Tuesday, June 9, 2015

The secret lives of Dennis Hastert, Bill Pryor, and other public officials raise the ugly specter of blackmail


Bill Pryor at badpuppy.com
What happens when a married public official presents himself as heterosexual but leads a homosexual life in the shadows? It raises concerns about one of the ugliest words in the English language--blackmail.

We've seen it in Alabama with the rise to power of U.S. Circuit Judge Bill Pryor. We are seeing it now in the fall of former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert. We are likely to be hearing more about it in the coming days as Hastert appears in court today and his case unfolds--probably with stories of more victims and various politicos who helped cover for the speaker.

Concerns about blackmail prompted Alabama law enforcement officials to open an investigation when they received a tip, not long after Gov. Fob James appointed Pryor attorney general in 1997, that nude photographs of the new AG had appeared at the gay-porn Web site badpuppy.com. Investigators tracked down the photos and their source--in Monroe, Louisiana, where Pryor attended college. Investigators also conducted surveillance on Pryor's residence in Montgomery and noted a number of late-night male visitors, including one who went on to become a well-known national political figure.

As it turned out, Pryor's secret life actually helped his professional career. According to multiple press reports, certain Republicans hold copies of the porn photos to help ensure that Pryor pushes for favorable outcomes on cases before the U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. In other words, Pryor's dalliance with gay porn makes him vulnerable--particularly since he almost certainly did not disclose it in his Senate confirmation process--and the very conservatives who put him in power use that to make the Eleventh Circuit even more corrupt than it already was.

As for Hastert, an article written after his recent indictment indicates Capitol Hill insiders are abuzz about the possibility that the speaker was ethically compromised because of his secret life. An article from 2011 suggests Hastert's sexual secrets long ago caused him to fall victim to blackmail--on the international stage.

The recent article, titled "Hastert Questions Consume Capitol," comes from The Hill and reporter Scott Wong. Writes Wong:

House Republicans are questioning whether anyone tried to use former Speaker Dennis Hastert’s dark secret against the Illinois Republican during his two decades in Congress.

The Capitol has been abuzz about the Hastert allegations this week, and several GOP lawmakers are raising the specter of whether anyone demanded political favors in exchange for their silence.

“Was there any undue influence able to be imposed based on the knowledge of a secret that could damage him?” asked one House GOP lawmaker, who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue. “That’s sort of the scrutiny we all have to endure, and as you look retrospectively now at what we know: Was there an appropriate filter?

“It doesn’t have the same kind of stench to it from a political influence standpoint,” the lawmaker added. “That said, everything starts somewhere.”

Other lawmakers, quoted by name, voiced even stronger concerns:

The fact that the former Speaker put himself in a position where he could have been blackmailed is “nauseating,” remarked freshman Rep. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.). For Congress, “certainly it’s a black eye all the way around.”

Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.), too, is worried Hastert had been “compromised” while serving as Speaker — a powerful job that put him second in line to the presidency.

“Not that our founders were saints, but you’re giving payouts like that, you’re getting blackmailed. It compromises you,” Yoho said in an interview.

“When you become compromised, how does that influence somebody’s decision-making knowing they’ve got something held over their head, someone saying: ‘Yes, you will vote this way.’ ”

An article from four years ago suggests Hastert already has been blackmailed. Brad Friedman published the piece, titled "FBI Whistleblower: Hastert, Burton, Blunt, Other Members of Congress 'Bribed, Blackmailed'", on May 25, 2011, at Huffington Post. Friedman focuses on the deposition of FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds, and she unleashes damaging information about a number of GOP politicos, including former U.S. Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN) and former U.S. Rep and current U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO). But the most alarming allegations involve Hastert.

Here is Friedman's overview of the revelations from Edmonds' testimony:

The under-oath, detailed allegations include bribery, blackmail, espionage and infiltration of the U.S. government of, and by current and former members of the U.S. Congress, high-ranking State and Defense Department officials and agents of the government of Turkey. The broad criminal conspiracy is said to have resulted in, among other things, the sale of nuclear weapons technology to black market interests including Pakistan, Iran, North Korea, Libya and others.

