Dennis Hastert speaks at the 2009 unveiling of his official portrait at the Capitol.

Updated on May 29, 2015, at 4:05 p.m.

Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert has been indicted on charges of lying to FBI agents and evading federal financial-reporting requirements, reportedly while paying a man to cover up past sexual misconduct.

Hastert, an Illinois Republican, was speaker from 1999 to 2007. BuzzFeed’s John Stanton notes that there were several high-profile congressional scandals in those years. Illinois is also a notorious hotbed for political corruption, as Roland Burris, Rod Blagojevich, George Ryan, and Jesse Jackson Jr. can attest.

But Hastert’s indictment seems to involve a darker story than political corruption. In or about 2010, according to the indictment, Hastert—a former high-school teacher and coach—met with an unnamed individual from Yorkville, Hastert’s hometown. They “discussed past misconduct by defendant against Individual A that had occurred years earlier.” In effect, Hastert fell victim to blackmail, the indictment alleges: He “agreed to provide Individual A $3.5 million in order to compensate for and conceal his prior misconduct against Individual A.” (Since leaving the House, Hastert has become a highly paid lobbyist.)

While Hastert has not made any comment and prosecutors haven’t offered any public explanations, the Los Angeles Times and NBC News reported that Friday that Hastert’s payments were made to cover up past sexual misconduct with a male. “It was sex,’’ a law-enforcement source told the Times, adding that it “occurred years earlier” than his election to public office, a timeframe that aligns with Hastert’s stint as a high school teacher and wrestling coach. BuzzFeed reported that a U.S. attorney withheld the details of the “prior misconduct” from the indictment at the request of Hastert’s lawyers, and that the prosecutor also considered additional charges against the former speaker tied to a second alleged victim, but decided against pursuing them.