From nbc news World Headquarters in new york this is nbc nightly news. Reporting tonight, lester holt. Good evening. We begin with breaking news. The federal indictment announced of a man who was once one of most powerful politicians in this country. Former speaker of the house Dennis Hastert charged in connection with a scheme to pay more than 3 million of apparent hush money to someone and then lying to the fbi about the cash. The burning questions who is he paying and why . Our justice correspondent Pete Williams has late details. Reporter the charges are a bolt from the blue involving Dennis Hastert, a public official for more than 25 years an house speaker, the long serving republican in the house. The chair reporter since 2008 hes been a lobbyist here in washington. But prosecutors say for the past four years he has paid 1. 7 million in apparent hush money. Court payments say the payments went to someone identified only as individual a from illinois. The papers say he agreed to p
From nbc news World Headquarters in new york, this is nbc nightly news. Reporting tonight, lester holt. Good evening. We begin with breaking news of the federal indictment announced late this afternoon of a man who was once one of the most powerful politicians in this country. Dennis hastert charged tonight in connection with the scheme to pay more than 3 million of apparent hush money to someone and then lying to the fbi about the cash. The burning questions tonight are who is he paying and why . Our justice correspondent Pete Williams has late details. Reporter the charges are a bolt from the blue involving dennis hastert, a public official for more than 25 years and House Speaker from 1999 to 2007. The longest serving republican in that post. Since 2008 hes been a lobbyist here in washington but prosecutors say for the past four years he has paid 1. 7 million in apparent hush money. Court papers say the payments went to someone identified only as individual a from yorkville, illinoi
What do you want . People were desperate to hear him Say Something about Lehman Brothers and his role in it. Same old same old. It was a little bit of the same old same old. I think people were expecting more on that topic and he didnt want to go there. So the economy and all sorts of things. It wasnt one way or the other but i didnt think there was a great revelation except by the way this whole thing clearly haunts him and possibly it was a loselose situation. He is one of those brands. What can you say . You cant move on until you addressed what has happened. And can you . I dont know. But i know you cant unless you do address it. Right. It is what it is. You say its a perfect storm. Wasnt bankrupt anything that you say, well look this is lets just look at what happened. You cant deny it. He wishes he could say you should have basically the best he could have done is said you should have rescued me like everybody else. There were some things selfinflected. Remember the way that they
Headquarters in new york, this is nbc nightly news. Reporting tonight, lester holt. Good evening. We begin with breaking news of the federal indictment announced late this afternoon of a man who was once one of the most powerful politicians in this country. Former speaker of the house Dennis Hastert charged tonight in connection with the scheme to pay more than 3 million of apparent hush money to someone and then lying to the fbi about the cash. The burning questions tonight are who is he paying and why . Our justice correspondent Pete Williams has late details. Reporter the charges are a bolt from the blue involving Dennis Hastert, a public official for more than 25 years and House Speaker from 1999 to 2007. The longest serving republican in that post. It stands approved. Since 2008 hes been a lobbyist here in washington, but prosecutors say for the past four years he has paid 1. 7 million in apparent hush money. Court papers say the payments went to someone identified only as individ