Even as many of these allegations had been previously corroborated to varying extents, by a number of official government reports, documents and independent media outlets (largely overseas), not a single major mainstream media outlet in the U.S. has picked up on Edmonds' startling claims since her deposition has been made fully available. . . .
Though Edmonds was careful to not "discuss the intelligence gathering method by the FBI," she notes in her deposition that her claims are "Based on documented and provable, tracked files and based on...100 percent, documented facts."

Here is the key information from Edmonds' deposition about Hastert:

Dennis Hastert: "[S]everal categories. The acceptance of large sums of bribery in forms of cash or laundered cash ... to make it look legal for his campaigns, and also for his personal use, in order to do certain favors ... make certain things happen for foreign entities and foreign governments' interests, Turkish government's interest and Turkish business entities' interests. ... other activities, too, including being blackmailed for various reasons. ... he used the townhouse that was not his residence for certain not very morally accepted activities. ... foreign entities knew about this, in fact, they sometimes participated in some of those not maybe morally well activities in that particular townhouse that was supposed to be an office, not a house, residence at certain hours, certain days, evenings of the week."

Hastert used a townhouse for "certain not very morally accepted activities," and foreign entities knew about?

Those concerned about blackmail in the Dennis Hastert story might be too late. It looks like it already has happened. And one can only wonder, at this point, how many of his allies in the U.S. House knew about it.

20 comments:

  1. I bet there are a bunch of politicians out there who are sweating in their sheets from fear the Hastert story is going to spill over onto them.

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  2. Now that we've gotten rid of Fuller, we need an investigation of Pryor. If that little slimeball is rigging cases, perhaps the Siegelman case, he needs to wind up in an orange jumpsuit for the rest of his life.

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  3. Interesting that you should mention Fuller and Pryor, @9:37. One thing they have in common is that neither had any judicial experience before being appointed to the federal bench. Fuller had been a district attorney in South Alabama, and Pryor had been attorney general. But neither had ever been a judge, not even in traffic court or night court. That tells me they both were appointed to be political hacks; it had nothing to do with their qualifications because they didn't have any.

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  4. I hope people read to the end of your post. That's where the important stuff is. Looks like Sibel Edmonds had evidence that Hastert was using a townhouse in Turkey for "not morally acceptable" purposes. Was he having gay trysts there, maybe with children--and Turkish officials knew about it? Geez, this could get really deep and ugly.

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  5. Your readers might be interested in this from Tom Flocco in 2006:

    A retired intelligence agency official corroborated the revelations of a national security expert that male and female heterosexuals, homosexuals, lesbians, bisexuals and underage children provided sexual services to numerous congressmen, senators, national media hosts, top military officers and other federal officials who were compromised and made susceptible to blackmail at three Washington, DC hotels since 2000.

    The long-time intelligence insider with multiple Capitol Hill sources told TomFlocco.com that convicted GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff operated the sex / spy ring at the Watergate, Ritz-Carlton and Sheraton hotels in Washington, DC. “The whole Republican Party was for sale—the House, Senate and the White House,” said the well-respected federal insider with impeccable and historic intelligence credentials who declined to be named at this time but who is familiar with testimony and sources close to a grand jury probing the GOP lobbyist’s sale of sex in return for legislative influence over taxpayer dollars.

    According to Justice Department sources there is email and phone record evidence that White House advisor Karl Rove is linked to the operation of Abramoff’s sex ring according to federal agency sources who spoke with U.S. intelligence authority Thomas Heneghan.

