Dennis Hastert
Who looks worst in the Dennis Hastert sex scandal? That undoubtedly would be the former U.S. House speaker himself, who now stands accused of agreeing to pay $3.7 million in hush money to a former high school wrestler Hastert sexually abused during his teaching and coaching days in rural Illinois.Who looks best from this sordid mess? That might be Wayne Madsen, a D.C.-based investigative journalist who first reported in fall 2006 on Hastert's predilection for youthful male wrestlers. Madsen also reported in the same time frame that Hastert's sexual preferences were well known among the D.C. gay community.
Here we are in 2015, with Republican politicos expressing shock about last week's indictment, charging Hastert with lying to the FBI and violating banking laws to withdraw money for keeping his "misconduct" a secret. But Wayne Madsen broke the story, at least the crux of it, almost nine years ago.
We now know, from numerous sources, that the alleged "misconduct" mentioned in the Hastert indictment involved the homosexual molestation of a young wrestler decades ago--this from a Congressman who consistently voted against gay rights during his career.
Speaking of Republican hypocrites on gay issues, that brings us to U.S. Circuit Judge (and Alabama native) Bill Pryor. Madsen wrote in 2009 on his subscription-only site, The Wayne Madsen Report (WMR), about Pryor's connections to 1990s gay pornography, stating that the judge's secret made him a reliable and blackmailable "gatekeeper" for conservative interests on the Eleventh Circuit, which covers Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. Who might be pulling Pryor's strings on the appellate bench? Well, his campaign manager in a run for Alabama attorney general was Karl Rove, and the two reportedly remain close.
I picked up on the Pryor story in fall 2013 and produced a series of posts, along with a full-frontal photograph, that took the story national, perhaps viral. Above the Law, the most widely read law blog in the country, even picked up on the story.
Wayne Madsen
(Note: I was arrested roughly a month after I started publishing the Pryor story, ostensibly because of a defamation lawsuit filed by Republican lawyer Rob Riley. In fact, I published a post about Pryor's ties to the tobacco industry and GOP operative Jessica Medeiros Garrison on the morning of October 23, 2013. I was arrested that evening, and like Rob Riley, Garrison has filed a dubious defamation lawsuit against me, one I am fighting at this moment. Do I think it is a coincidence that my arrest was closely connected in time to my reporting on Bill Pryor? No, I do not.)It probably is widely assumed that I broke the Bill Pryor/gay porn story, but it originated with the following item four years earlier on Wayne Madsen's Web site. (We've received permission to use certain articles from the subscription site.)
June 15, 2009 -- Is there a closet door closed at the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta?
William H. ("Bill") Pryor, Jr., the former Attorney General of Alabama who was involved in the political prosecution by the Bush administration of Alabama Democratic Governor Don Siegelman and who squeaked by U.S. Senate confirmation after being nominated by George W. Bush to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, appears to have a little something in his "closet." Pryor was confirmed by the Senate in 2005 in a 53-45 vote, his nomination being secured by a bi-partisan agreement between Senator John McCain and thirteen "Gang of 14" senators to force an "up or down" vote on three stalled Bush federal court nominees. Pryor was 43 when he was sworn in as a federal judge.
According to WMR sources in Alabama, Pryor, who now acts as a gatekeeper on the 11th Circuit for the Bush interests in Florida, Alabama, and other states in the jurisdiction, advertised himself during his younger days on a gay website called "Bad Puppy." There are also rumors from informed sources that naked photographs are held by some top Republicans and conservatives as an insurance policy that Pryor rules the correct way on issues on the 11th Circuit bench.
Wayne Madsen is a polarizing figure in the world of journalism. He seems to have developed enemies on the left and on the right.
I've found that journalists who have bipartisan enemies are usually the sort who take on tough stories and report accurately about them. Madsen clearly was way ahead of the pack on the Dennis Hastert story. We will provide ample evidence of that in an upcoming post.
(To be continued)
