Woah, some serious charges.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/29/us/ex-house-speaker-j-dennis-hastert-indicted-on-federal-charges.html?_r=0
Quote
Former Speaker Dennis Hastert indicted in payment scheme
He allegedly structured bank withdrawals of funds he used to "conceal his prior misconduct" against an unnamed individual, and lied to the FBI about it.
By Josh Gerstein, Hillary Flynn and John Bresnahan
| 5/28/15 5:40 PM EDT
| Updated 5/28/15 7:40 PM EDT
By ERIC EDELMAN, ROBERT JOSEPH and RAY TAKEYH
Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert was indicted Thursday for allegedly structuring cash bank withdrawals of funds he used to "conceal his prior misconduct" against an unnamed individual and for lying to the FBI about the arrangement.
A federal grand jury in Illinois charged Hastert, 73, with withdrawing $1.7 million in cash from several banks over four years — with many of those withdrawals in amounts designed to avoid triggering federal reporting rules.
Rumors that Hastert had serious legal problems were bouncing around the Capitol in recent weeks. In an interview with POLITICO last week, Hastert denied that he had problems with the IRS and denied that he was about to be indicted.
"I read what you heard but that's not correct," Hastert told POLITICO when asked about problems with the IRS. "I'm not going to talk to you."
When a POLITICO reporter told him in a phone interview that he was about to be indicted, he said, "Well, it's not true."
"I'm not speaking to you right now, thanks," Hastert said, before hanging up the phone.
The indictment, based on an investigation that began in 2013, does not specify the nature of the prior misconduct but said it involved activities from "years earlier."
The individual who received the payments had known Hastert for most of that person's life, the indictment says.
The indictment begins by noting that Hastert worked as a high school teacher and coach in Yorkville, Ill. before he was elected to the Illinois House and then the U.S. House. The charges don't say how — or if — Hastert's work at the Yorkville school is related to the alleged payment scheme.
Prosecutors charge that Hastert struck a deal with someone referred to as "Individual A" in 2010, agreeing to pay "$3.5 million in order to compensate for and conceal [Hastert's] prior misconduct against Individual A."
From 2010 to 2012, the former speaker made 15 withdrawals of $50,000 in cash from accounts at several banks that he paid the individual every six weeks, the charges say.
In 2012, bank representatives "questioned" Hastert about the withdrawals, according to the indictment. Shortly thereafter, the former speaker began withdrawing cash in increments of less than $10,000.
"He had been withdrawing cash in increments of less than $10,000 to evade currency transaction reporting requirements because he wanted his agreement to compensate Individual A to remain secret so as to cover up his past misconduct," the indictment says.
And in December of last year, the indictment says, Hastert lied about the payments to the FBI.
"Specifically, in response to the agents' question confirming whether the purpose of the withdrawals was to store cash because he did not feel safe with the banking system, as he previously indicated, [Hastert] stated: 'Yeah ... I kept the cash. That's what I'm doing,'" the indictment alleges.
Each of the two felony counts in the indictment carries a potential 5-year prison term and a $250,000 fine. If convicted, defendants usually get lighter sentences, particularly when they have no prior criminal record.
Hastert was elected to the House in 1986 and served as speaker from 1999 to 2007. He lost the speaker's post when Republicans lost control of Congress in the 2006. That loss was partly blamed on perceptions that Hastert failed to respond aggressively enough to inappropriate text messages Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) exchanged with an intern.
Hastert resigned from Congress in 2007 and opened a lobbying firm, Hastert & Associates. While not a lawyer, he also signed on with a Washington-based law and lobbying firm, Dickstein Shapiro.
A firm spokesman did not respond to POLITICO's queries Wednesday and Thursday about Hastert's status. However, Hastert's biography was removed from the firm's website Thursday.
Structuring is a crime involving efforts to avoid the Bank Secrecy Act's reporting requirements. The law says that when taxpayers withdraw or deposit cash in amounts of $10,000 or more, they must file a Currency Transaction Report with the IRS. Those trying to skirt the reporting rules often withdraw or deposit sums under $10,000.
