjects,” I announced, determined to ask about Foley. “Alright,” said Frist, shoving back from the table. The Tennessee Republican knew what was coming. Frist was happy he wouldn’t have to address Foley. That was something for Hastert. Especially since Frist planned to run for President in 2008. I inquired about Foley. Hastert muttered a non-answer which was barely usable for broadcast. He mumbled something about him not being “very happy” about Foley. But it was a soundbite from the Speaker of the House on the scandal, right as a bloodied GOP hit the exits for the midterm campaign. Someone then quickly adjourned the press conference. And that was it. FORMER REPUBLICAN HOUSE SPEAKER DENNIS HASTERT DEAD AT 84 A few days later, local reporters in Illinois pressed Hastert about how he handled the Foley matter. Back in Washington, asked one of the Speaker’s aides why Hastert – as a former teacher and coach – wasn’t more aggressive protecting the teen pages. We may have found out why years later. Eighty-four year-old Dennis Hastert died of natural causes over the weekend. The late Speaker is one of the most ignominious figures in American politics. He was the longest-serving Republican Speaker in history, wielding the gavel from 1999 to 2007. Hastert stumbled into the Speakership, rising thanks to the missteps of others. Yet despite his years in Congress, what we learned about Hastert nearly a decade after he left office revealed him to be one of the most grotesque persons to ever serve in Congress. In fact, Hastert is the highest-serving U.S. official to ever serve jail time. Virtually no one knew it, but Hastert was an unbridled sexual predator. Known as “Coach” rather than “Mr. Speaker” to his Capitol colleagues, Hastert preyed on teenage boys when he taught high school in the 1960s and 1970s. Hastert was never implicated in the page scandal. The House nixed the program soon afterwards, even though it was nearly as old as the republic. But in retrospect, how Hastert fumbled what was going on with the House pages shockingly added up later. Democrats won the House handily in the 2006 midterms. Hastert didn’t run – and probably wouldn’t have won – a leadership race in the new Congress. He stuck around as rank-and-file member for a few months and resigned in late 2007. Few heard much from Hastert after he departed Congress. Such was his style. He shunned interviews as Speaker and was rarely even spotted in the Capitol corridors. To defend his reticence with the press corps, the Speaker proclaimed that he was more of a “listener.” And then Hastert’s otherwise bland, nearly forgotten Speakership took a dark turn in 2015. Federal banking regulators flagged Hastert’s curious withdrawals of staggering amounts of cash. They suspected the transactions signaled that someone could be blackmailing the former Speaker. So they investigated. But that’s how it came to light that Hastert was actually paying hush money to conceal his sexual transgressions with minors. The feds indicted Hastert on charges of lying to investigators and evading banking laws. He later pleaded guilty to the bank crimes. Prosecutors dropped the charge of making false statements. Federal Judge Thomas Durkin declared that the former Speaker was “a serial child molester.” In court, Hastert admitted that he “mistreated athletes” and “took advantage” of those he was supposed to mentor. Prosecutors never charged Hastert in connection with sex crimes. He served 13 months of a 15-month sentence at a federal facility in Rochester, MN. It’s remarkable that someone who operated at this level of American government obscured such a hideous secret for so long. And as instructive as the day nearly 20 years ago when the Foley scandal broke and Republicans were on the verge of losing the House, unceremoniously terminating Hastert’s Speakership — the day that propelled him into the leadership is even more illuminating. Republicans nearly lost the House in the 1998 midterms. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) was toxic and Republicans showed him the door. In late 1998, Republicans tapped then-Rep. Bob Livingston (R-LA), chairmanof the Appropriations Committee, to become Speaker in 1999. But then came December 19, 1998. The Saturday before Christmas. I was on the job on 9/11. I was on the job on January

Trump clears way for Fort Hood terrorist to face Army firing squad nearly 17 years after massacre

Trump clears way for Fort Hood terrorist to face Army firing squad nearly 17 years after massacre

