Woman says FBI talked to her about Hastert case

A woman says the FBI interviewed her last month about her allegations that her brother was sexually abused while in high school by Dennis Hastert, the wrestling coach who would become speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, one of the most powerful positions in Washington.

Hastert — who during his term as speaker from 1999 to 2007 stood second in line to the U.S. presidency — was charged last week in a federal indictment that alleges he agreed to pay US$3.5 million to someone from Yorkville, the Illinois town where he taught and coached high school wrestling, so the person would stay quiet about “prior misconduct.”

Jolene Burdge told The Associated Press on Thursday that the FBI interviewed her in mid-May about Hastert. She said her brother told her before he died in 1995 that his first homosexual contact was with Hastert and that it lasted through all of his high school years.

Burdge would not disclose her brother’s name to AP but said he graduated from Yorkville High School in 1971 and that Hastert was his teacher and wrestling coach. Hastert was a teacher and coach in Yorkville from 1965 to 1981, according to the indictment.

In an interview aired Friday on ABC’s Good Morning America, Burdge identified her brother as Stephen Reinboldt, and said Hastert had been a father figure to him in high school. But she also said she believed Hastert had caused him irreparable harm.

“He damaged Steve, I think, more than any of us will ever know,” she told the morning show.

The AP could not independently verify her allegations.