Feds Targeted Congressman Henry Hyde in 4 Year Bribery Investigation

Gawker reports:

Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.), who died in 2007, was a staunch defender of "traditional values" and a prime mover in the impeachment of Bill Clinton. And according to documents obtained by Gawker, the FBI thought he was on the take.

The FBI spent four years investigating Hyde for racketeering and bribery in the 1970s, according to his FBI file, which we obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. The probe, which was authorized at the highest levels of the Justice Department and has not been previously disclosed, involved the use of wiretaps and physical surveillance to nail Hyde for taking kickbacks from mob-affiliated state contractors when he was an Illinois state senator. Though the charges were brought before a grand jury, the Assistant U.S. Attorney overseeing the case abandoned it for lack of evidence in 1976, two years after Hyde was elected to Congress.

There's more:According to the documents, which can be read in full and at length here, Hyde offered to steer an Illinois Department of Public Aid contract to a mob-affiliated New York company called Computer Specifics Corporation in 1972 in exchange for a cash kickback amounting to 10% of the total contract. Hyde was a state senator at the time and was viewed as a close advisor to Illinois Gov. Richard Ogilvie.Check out the documents.