The details on the indictment of former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, 73, have remained hazy with some notable gaps in the underlying criminal enterprise alleged in the complaint. The theory is that Hastert was paying millions to a blackmailer and tried to hide the payment through “structuring” of withdrawing less than $10,000 to avoid reporting to the federal government. What is interesting however is that the underlying alleged blackmailer has not been charged. There is also the question of the subject of the earlier “misconduct” and whether it could be charged. Some offenses like child molestation can be charged many years after the fact. Hastert was indicted on two counts for charged with lying to the F.B.I. and the structuring of withdrawals, both carrying a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Hastert is accused of structuring the withdrawal of $925,000 in cash and then lying to the FBI about the withdrawals. The FBI says that Hastert met with an unnamed individual in 2010 and discussed “prior misconduct.” It must have been pretty serious “misconduct” if the parties agreed on the payment of $3.5 million “in order to compensate for and conceal his prior misconduct against Individual A.”
From 2010 to 2014, Hastert withdrew a total of approximately $1.7 million in cash from various bank accounts and provided it to this unnamed individual. When the bank raised questions in 2012 about the large withdrawals, Hastert reportedly reduced the withdrawals through structuring. In April 2014, Hastert allegedly lied about the money and said he did not trust banks and was keeping the case — when he was giving the money to this individual.
Hastert has been working with the lobbying and law firm of Dickstein Shapiro LLC.
It is curious to have so little information on the underlying facts and “misconduct” or the status of the person receiving such money. Perhaps we will learn more in the coming days about the nature of the misconduct and why the individual was not charged if this were a case of blackmail.
Source: New York Times
Hastert’s previous misconduct has been known for some time. Blackmail isn’t necessary. It’s possible that the payout is the result of a civil lawsuit, probably an out of court settlement.
Excerpt:
On October 7, 2006, WMR dropped the big bombshell on Hastert: “The rumors about another top GOP member of the House being involved in sexual encounters with young “men for hire” are confirmed to WMR by well-placed sources in Washington’s gay community. The member in question is House Speaker Dennis Hastert, whose “alternate” life style is the primary reason for him and his staff covering up the scandal involving ex-Florida GOP Rep. Mark Foley and his lewd messages sent to underage male congressional pages. Hastert’s penchant to receive anal sex is well-known to our sources in DC’s gay community.” In addition, WMR reported on old charges that swirled around Hastert when he was a high school wrestling coach at Yorkville High School in Yorkville, Illinois. Hastert decided to enter politics in 1980 after rumors surfaced about inappropriate contact with male high school students. It is apparent that one of those students has now surfaced as the FBI’s “Individual A.”
Karen S
And Hastert didn’t vote for the illegal invasion of Iraq? (also known criminal violence in nearly the entire world except the United States)
I stand by the label of thug. And add sleazy before it.
In this thread, Baltimore is only significant because of what is happening there, compared to the issue of a potential & alleged crime of a Congressman. If he’s guilty, hang him, and move on. I’d agree it is off topic, but also rightly so. We focus on what hits the headlines today, itself a distraction, rather than the on going trauma that are our cities. I may be a minority. If so, so what?
Baltimore IS significant, but why bring it up in this thread? It seems like an effort to distract from the subject matter. No one that is a rational human being thinks what is happening in our cities between police, the citizens and black on black crime insignificant. Again in THIS thread it’s seems to be a concerted effort to derail the thread
RTC said…
I would agree that many politicians are corrupt, but not all of them.
Agreed.
For those who think that Baltimore isn’t significant, at least as much as some disgusting alleged pedophile, they are missing the point of what law and order means here. I posit that killing people, usually innocent, is at least equal to pedophilia. Death is a one way street. For those cities who are still going through the drama, I really feel the sadness. How can one not? We did it here and perhaps that informs our viewpoints…one way or another. If is seems “cold” to some, so be it. It is not an attempt to distract, but one to inform. Neither crime is righteous, and we are fools to think otherwise. If Hastert is a criminal, alleged at this point, let him pay the price…my view is that day to day we face far worse issues. Somehow we must find a way through the mess. We won’t so long as we insist on either/or….
Schulte and DBQ: Extraordinarily flawed logic (EFL).
1) You both assume that the person who received these payments was blackmailing Hastert. First and foremost, the person is a victim of sexual abuse, if the allegations are true. Victims are afforded anonymity in court filings and the press, English customs notwithstanding (Sheesh! Any wonder why I stopped following the comments.)