    Heneghan added that a grand jury heard several agents testify last April that “the Watergate, Ritz-Carlton and Sheraton Hotels in Washington, DC were used to compromise legislators and news-people with prostitution services, the financing of which is directly linked to the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Marc Rich and Abramoff.”

    http://www.tomflocco.com/fs/FoleyTipOfIceberg.htm

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  6. Cross:

    I've heard the name Tom Flocco, but I don't know much about him. Perhaps some of our readers are familiar with his work and can add to the discussion. If his sourcing is solid, that's a heck of a story you sent. Jack Abramoff operated a sex ring, with Karl Rove connected to it? Talk about a potential bombshell. Maybe that's why some of Rove's e-mails disappeared.

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  7. I hope Sibel Edmonds will speak out about Hastert now. She's been trying to tell people about his secret life for years. This is another example of a whistle blower being vindicated.

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  8. August 1999
    Attorney General Bill Pryor
    Appearing unscheduled at Montgomery meeting for questioning about black books and blackmail. Facilitating of 1997 $10,000.00 tax bribery, entering into United States $15,000,000.00 in illegal drugs status' buried, subsequent to politically destroying Jim Folsom's thoughts of running again for governor 1998. It's not what Pryor may or not be rigging in his federal capacity now, as much as it is that now in his official federal capacity is he not complicit in unresolved events during time as assistant attorney general, especially as Attorney General?

    January 26, 2002
    Attorney General Bill Pryor to U.S. Chamber of Commerce
    "If you think that the office of state attorney general in your state is an unlikely source of mischief, think again. My warnings this morning are not based on speculation or conjecture. I know my colleagues."
    Although Pryor's job as Attorney General is to protect the rights of all of Alabama's citizens,....many of his own fellow attorneys general...raise serious concerns, about how, if confirmed, he would rule with respect to the rights and interest of ordinary citizens. "Attorneys General for Sale" Andrew Wheat.

    June 11, 2003
    Federal News Service
    Senate Judiciary Hearing, Nomination William Pryor 11th U.S. Circuit
    Transcript excerpts.
    Senator Cornyn: General Pryor. "But one of the things that I admire about you is that I believe you're a man of courage and a person of character, and someone who's not afraid to run away, who's not willing to run away from strongly held beliefs. I also belief that you're a person who cannot be pressured or intimidated. And I believe your record as attorney general has demonstrated that,"
    Attorney General Pryor: I can think of no higher calling for an American than to serve as a federal judge in the American system of government than to have the responsibility of protecting and defending the Constitution of the United States."
    I"I would have the role of making that tough final decision of resolving the controversy in accordance with the law to the best of my ability, honestly, and diligently,, quietly, and listening to all sides reading the briefs, becoming familiar with the facts of any case, reading all the applicable case law, and hearing from my colleagues and arriving at a decision."
    *****SENATOR CORNYN: I think one of the things that you and I probably see eye to eye on is that judges who substitute their view, their personal view, whether it be a personal or a political or any other agenda for what the law is, becomes law makers, and thereby becomes law-breakers.*****
    Attorney General Pryor: "I couldn't agree with you more than with that statement, Senator. THAT GOES TO THE ABSOLUTE CORE OF MY BELIEFS ABOUT THE LEGAL SYSTEM AND THE ROLE OF THE JUDICIARY."

    October 20, 2007 Excerpt Time Magazine
    Adam Zagorin discloses the Lanny Young testimony. "Young, it turns out, provided whopping evidence against two leading Alabama Republicans, Senator Jeff Sessions and then-Attorney General and now Judge William Pryor. Both of these gentlemen were Canary [Bill] clients. And the U.S. Attorney's office in Montgomery instantly concluded that the charges against Sessions and Pryor were going nowhere", after Young's under oath testimony about giving both each $20,000.00 contributions for their political campaigns.

    January 12, 2010
    Governor Bob Riley, State of the State Address
    "No one is above the law. Ladies and gentlemen, if we are to fulfill our oaths to ensure that the laws are followed, how can we permit this flagrant and rampant violation of the law go on? Men and women of principle must act now--and act decisively--to ensure the rule is not some hollow standard that is cast aside whenever people with enough money and enough influence decide that the law does not apply to any of them."

