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
The charges:
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1001
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/31/5324
Oh, but Dennis is such a good man. BS!
Was it an act of Duggery (a forced sexual assault on a prepubescent child)…
… Or an act of Sandusky-ing (a forced sexual assault on a pubescent teen)?
Max-1 – think consensual.
Annie,
Alex Jones (aka INFOWARS) is blaming Obama for Dennis Hastert’s fall from grace…
http://www.infowars.com/secrets-of-the-dennis-hastert-indictment/
… Because you know it just has to be the fault of the half black man who’s part Kenyan, raised in a Madrassa, who now occupies the ‘White’ House. Yep, his fault for carrying out Hastert’s law…
Paul C
What is it called when a teacher has sex with a student under the age of consent?
However, that isn’t the crime he’s being charged with due to statute of limitations…
Max-1 – it really does not make any difference if the student is under the age of consent or not. Now some colleges and universities have made it a firing offense to have sex with your students. Now I know that 1 out of 4 Harvard grads did not have sex before they graduated, but now it is going to get higher. 🙂
Dusty has convinced me that there is a part of this country that I call Republican Land. Dusty resides in that land. It is sparsely populated and all the people who live there are wonderful law abiding people and have no need for pain-in-the-neck and inconvenient regulations like CTRs. (Although, to be honest, people in this sunny Republican Land do occasionally worry that the entire country, even their wonderful portion, is overrun with terrorists and drug dealers, the primary targets of the CTR pain-in-the-neck regulations. The people of Republican Land overcome this fear by arming all the citizenry. There. Now they are all safe. Although, honestly, I suspect Dusty would see the value of CTRs if she met a new neighbor, Mr. Ali-ben-Terrorist, a millionaire meth dealer, who funded a lot of charities in the Middle East)
But I digress…
The rest of the country is the nasty, lazy, mooching, outlaw country. It is called Democratic Land. I live in that country. It is heavily populated – and truth be told – generates most of our GDP. Sadly, it also generates all the crime and corporate fraud that infects these united lands and therefore Democratic Land thinks it is wise to have pain-in-the-neck regulations. (The especially lazy and mooching types – often called liberals – have a special regard for Banking Regulations. Remember, we know Jamie Diamond! He lives and works right here – amongst all the other outlaws.)
Oh yes. We in Democratic Land like banking regulations. We know it is the only thing that will save us from our lousy, thieving, greedy selves. Republican Landers know nothing of such types.
TJustice
‘typical overreach’?
It seems pretty apparent that the guy broke this law. The guy, a long time leader of Congress, ( the legislative body composed of people who wrote this law) was fully aware of that law. Are you saying that this law need not apply to him – that there ought to be two-tiered laws – one for the bad guys and one for the people we like? And just who is it that determines which are the bad guys and which are the people we like? And then just to drive us all crazy, who are the guys that are to determine who the Decider is?
Do you see how this can get pretty messy?
I think the indictment is just. If he is found guilty, I think his punishment will reflect the circumstances of the crime. I think that will be just, as well.
Interesting that Dusty seems to want to remove Retired Denny from the political sphere.
Kinda hard to do – he is/was a lobbyist comfortably seated at a all-you-can eat banquet table.
I do believe they have a fair amount of interaction with congresscritters – also know as his old colleagues. His job as Speaker would be the first one listed on the top of his resume when soliciting new clients. Further, I think it is probable that a significant share of the $3.5 million he gifted to his blackmailer did not come from his teacher pension. I venture a guess that it was income from lobbying, the above mentioned job that was secured from his long-time connection with Congress. So I’m not buyin’ the argument that this is just dredging up the long dead past. The Past is exactly what gave birth to this whole ugly mess.
Let’s see. Normal and natural is a man and woman producing children, all of whom are secured by the bond of marriage.
America is browbeaten and coerced, insidiously and relentlessly “to turn from the right course” and adopt the “new normal.’
OK. What’s the “next big thing?”
____________________
Enumclaw
The Enumclaw horse sex case was a 2005 incident in which Kenneth Pinyan (June 22, 1960 – July 2, 2005), an American Boeing engineer residing in Gig Harbor, Washington, died from injuries received during anal sex with a stallion at a farm in an unincorporated area in King County, Washington, near the city of Enumclaw.
____________________
per-vert
verb (used with object)
1. to affect with perversion.
2. to lead astray morally.
3. to turn away from the right course.
4. to lead into mental error or false judgment.
5. to turn to an improper use; misapply.
6. to misconstrue or misinterpret, especially deliberately; distort:
to pervert someone’s statement.
7. to bring to a less excellent state; vitiate; debase.
I know this is going to bother some people but Hastert was teaching high school when this occurred. So the boy(s) would have been too old for him to be pedophile.
I must confess a bit of sympathy for the pedophiles who post on this board, always trying to compare homosexuality to pedophilia in hopes that they can gain acceptance by equating the two. Well, sorry, pedos. It’s the whole “consenting adults” thing. Just doesn’t cut it with you and your lust for kiddies. Same with you zoophiles. You’ll just have to find your own way to social acceptance and stop trying to piggyback on the gays. And good luck with all that.
