Flooding just keep coming. More deaths in houston as radar shows another storm rolling into town. And then the politics lead for nine years this man was two heartbeats away from the highest office in chbt land. Now former House SpeakerDennis Hastert, republican illinois indicted. Feds say he agreed to pay 3. 5 million to someone to compensate for and hush up something. What possible skeleton could he have in his closet that would take millions of dollars to hide . Good afternoon, everyone. Im jake tapper. Breaking nugz in the National Lead president obama and attorney general lynch sequestered in the west wing as we speak currently strategizing how to rescue the nsas Bulk Surveillance Program from what seems like an uncertain death at the u. S. Senate. Camped out on the west lawn in d. C. This meeting started an hour ago. What is the white houses plan to salvage these sections of the patriot act that the president insists are absolutely critical to National Security . Reporter right. We will hear from the president today on this. This is maybe no surprise to anyone truly down to the wire and this is the white houses last push. Theyve been contacting members of the senate. Theyve also been ramping up their rhetoric almost trying to shame members of the senate into keeping these parts of the patriot act up and running that are set to expire. One of them of course is the bulk collection of americans phone data by the federal government but it appears that the senate is only about three votes short of approving a bill already passed by the house. A bipartisan bill that simply takes that collection responsibility out of the hands of the government and puts it on the phone companies. So the white House Keeping saying well the controversial part the bulk collection of that data thats been taken care of in this bipartisan bill. What the white house is saying today is theres no rational reason for the senate to keep holding this up. That they need to pass this bill and not doing so is in their words, National Security russian roulette. Jake. Michelle kosinski at the white house. Stay there. Back to you soon as we hear from president obama. Meanwhile, the potential sun setting of those provisions in the nsa act and pate trick act and data in that comes at the fact that the loss could worsen a dark landscape in the battle guess isis. The fbi saying yesterday even with the patriot act in place they cannot keep tabs on wouldbe terrorists here in the United States. The department of Homeland Security chief jayeh johnson says nearly lyly 500 joins the terrorist group. Continuing to make gains there and next door in iraq. Cnn chief National Correspondent is closely monitoring threats abroad and here in the u. S. Jim sciutto, expanding in the middle east not just iraq and syria . Reporter no question. In the starkest terms a good week for isis and bad for the antiisis coalition for isiss you have these attacks outside of its bases in iraq and syria. In libya and saudi arabia along with the gain the victory, in taking ramadi from iraqi forces and the question is does this expose broader problems in the fight against isis led by the u. S. . Across the middle east this is isis on the offensive. In saudi arabia claiming responsibility for a deadly bombing on a shiite mosque. The Second Attack in the kingdom in the last week. In libya, a growing base of support, the group says it captured part of a civilian airport. And in baghdad, two massive suicide bombs on two prominent hotels. A shocking strike inside iraqs highly protected capital. Leaving shattered windows and a rattled government. The regime in baghdad is very much on the defensive, because of the gains that isis has made in ramadi and Anbar Province and in syria, in damascus. Theres been a very important shift in the last couple of weeks. Reporter isis attacks both inside and outside its bases in iraq and syria [ sirens ] a worrying sign for the u. S. Led antiisis coalition. Islamic militants have also taken over areeha syria. One of the last under control of president bashar al aside. His regime teetering. They believe that they are the true army of islam that is coming to save islam. And you know that also kind of explains their violence and brutality. Anybody who stands in our way, this is what we will do to you. Reporter with iraqi forces overwhelmed, the u. S. Is now considering arming sunni tribes in Anbar Province directly. Arming the sunni, the kurds, arming the army arming any side in iraq who will fight against isis will be welcome. Reporter john allen who leads the antiisis coalition for the u. S. Called isis recent gains tactical momentum saying though that the u. S. And its partners still has the upper hand in the fight and its going to take time. When you look at the events of the last couple weeks you see there needs to be a policy review. The question the small tweaks to the plan . Or bigger changes to get the upper hand again . Jim, stay right there. I want to note as the middle east is seemingly spiraling out of control, there is another big threat. The Obama Administration forced to confront a threat from a Sleeping Giant and, jim, you just got back from china onboard a u. S. Navy flight scoping out chinas military buildup on these manmade islands, and now this morning weapons spied from that exact plane have suddenly vanished. Whats going on here . Reporter heres the thing. When we were flying this flight the real concern of