2) DBQ: Not all politicians are corrupt, certainly not because they are simply politicians. The late Sen. Paul Simon instantly comes to mind. I would add Ron Paul, Bernie Sanders, and Barney Frank to the list. The list may be short but the minute you dismiss politicians as corrupt because they hold office or are running for office, you begin accepting corruption as part and parcel of our government. Such an attitude is too cynical to maintain a democracy. I would agree that many politicians are corrupt, but not all of them.
RTC – 1) we have not suffer by your absence. 2) Hastert paid the person $3 million plus for what?
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/05/five_reasons_why_the_dennis_hastert_scandal_disgusts_me.html
“Five Reasons Why Dennis Hastert Scandal Disgusts Me
“This sounds a lot like someone whose life was turned upside down by a homosexual experience with a figure of authority who abused the trust placed in him. This is a seriously heinous crime, like all childhood sexual abuse. Unfortunately, the perps are often charming people who are able to hide their malevolence beneath a veneer of easy-going friendliness. They are, in other words, sociopaths, and capable of doing tremendous damage to others.
The reason the whole affair came to light is the Patriot Act-created ability of the feds to monitor cash transactions, and the criminalization of “structuring” – avoiding mandatory reporting of bank withdrawals of more than $10,000 in cash by withdrawing amounts slightly below that figure multiple times.
This is a man that went from being a high school teacher to an elected official where his top earnings should have been around $174,000. From a Chicago Tribune story in 2006:
Hastert entered Congress in 1987 a man of relatively modest means, worth no more than $290,000. His financial disclosure forms, which provide broad-range estimates, reported that he and his wife held assets totaling between $120,000 and $275,000. The largest: farmland from his wife’s family in southern Illinois and a half-interest in a building in Plainfield, Ill., that had housed his father’s Clock Tower Restaurant. He listed total debts of between $70,000 and $165,000.
The disclosure did not require him to list the equity he had built in his home at the time. But Hastert had just seven months earlier purchased a home in Yorkville for $225,000, Bonjean said. County records show that he had taken a mortgage of $140,000 when he bought the property.
Now his net worth appears to be more than $6.2 million, a figure that his staff does not dispute.
And that was before he retired from Congress to become a lobbyist that helps corporations and government navigate the federal trough.”
DBQ,
If child sexual abuse by pedophile teachers in trusted positions isn’t a real problem in our society, I suggest you imagine this happening to your child. But that would take some empathy.
Inga – most of the encounters between teachers and students are not pedophile situations.
It’s interesting to far more people than Max and Inga, lol. What is revealing is the desperate attempts to distract from the subject matter of this thread. “Oh look, Squirrel! They’re killing each other in Baltimore”! The Family Values Party keeps falling over it’s shoelaces and it’s good to see for those of us who knew they were as sinful as the rest of us. Comeuppance is always difficult. Hypocrites are entertaining.
#1 It would be nice if Congress did their ACTUAL job and every now and then reviewed ALL the laws they pass to see if they (the laws) are having the intended consequences. (see: mandatory sentencing laws, drug laws, money laundering laws, etc.)
#2. When they catch a bank like HSBC laundering money for criminals and terrorists, why don’t they revoke their corporate charter and send people off to jail?
#3. Hastert’s former victims should sue him in civil court if the statute of limitations has run out on his crimes. If the allegations are true, he should be living in a van down by the river.
#4. The best reason to look at the past here, is to help other victims come forward and get justice before their tormentors get away with it. If one victim of abuse sees a Hastert or Duggar getting skewered in the media and decides to come forward, then it’s worth it.
Trooper York said …
The police have taken a giant step back. Arrests are down 50%…
I agree that the Hastert issue is serious, as any implication of pedophilia is serious. But not as serious as criminality per se as it again seems to sweep across America. The remark above is true and I’ve witnessed first hand. One example: In an anecdote I wrote out here a while ago I mentioned working security for a rock concert with a few off duty police officers. One I knew well was well known for sweeping thugs off the street. Anyway, while we were on a break, sitting on a parking lot wall, a young man came running up to tell us his car had be robbed and who could he report this to…e.g., he knew we were security. My companion’s answer was simple: “Welcome to Detroit.” He didn’t move a muscle except to take another puff on his cigarette. We were working for the concert promoter, not the city. In days past he’d have stepped in directly, shown his badge and gone to help the young man….but just previously we had turned in to Baltimore. Police can and do hold back when action might mean the end of their careers or their lives with no chance of municipal backing. It took many years for us to recover, as I suspect it will Baltimore.
