Hastert blackmail

Mark Foley, not Dennis Hastert, was involved in a scandal related to blackmail.

Mark Foley was a U.S. Representative from Florida who resigned in 2006 after it was revealed that he had sent explicit messages and photos to teenage boys, including pages who were working as interns in the House of Representatives. Foley was 52 years old at the time and had been a prominent figure in the Republican Party.

The scandal led to an investigation by the House Ethics Committee, which found that Foley had engaged in "improper conduct" with the pages and had lied about it. Foley pleaded guilty to a federal charge of producing and attempting to produce child pornography and was sentenced to 17 years in prison.

Dennis Hastert, on the other hand, was a U.S. Representative from Illinois who served as Speaker of the House from 1999 to 2007. In 2015, Hastert was charged with structuring large cash withdrawals from his bank account to avoid reporting requirements, which led to an investigation into his financial activities.

In 2017, Hastert pleaded guilty to one count of structuring and one count of lying to the FBI. He was sentenced to 15 months in prison and fined $250,000. The investigation revealed that Hastert had been paying hush money to a former student who had accused him of sexual misconduct when Hastert was a high school wrestling coach.