A Democrat leader with a history of corruption has been found dead after fighting a two year battle with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
Florida Representative Alcee Hastings, 84, was recently moved to hospice care, but had been keeping up his schedule of public appearances between medical treatments for most of the two years he was fighting cancer.
Allegations of Corruption
Contrary to claims by the left and the mainstream media that Hastings was a ācrusading civil rights lawyer,ā the Democrat leader had been impeached and removed from his position as a federal judge before he joined Congress.
The South Florida Sun Sentinel reported on the allegations against Hastings, noting that he had been “indicted on charges of conspiring to solicit a $150,000 bribe from an FBI agent posing as a racketeer trying to buy his way out of a prison sentence” in 1981. The jury found Hastings not guilty in 1983, but six years later Congress concluded that he had lied during the trial. He was then impeached by the House, and convicted on eight of 11 articles in the Senate. The conviction removed him from the bench, but the Senate chose not to vote to disqualify him from holding office in the future.
Hastings’ corruption didn’t end when he lost his position as a federal judge, as information from the U.S. Treasury Department shows that $220,000 in the American people’s tax money went to settle sexual misconduct claims made by a staffer against the Democrat leader in 2017. Two years later, it was revealed that Hastings was under investigation for breaking House rules by having a relationship with another staffer.
The House Ethics Committee released a statement about these allegations which read:
“The Committee is aware of public allegations arising out of Representative Alcee Hastingsā personal relationship with an individual employed in his congressional office. On May 14, 2019, the Committee, pursuant to Committee Rule 18(a), began an investigation regarding the allegations. The Committee is specifically considering whether Representative Hastingsā relationship with the individual employed in his congressional office is in violation of House Rule XXIII, clause 18(a), and whether Representative Hastings has received any improper gifts, including any forbearance, from that employee. The Committee continues to gather additional information regarding the allegations.”
Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is responsible for determining the date for the special election to fill Hastings’ seat. He will likely be replaced by another Democrat, as the district he represents is overwhelmingly blue. The South Florida Sun Sentinel reported that Joe Biden won the district with 79.8% of the vote in the 2020 election.