the pentagon has been, one china is manufacturing land 600 miles from its shore. Thats already a concern. The next concern, their militarizing those islands and theres evidence of that. As we were flying a twomile long air strip, long enough to accommodate any chinese aircraft deep radar, the next step youll see weapons turn up aircraft et cetera. Now in the last week the surveillance photos have shown there are indeed weapons on some of these islands. Artillery within range threatens vietnamese positions. Not u. S. Aircraft still, hard evidence that they have taken, already taken steps to militarize. Interesting, im told by the pentagon that since the flight that we took those artillery pieces have either been removed or hidden. So the idea of publicizing the u. S. Surveillance of these areas and making the world aware that this is happening has caused china at least in this case possibly to make a bit of a change. Whether hiding it though or actually removing the weapons is still an open question. Lets talk about the threat from china here. Bring in dr. Michael pillsbury, long time defense official former head of china policy for the pentagon and author of the new book the 100 year marathon chinas secret strategy to replace america as the global superpower. Doctor thank you for being here. For viewers who maybe have not been paying that much attention to whats going on with china right now tell them as i think your book title highlights, why should they care . Whats going on thats so important . The threat of war is one reason to care. Moving into a fullscale crisis the American Defense secretary asked china on tuesday to stop this construction. On wednesday and thursday the American Government said please dont fortify or please promise you wont fortify these areas. Military movements in chinas past have been messages that are precursors to the use of force. So the Chinese Ambassador here yesterday pretty much explicitly warned the Obama Administration and criticized the cnn crew being on the plane as a provocative sort of a major provocation. Im not sure if theyre attacking cnn or the pentagon for inviting cnn to go onboard, but moving towards a military crisis is something that the audience ought to be concerned about. And, jim, explain what is the importance of the South China Sea . Why would the u. S. Seemingly come to the brink of risking a, some sort of military confrontation . Reporter seems a million miles away on the other side of the planet but twothirds 60 , of the world trade goes through the china sea and on through the straits, a Major Trading path here. Plus an area where the u. S. Has shown its military presence for decades. Since world war ii. And its something, of course the u. S. Position is its not only a u. S. Decision to do that but allies and other nations in the region want it. Its helped keep peace there, both a business motivation trade motivation and motivation in projection of power and keeping peace in the region. You have china plunking down literally manufacturing island 600 miles from its shore. Well beyond the 100 mimes or so recognized as part of your zone of ipnfluence and apparently making in effect unsinkable aircraft carriers there. That is seen as a threat not just a trade, but to american influence there, which then puts u. S. In direct conflict with china. And, doctor do you actually this this will come down to a military confrontation . The u. S. Doesnt seem to be in the mood to start any new wars these days . Despite what the chinese of accusing us of provoking this crisis were not. Were trying to enforce 100year doctrine of International Law of the sea. We dont recognize these fortifications as anything. We can technically speaking our navy can sail right up to the dock and get off, or over fly them as much as we want. Its not a new principle to provoke china. Its a very old law of the sea a principle that goes back to the british. The problem is if they succeed in fortifying the entire South China Sea, as jim says its the artery the most important global sort of chokehold of Oil Shipments in that we can imagine. Yeah. They dont force phi it now. They cant stop traffic going through. They dont know whats there necessarily, but theyre moving towards in a military situation would be control of the South China Sea. Reporter the thing that comes up when i speak to officials, you dont have to make a decision to go to war, but you put navy ships close to u. S. And chinese ships, one cuts off the other. A collision, airplane gets too close to another. Remember that happened 15 years ago. 2001 u. S. Military personnel. And does that escalate . A doctrine of warning strikes in a crisis they call it [ speaking in Foreign Language ] the kind of thing they would do to not with a cnn crew onboard, god forbid do it to send a message. But if our ship or plane has been attacked president obama is handcuffed. Has to do something to respond. Cant say, gee, a misunderstanding. Thank you both so much. In our politics lead he was known as the squeaky clean one. Now former speaker of the house Dennis Hastert facing charges of lying to the fbi and hiding thousands in bank withdrawals. The real question what was he trying to hide paying 3. 5 million in hush money jp new details. Stay with us. Virgin islands nice so nice so nice, so nice book five nights to get one free. And 500 toward activities shopping and dining. Thats Virgin Islands nice. So nice, so nice success starts with the right connections. Introducing miraclegro liquafeed universal feeder. Turn any hose connection into a clever feeding system for a wellfed garden. Miraclegro. 