After all, the feds have been breathing down the Illinois Democrat’s neck—and he’s the target of a House Ethics Committee probe—for participating in a political scandal involving President Obama’s old U.S. Senate seat. Details first surfaced during the 2010 federal corruption trial of impeached/convicted Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. Jackson attended a 2008 meeting in which his top fundraiser (recently arrested in a separate bribery scheme) tried to by him the Senate seat vacated when Obama got elected president, according to court testimony.

For months Jackson refused to comment on the powwow, which took place at a Chicago restaurant and was also attended by a Blagojevich representative and prominent Democratic fundraiser and Chicago businessman Raghuveer Nayak. Just days before Jackson took medical leave Nayak was arrested by the FBI on charges of paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to doctors.

Maybe that put Jackson over the edge. After all, Nayak offered Blagojevich, now in prison, $1 million to appoint Jackson senator, according to testimony delivered at both of Blagojevich’s corruption trials in Chicago. As governor Blagojevich was charged with filling the Senate seat and he tried to sell it to the highest bidder. 

With so many witnesses spilling the beans, Jackson eventually admitted that he was physically present at the meeting but had no idea what was going on because the plot went down in a foreign language. The prominent group of Indian Americans who offered to bribe the governor on his behalf spoke in a language he didn’t understand, possibly Hindi, Jackson later explained to his constituents.  

If that’s Camp Jackson’s best defense, you can see how it could possibly trigger a personal/emotional crisis for the politician. About a month ago he vanished and his office took nearly two weeks to reveal that he was on medical leave for “exhaustion.” A few weeks later, Democratic leaders in Congress pressured Jackson’s staff for more information since it became obvious he wasn’t going to return anytime in the near future. 

The response: Jackson’s condition was worse than originally thought and required him to be hospitalized for emotional problems. After much speculation from various media outlets, Jackson’s doctor issued a statement saying: “The Congressman is receiving intensive medical treatment at a residential treatment facility for a mood disorder. He is responding positively to treatment and is expected to make a full recovery.”