But deliberately evading reporting on cash transactions can trigger probes by the Department of Justice, which can freeze and seize the taxpayer's assets.
In 1994, the Supreme Court ruled that prosecutors could only get a conviction in a structuring case if they proved a defendant knew his or her conduct was illegal. Congress acted that same year to reverse the decision, passing a law that said prosecutors need only show an intent to evade the reporting requirements.
The indictment against Hastert suggests that he was put on notice about the reporting requirements by bank officials in 2012 and took his subsequent actions in a deliberate effort to avoid them.
Structuring, or concerns about the practice have been the downfall of powerful political figures before, including former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer. Reports on some of Spitzer's cash withdrawals caught the attention of authorities. Investigators were concerned that an extortion scheme might be underway, but eventually concluded Spitzer was using the cash he withdrew to pay for prostitutes.
Spitzer was never charged, but resigned from office.
While structuring charges are routinely used in cases involving drug proceeds and tax evasion, federal prosecutors have come under fire in recent years for pursuing structuring cases where no charges of other criminal conduct are leveled.
In a court ruling last year, the Chicago-based 7th Circuit raised questions about federal authorities' aggressive use of the structuring law in a case involving a Russian immigrant who made a series of deposits of less than $10,000 in connection with purchase of a new home. The deposits drew suspicion at a bank because the money smelled "musty."
"On the present record...this case shows every sign of being an overzealous prosecution for a technical violation of a criminal regulatory statute—the kind of rigid and severe exercise of law-enforcement discretion that would make Inspector Javert proud," Judge Diane Sykes wrote.
Jake Sherman contributed to this report.
Dennis Hastert: proof that the Peter Principle was grossly understated.
Thanks Obama!
Damn Liberal media.
If he ends up in jail, has there ever been a higher ranking office holder to do time? Nixon didn't do time, and the president is arguably the only higher ranking official than the speaker of the house.
Hastert and Delay were quite a pairing.
So, I guess he's now qualified to serve as a FIFA executive.
Quote from: alfred russel on May 28, 2015, 08:09:41 PM
If he ends up in jail, has there ever been a higher ranking office holder to do time? Nixon didn't do time, and the president is arguably the only higher ranking official than the speaker of the house.
Hastert and Delay were quite a pairing.
Jefferson Davis.
Meh.
Illinois.
It's Corruptistan.
I'm sorry, you're thinking of Louisiana or Mississippi.
Quote from: Tonitrus on May 28, 2015, 10:59:46 PM
Quote from: alfred russel on May 28, 2015, 08:09:41 PM
If he ends up in jail, has there ever been a higher ranking office holder to do time? Nixon didn't do time, and the president is arguably the only higher ranking official than the speaker of the house.
Hastert and Delay were quite a pairing.
Jefferson Davis.
Former Senator and Secratary of War? I don't think that is quite the equal of a former Speaker of the House. Surely you're not counting the illegitimate office of President of the Confederacy?
Also he was never convicted of anything.
QuoteFormer House Speaker Dennis Hastert paid a man to conceal a sexual relationship they had while the man was a student at the high school where Hastert taught, a federal law enforcement official told NBC News on Friday
uh oh, Spaghetti-Os.
Oh my. That is almost too juicy to be true.
:blink: Statutory rape of other men? Can there be a more ignominious end to one's public career?
Earlier today I was thinking it is something bad about our country that the FIFA thing is the more talked about corruption scandal. This might change that though.
Hush money/blackmail/extortion is not really corruption. Or at all corruption.
Quote from: Admiral Yi on May 29, 2015, 06:20:20 PM
Hush money/blackmail/extortion is not really corruption. Or at all corruption.
Yeah, this isn't about corruption, although legalized corruption does feature in it in the background. How does an honest Congressman find millions to pay off to the students he was intimate with? That's right, by joining a "lobbying firm" after his stint in Congress. Nothing really to be indicted over, of course, since "lobbying firms" get a lot of say in deciding what kind of bribery is considered legal, but it's part of the story nonetheless.