President Donald Trump has cleared the way for the Fort Hood terrorist to face an Army firing squad, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced Monday, nearly 17 years after a deadly rampage. “Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has recommended — and President Donald J. Trump has approved — death by U.S. Army firing squad for convicted terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan, the jihadist who opened fire on unarmed American soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009,” Parnell wrote on X. “He killed 13 people and wounded 32 others while shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ during the attack. “ Nidal Malik Hasan, a former army officer, killed 13 people and wounded 32 others in the 2009 attack at Fort Hood, shouting “Allahu Akbar” as he opened fire. Where the death penalty has been used before and since that attack, Hasan’s death, if carried out, will mark the first time a president has successfully signed off on a U.S. military execution since 1961, a penalty reserved for members of the U.S. military as the gravest use of a court-marshal under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. FOX FILES TAKES AN IN-DEPTH LOOK AT FORT HOOD KILLINGS Pvt. John Bennett was last executed by hanging on April 13, 1961, after he attempted to murder an 11-year-old girl in Austria. President George W. Bush also approved of a military execution but was stopped by a federal court in 2008. In Hasan’s case, he took a pistol and a 0.357 revolver with him to a mosque where he attended noon prayers. He then drove to a a soldier readiness processing facility, an administrative building, full of what Hasan knew were going to be unarmed soldiers. After shouting “Allahu Akbar,” Hasan unloaded into “the greatest density of soldiers,” according to witness statements. “I shot to kill,” Hasan told the Sanity Board report.  Hasan was eventually detained after engaging in a fire fight with law enforcement, sustaining multiple gun wounds. He was apprehended and rushed to intensive care. According to the sanity report, he denied experiencing depressive, manic, psychotic, anxiety or cognitive symptoms during the attack. Hasan was court marshaled four years later and sentenced to death. ALLEGED FORT HOOD SHOOTER FREQUENTED LOCAL STRIP CLUB “In Hasan’s sentencing, lead prosecutor Col. Michael Mulligan rested the government’s case on the morning of Aug. 27, after two days of emotional testimony from surviving widows and parents of some of those murdered, Nov. 5, 2009,” the Army’s press release stated. “One of the witnesses, Joleen Cahill, said her husband, retired Chief Warrant Officer Michael Cahill, had given his life in an effort to stop Hasan. She spoke of the devastation experienced by her family in the time following the shooting.” As a part of the press release, the Ford Hood Public Affairs Office explained that Hasan’s case would be automatically appealed, a part of the process for any death sentence. “Given that the death sentence was imposed, the military justice system requires this case to be automatically appealed to the U.S. Army Criminal Court of Appeals and then to the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces,” the press release added.  After a court upheld the death sentence in early 2025, representation for Hasan appealed to the Supreme Court, citing procedural objections to how the trial was run, but that review was denied.  In the time since, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth recommended the execution. With President Trump’s approval, the Army secretary will set the execution’s time and place, Parnell, the Pentagon spokesperson, said. “Judgment day for Hasan has finally come,” Parnell wrote.

Biden-era FBI tracked Trump family travel and Wiles’ calls with lawyers in secret probe: docs

Biden-era FBI tracked Trump family travel and Wiles’ calls with lawyers in secret probe: docs

The Biden-era FBI tracked First Lady Melania Trump and Barron Trump’s travel, while surveilling President Trump’s future Chief of Staff Susie Wiles’ phone, as officials worked the classified documents investigation reaching deep into Trump’s inner circle, newly declassified records show. Documents released Monday by the White House detail “Plasmic Echo,” the probe later led by special counsel Jack Smith into whether Trump improperly retained classified documents after leaving office. The declassified documents show agents tracked the First Lady and First Son’s travel while planning the Mar-a-Lago search, then monitored Susie Wiles’ calls involving defense lawyers, campaign advisers and journalists.  The surveillance collected call details rather than conversation contents, according to the documents. TOP INVESTIGATOR IN BIDEN-ERA ELECTION PROBE WANTED TO TEAR KEY CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT AWAY FROM LAWMAKERS “Jack Smith’s surveillance operation was a disgraceful abuse of government power. Spying on political opponents is weaponization of law enforcement, plain and simple,” White House spokesperson Lauren Bis told Fox News Digital. “Those responsible must be held accountable.”  The revelations come less than a week after Smith faced a contentious Senate Judiciary Committee hearing over investigative tactics used in his separate probe into Trump’s efforts to challenge the 2020 election. That investigation, known as Arctic Frost, included the collection of phone-record information involving Republican lawmakers, while the newly released records stem from Plasmic Echo, the classified-documents investigation that ultimately led to the FBI’s 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago. This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.