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  9. Surveillance on Pryor's residence showed a number of late-night male visitors, including one who became a national political figure? Wow, it would be interesting to know who that last one was. Where was this residence?

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  10. The residence was in Montgomery, Alabama. And we will be providing details about the now well-known late-night visitor.

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  11. The Sibel Edmonds information near the end of your posts suggests that Hastert might have committed treason due to his "morally unethical" activity.

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  12. That's what it sounds like to me, too. Serious stuff.

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  13. that is why I never liked, "don't ask, don't tell". If everything is out in the public domain and people accept other people's lives and loves then there is nothing to black mail anyone about anything.


    In this day and age, well here in Canada, marriage if legal for everybody. Its not about sex. We had a Prime Minister back in the day, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, who famously said, the government has no business in the bedrooms of the nation. since those words were uttered, its been government policy. works for us. We never went to rack or ruin. No politicians had to be black mailed and neither did any judges, cops, et.

    I just have never understood the American thing about whether people are gay or straight. Like who cares. Its about are they a decent human being. Do they pay their taxes, do they do charity work, et.c

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  14. Master Yoda speaks through me, "Umm! Keep a jail cell open for you, the Klan does. Pissed off they are. Yes, want you the dark side does. Careful you must be & to undisclosed location you must go... Cheney has a new apprentice & fucking around he is not."

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  15. Hey Legal Schnauzer, let's let bygones be bygones & make peace. I will get the local GOPers off your back & take you quail hunting to celebrate :)

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  16. "Pussy? It’s just another one of those crappy products on the shopping channel; it’s talked up a lot, works like a charm when it’s demonstrated on video but once you get it out of the box it fails to deliver. Big Time." No wonder so many men folk be gay these days.

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  17. A quail-hunting trip with you, Darth? I can see some downsides to that, from my perspective.

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  18. Is there any interest in serious Alabama news beyond "Darth" wanting to be known affecting the people's government? This past weekend ago a individual with a primetime platform was in Alabama for a few days. Yet during this time, and since there has never been seen or heard one word about his visit. But, why not? Anywhere else topic of media interest being "public" person. Not even Fox News, a word, what if anything, is there that the public cloaked from knowing about during visit in exchange for those days, and thereafter, the swinging of 180 degrees of silences.

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  19. I'm interested. Who visited Alabama, can you fill us in?

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  20. Fox News Washington was given a heads up via Fox News Contributor without ever any responding to the fact[s] that the Reverend Al Sharpton was in Alabama visiting family residing in Dothan, Alabama for about three days.
    During all his time there never once being seen publicly, controversial, or quoted in media before departure.
    Capitalizing on his silences, recommending Dothan as a model Alabama city failed when having his opportunity to bring forth publicly the assassination of local black police officer by assassin's twelve gauge double barrel sawed off shotgun at near close range in front yard of residence with officer's wife and two small children at home.
    Why? Is there the appearances of obvious intentional neglect to make this officer's tragic death a national issue, as the Reverend has done in so many other most recent issues involving police incidents, is his life not as worthy the media's time and interest?
    So much for "We report, you decide." and "Fair and balance." Was there a quid pro quo in exchange for Sharpton's silence; concerns such attentions if not otherwise may have cause for surfacing roots entangling with Siegelman's premeditated
    persecution. Whereby revealing bedrock for guises and veils utilized to manipulate and destroy another, others lives for political gains.
    Contact Fox News if really interested in helping Siegelman, God knows he is way over due causing somebody to get off their buttocks.
    To not do so, especially now, May having been Memorial Day, twice over, once for our nation's military personnel, another for Fallen Police Officers, then June 06th, D-Day, soon July 04th; to not stand for what all these men and women served and died for that we enjoy today, being robbed from others, Seigelman, is a disgrace, shame on "WE THE PEOPLE"!

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