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The secure Cloud Services that store her genetic data the servers and software on a mission to find the perfect match. And the mom who gets to hear her daughters heart beat once again. Were helping organizations transform the way they work so they can transform the lives of the people they serve. Welcome back to the lead. Im jake tapper. Time for our politics lead in a massive fall from grace for a prominent politician Dennis Hastert, former speaker of the house, second in line to the presidency from 1999 to 2006 has been indicted on charges that he lied to the fbi about alleged hush money used to cover up what prosecutors referred to as past misconduct. The sheer amount of hush money is making everyone want to know what could he have possibly done . Right to cnn justice correspondent pamela brown. Pamela whats the longest running republican House Speaker accused of actually having done . Reporter weve learns from sources briefed on the investigation the former speaker of the house Dennis Hastert paying a former student to keep quiet about allegations of Sexual Misconduct from the time when hastert was a teacher and wrestling coach in illinois. I do hope that i have left a few footprints behind. Reporter he was the longest serving republican speaker of the house. Now highses accused by the Justice Department of lying to the fbi about alleged hush money. The reason he became speaker because of his pristine reputation. Squeaky clean. Reporter hastert abruptly resigned but yet to respond publicly to the allegations. The indictment says hastert agreed to pay an unnamed individual 3. 5 million to cover up his past misconduct. The indictment does not specify what the misconduct was leading to much speculation about what he may be hiding. The fbi did say hastert lied to authorities when questioned saying he was keeping the cash for himself but Authorities Say he was actually giving the money to silence someone else he knew when a yorkville, Illinois High School teacher and wrestling coach. Who would have guessed a wrestling coach from Kendall County in illinois would be the longest serving republican speaker of the house. Reporter according to court records, the investigation started two years ago when the fbi started investigating mystery transactions made by hastert. Bank withdrawals more than 950,000. The fbi alleged several of the withdrawals were less than 10,000, so he could evade irs detection. Banks have an obligation to record when you are withdrawing close to 10,000 and theres a pattern of doing this. Its called structuring. Thats why they would be looking into this. Reporter weve been told by the department of justice he has not been arrested because he does not pose a flight risk or a danger to the community. Its unclear when he will appear before a federal judge. Again, we are learning from these sources that this was Sexual Misconduction, allegations he was trying to cover up according to authorities. Its important to note here that asking people why wasnt that specified in the indictment . Im told because the charges hes facing dont necessarily relate direct lip to the misconduct. All right. Pamela brown, thanks. Joining me to talk about the indictment of the former House Speaker, senior legal analyst jeffrey toobin. Hasterts in trouble for allegedly lying to the fbi trying to hide hush money he was taking out of the bank but the indictment does not say what the misconduct was although pamela reported it has to do with a former student and alleged Sexual Misconduct. Is this like the feds going an al capone for tax evasion . In other words, this is what they could get him on . Not necessarily, because investigation of currency transaction reports, thats what those forms that the banks are required to file for large cash transactions thats been going on for decades. I prosecuted that was the kind of case i prosecuted when assistant United States attorney and its really just a matter of course that banks report to Law Enforcement when there are suspicions patterns of of of cash transactions. When there are when they are filed and when transactions are structured in a way to avoid those requirements. What happened here it appears is that the fbi was informed ptthe fbi went to hastert and hastert told them what frankly seem as ridiculous story, usings money for himself and even more incredibly that he didnt trust the banking still. Why he was taking out so much money. This alleged Sexual Misconduct against a former student. Theoretically it might have been criminal. I suppose also a possible statute of limitations on such a charge . Certainly theres, those are both possibilities. Theres also a possible defense here which is an extortion defense, which hastert could say, look, this guy came to me making outrageous false accusations but to protect my family i decided to pay him this money. That is a theory a defense that could be tried in front of a jury. Its got plenty of potential problems you know why didnt you just go to Law Enforcement like David Letterman did when he was extorted . Why didnt you why did you have to lie to the fbi about it . But you know an extortion defense certainly is possible here. Jeff do you expect former speaker hastert