There’s a lot of hate on this thread, and people using an awful event to smear their political opponents. Good to see such people revealing themselves.
Focus people! Going down rabbit holes and getting high centered on fundamental religion and homosexuality…..again….as always it seems, by the same two posters only muddies up the thought processes. Focus!
There are several issues here. Withdrawing your own money in and of itself is not illegal. The way he did it was.
The first is the one presented in the article: Hastert was charged for the crime of structuring withdrawals to avoid the law. One it seems that he was instrumental in passing.
Issue #1: should we even have such a law regarding withdrawing or depositing your own money?
Issue #2: Does this law actually stop money laundering by criminal elements or by terrorists or does it snag up innocent (non criminals) in the process.
Issue #3: If we assume the law should be there in some way to prevent money moving illegally into terrorist organization or crime organizations, what should that law look like.
Issue #4: Was Hastert also doing tax fraud as I explained earlier, by not filing tax forms? Probably since he seems to also have been blackmailed?
Issue#5: Why isn’t the person receiving the funds not being charged with either blackmail…OR….tax evasion?
The second issue is a non issue of WHY he was withdrawing the money.
Hastert is no longer a Congress critter (thank God) and what he did in the past may be titillating and of great interest to Inga and Max…….it is immaterial to what he is being charged with now. His ability to be swayed as a Congress person is long past. I prefer to live in the present and not navel gaze at the past, especially the navels of other people.
If he did do “whatever” years ago when he was a teacher, I would imagine that the statute of limitations has passed and he can’t legally be charged with any crimes. Perhaps someone on this LEGAL blog could weigh in on the LEGAL aspects.
Is he a bad man? Probably…..he is a politician….therefore bad and corrupt. Does any of this other than the money structuring law affect any of us today? No.
All this is is another bright shiny thing to distract us from the REAL problems of the world. Real problems that are affecting all of us today. Instead of focusing on that we get————>SQUIRREL
Focus on the real problems.
I guess the GOP should now be called the Gay Old Party.
BarkinDog2uall
Hastert was a “Boy Scout Leader”. To all parents and grandparents out there on the blog this dog will give you some guidance. NEVER let a child attend a Boy Scout gathering or belong to that group. NEVER let you child be an alter boy or be anywhere alone with a Priest at a Catholic Church.
Should they also never attend public school, attend protestant churches, or participate in other community activities?
Dennis Hastert a victim? Of his sexual impulses maybe. He has more in common with Jerry Sandusky than Ronald Reagan.
RTC – the UK has an interesting way of handling blackmailers. The victim is known as Mr or Mrs or Miss X and cannot be named in the papers. This way blackmailers are caught. Anything in the trial cannot be used against the person because they are never named.
It turns out that Hastert is the victim! “He perceives himself as the one being wronged” the friend said. [non sequitur alert] “He’s done an incredibly good job for the people, he’s done that and done as well as he could.” It’s the race to victimhood!
Someone here claims she doesn’t watch the Duggars but then comments in other venues showing DETAILED knowledge of the show. Own it. You’re a Reality TV addict. Lot’s of drama and conflict, PERFECT for certain personality types. Don’t be ashamed. Let your Reality TV Freak Flag fly. Hey, what ever happened to Honey Boo Boo? I actually heard of her and saw her on a talk show once. The Duggars, 90% of the US never heard of them. But, it appears liberals obsesses on them.
Hastert was a “Boy Scout Leader”. To all parents and grandparents out there on the blog this dog will give you some guidance. NEVER let a child attend a Boy Scout gathering or belong to that group. NEVER let you child be an alter boy or be anywhere alone with a Priest at a Catholic Church.
Notice how America employs weeny words in the media and in court filings when they describe adults who butt rape children: “pedophilia”, “child sexual abuse”.
The Hastert astardBay may not have been blackmailed by his victim. He may be paying restitution. Maybe the adult who was arse raped by Hastert has emotional issues. Duh!
When a politician puts “Boy Scout Leader” on his resume then vote against him. When a Pedophile Priest comes into your area, round up the Klan and lynch him. When you go to Mass and they pass the plate, put in a used rubber with itShay on it to make a point.
And never trust a Republican. Jesus Christ, never vote for one.
Listen to your dog. Take the dog into the voting booth and ask for guidance.
-So sayeth the Dog.