An indictment of former Speaker of the U.S. House Dennis Hastert claims that an unnamed individual met with Hastert several times since 2010 and that between 2010 and 2014, Hastert paid the individual $1.7 million of an agreed-upon $3.5 million payoff.

The indictment of former Speaker of the U.S. House Dennis Hastert has raised more questions than a daytime soap opera.

Among the questions surrounding the former U.S. representative from Plano’s indictment Thursday by a U.S. grand jury are:

• What is the “misdeed” Hastert was allegedly paying to cover up?
• When did the alleged event happen?
• Who is ‘Individual A’ cited in the indictment for allegedly extorting Hastert and how did Individual A know about the misdeed?
• Why does the FBI start out the indictment noting that Hastert was a high school teacher and coach from 1965-81, an elected official from 1981-2007, and a lobbyist from 2008 to the present? Are the three positions all linked to the extortion plan?
• Does the FBI citing Hastert time as a teacher and coach signal that the “misdeed” was school-related?

By Friday, various media outlets claimed the answer to the last question is “yes,” citing sources who claimed Hastert’s “misdeed” was sexual in nature with a former male student and happened before he began his political career.

U.S. Rep. Danny Davis (D-Chicago), who served for a decade in the U.S. House with Hastert, said he “feels terrible” about his colleague’s indictment.

“I feel sad about it. I feel badly about it,” Davis said in an interview with Chronicle Media. “My thoughts go out to Denny Hastert and his family.”

Davis said he always had a great relationship with Hastert, both before and after the Republican’s time as speaker of the House. The Chicago Democrat said the Plano Republican played a key role in getting bills through that he was pushing.

“There was some major legislation of mine that he helped get passed. Items like the American Community Renewal Act and New Markets Initiative took place because of him,” Davis said.

Davis said it was shocking to hear of the legal troubles his former colleague now faces.

“You never know. All I know is that except for grace of God there go I,” the congressman said. “You never know what kind of other things people are dealing with.”

“If you have never walked in a person’s shoes, you don’t know what trauma they have gone through. You just don’t know. That is why I take things one day at a time.”

Davis said he would usually see Hastert once or twice a week when Hastert was speaker of the House. He noted that he and Hastert often were on the same flight back to Chicago when House sessions ended.

The indictment claims that Individual A met with Hastert several times since 2010 and that between 2010 and 2014, Hastert paid the individual $1.7 million of an agreed-upon $3.5 million payoff.

Between June 2010 and April 2012, Hastert made 15 $50,000 withdrawals from bank accounts at Old Second, People’s State and Castle bank, paying Individual A about every six weeks, investigators said.

Having to file federal paperwork for any withdrawal over $10,000, officials at those banks began asking Hastert about those withdrawals in April 2012.

In July 2012, Hastert began withdrawing amounts under $10,000 and would pay Individual A $50,000 at pre-arranged meetings, the indictment contends. FBI agents contend Hastert made withdrawals under $10,000 at least 106 times.

In 2014, payments between Hastert and the individual became $100,000 every three months, prosecutors said.

FBI agents said that in a Dec. 8 meeting with Hastert, the former congressman lied about the reason for the withdrawals.

In response to an agent’s questions about if Hastert made the withdrawals due to his lack of faith in the U.S. banking system, Hastert allegedly said, “Yeah … I kept the cash. That’s what I’m doing.”