By the way, for those of you so excited to be trashing the Clintons again: the three top Republicans pushing for Bill’s impeachment were Newt Gingrich, Bob Livingston and Dennis Hastert. Looking back now, do you really think that was a coincidence?
ps: just kidding about sympathy for pedophiles. I have no sympathy at all. Get some freaking help.
*it has NOT been shown that he broke the law.
trooperyork
Hastert has not been convicted of anything yet and is a free man.
He will get his day in court, people on here always say let the system take care of it (why not here?).
I called him a sleazy thug for previous actions taken, nothing particular to this case. In this case, it has been shown that he broke the law, it appears to be typical overreach.
I brought up Baltimore to expose hypocrisy. Isn’t that the theme of this thread?
The Social Justice Warriors want to hang this guy because he is a conservative Republican. Actually a Rhino but whatever. With out any facts in evidence he is already branded as a homosexual pedophile. Of course on other threads he would be a hero. You would insist that we bake him a cake. Because nothing is better than the gay. Right?
Meanwhile the crocodile tears for the people being victimized in Baltimore have all dried up. It is forgotten by all the bleating liberal bleeding hearts.
They have moved on to the next smoke screen. The next diversion. The next serving of bread and circuses.
This political prosecution is a diversion to change the subject and seems to be predicated on side issues and trumped up technical violations. If there is evidence of pedophilia or homosexuality they should bring them forth. You want to prosecute him because he is a gay Republican who didn’t want to share his sexuality.
Typical work product of the most partisan Justice Department in the history of the United States. They make A Mitchell Palmer look like George Washington.
This Hastert story is bad.
Let’s watch and see how much media attention it gets.
Then we can compare the Clinton coverage, or dearth, from the time when the wife of the Arkansas Governor was given a position at the Rose Law Firm and allegedly turned $1K into $100K using the same “broker” as Tyson Chicken, to the current deliberate destruction of official governmental e-mail evidence, alleged “influence peddling” and “Orgy Island” accusations – Bill’s best friend is in prison and his ridiculously light sentence is under review.
Hastert 1, the Clintons 1000.
Neither do I Rick, but nice try at building that straw man.
I. Annie
Rick, don’t forget that the Westboro Baptist Church members consider themselves Christian.
Irrelevant. I don’t profess to believe people share guilt based on party affiliation.
Rick, don’t forget that the Westboro Baptist Church members consider themselves Christian. Are you a Christian? If so, then you would identify with them, no? No one here has said the entire Family Values Party are guilty of anything more than hypocrisy.
Child molesters and those who coverup for them and tout “Family Values” are huge …..hypocrites.
I. Annie
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.
This is interesting. So because one person in a party committed an act everyone in the party is guilty. According to Annie she and all Democratic supporters are guilty for the actions of the Westboro Baptist Church. Hypocrites! Saying you support gays and then protesting their weddings and funerals.
In fact the squirrel is trying to pull attention away from Hastert’s actions to smear others who share some political beliefs. Some people are so small.
Bettykath, we must’ve seen the same reports, lol.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/05/29/1388741/-Flashback-to-2006-Dennis-Hastert-helped-cover-up-a-teen-sex-abuse-scandal
“Flashback to 2006: Dennis Hastert helped cover up a teen sex abuse scandal”.
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Hastert’s involvment in the cover up of the Foley scandal makes more sense now. If some have an issue with The Daily Kos, here is the some of the same thing with more detail from Info Wars, which is more acceptable to those on the right.
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http://www.infowars.com/flashback-investigative-journalist-broke-ex-speaker-hastert-blackmail-sex-scandal-in-2006/
“Congressional sources told WMR that Hastert, while working from 1964 to 1980 as a popular history/government teacher and wrestling coach at Yorkville High School, in Yorkville, Illinois — a suburb of Chicago — was the subject of persistent rumors about inappropriate contact with male members of his high school wrestling team. The culture of the times usually resulted in such alleged behavior being covered up by public and parochial school authorities.
“In August 2004, the GOP House leadership, which included Speaker Dennis Hastert, then-Majority Leader Tom DeLay, and Majority Whip Roy Blunt, took no action against Republican Rep. Mark Foley of Florida for his repeated salacious contact by email with underage male teens even though a heterosexually-married Republican congressman resigned over trolling gay web sites for ‘younger men.’ In August 2004, one-term Republican Rep. Ed Schrock of Virginia resigned after it became public that he was surfing gay and dating web sites in search of younger men for sex. Schrock, a political ally of his Virginia Beach constituent TV evangelist Pat Robertson and a retired U.S. Navy Captain, resigned after he was outed by a Washington, DC web site.
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.””
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I don’t give much credence to most reporting from Info Wars, but this may be based on some truth. This article is chock full of scandal. Whoa.