Drive-by Journalism: ABC, Hastert, and Brian Ross

The Yellow Kid (click for more info)COMMENTLINE
ABC News yesterday reported that Speaker of the U.S. House Dennis Hastert is under investigation by the Department of Justice.

However, DOJ refutes the ABC story.

Who to trust ... you decide:

ABC's unnamed anonymous sources (How many sources?)

or

DOJ's Director of Public Affairs Tasia Scolinos and Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty

NEWSLINES
ABC, citing high level Justice Department sources, said information implicating Hastert was developed from convicted lobbyists who are now cooperating with the government.

"Speaker Hastert is not under investigation by the Justice Department," DOJ Director of Public Affairs Tasia Scolinos said in a one-line statement.

Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty, "With regard to reports suggesting that the Speaker of the House is under investigation or 'in the mix,' as stated by ABC News, I reconfirm, as stated by the Department earlier this evening, that these reports are untrue."

NEWSBYTES
House Speaker Hastert under investigation: ABC
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Dennis Hastert, is under investigation by the FBI, which is probing corruption in Congress, ABC News reported on Wednesday.

DOJ: Hastert is not under investigation
(www.hillnews.com) -- The Department of Justice issued a statement clarifying that Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) is not under investigation Wednesday evening after ABC World News Tonight reported that he was "very much in the mix" of the DOJ’s sweeping congressional bribery probe.

Second DOJ Statement after Midnight

Video

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