Quote from: Valmy on May 29, 2015, 03:48:02 PM
Oh my. That is almost too juicy to be true.
I am skeptical that it is true. I think there is a real possibility he was simply blackmailed and he knew that fighting the allegations would ruin him.
Quote from: jimmy olsen on May 29, 2015, 01:11:28 AM
Quote from: Tonitrus on May 28, 2015, 10:59:46 PM
Quote from: alfred russel on May 28, 2015, 08:09:41 PM
If he ends up in jail, has there ever been a higher ranking office holder to do time? Nixon didn't do time, and the president is arguably the only higher ranking official than the speaker of the house.
Hastert and Delay were quite a pairing.
Jefferson Davis.
Former Senator and Secratary of War? I don't think that is quite the equal of a former Speaker of the House. Surely you're not counting the illegitimate office of President of the Confederacy?
Why not? :P
Then we would have to put Emperor Norton the first as the highest ranking official jailed.
What monster jailed poor Norton I? :(
Quote from: Valmy on May 30, 2015, 06:16:30 PM
What monster jailed poor Norton I? :(
Peace officer who dragged him for vagrancy.
Americans are scum! :o
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-dennis-hastert-status-hearing-met-20151014-story.html
QuoteIt's Truly Amazing How Hypocritical and Dishonest America's Leaders Were in the 1990s
By Ben Mathis-Lilley
Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert will plead guilty to charges related to allegations that he attempted to circumvent financial disclosure laws and lied to the FBI in the course of paying $1.7 million to an individual who was threatening to reveal that Hastert, a former Illinois high school teacher, had sexually abused him. (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-dennis-hastert-status-hearing-met-20151014-story.html) The exact details of Hastert's plea deal have not yet been disclosed, but Politico reported Wednesday that the agreement would involve serving "possibly more than a year" of prison time. A judge scheduled Hastert's plea appearance for Oct. 28.
The federal indictment against Hastert said only that he had paid an "Invidual A" to cover up "past misconduct" against that person, but subsequent law enforcement leaks indicated that Individual A was a former male student of Hastert's and that the misconduct was sexual in nature. (It's believed that Illinois' statutes of limitations preclude Hastert from being prosecuted for the reported sexual crimes themselves.) A woman named Jolene Reinboldt also came forward in June to allege that her brother, who died in 1995, had been sexually abused by the former congressman as a student.
The apparent admission of guilt by Hastert underlines the almost unbelievable level of public and personal misconduct committed by the U.S. political leaders of the 1990s. Bill Clinton, of course, admitted to giving false deposition testimony (and lying a number of times in public) after being fellated in the Oval Office by a 22-year-old. Hastert took over as speaker from Newt Gingrich, who in 1997 had become the first speaker to be disciplined by the House for unethical behavior (he had claimed tax-exempt charitable status for a college class that was actually a training session for Republican activists and gave false information to investigators looking into the case). Gingrich, during the time that he was leading the move to impeach Clinton, was conducting an affair with the woman who would become his third wife.
Meanwhile, the congressman who led Clinton's impeachment prosecution, Henry Hyde, was revealed by Salon to have cheated on his wife with a married woman, breaking up the woman's marriage. And the representative who was initially in line to replace Gingrich as speaker, Bob Livingston, made way for Hastert by resigning from Congress because Hustler magazine was working on story about his own multiple extramarital affairs.
Also, a few years earlier the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee had gone to prison for fraud. And Dennis Hastert, it turns out, was probably worse than all of these guys! Quite a decade we had in the 1990s.
A scandal involving a Republican, dirty money and sexual abuse of a male minor? That's almost unheard of.
I also love how the article apparently equates marital infidelity with child abuse, by deeming all "personal misconduct". Catholic much?
Why would a politician cheating on his or her spouse even be an issue to anyone?
Quote from: Martinus on October 16, 2015, 01:17:31 AM
I also love how the article apparently equates marital infidelity with child abuse, by deeming all "personal misconduct". Catholic much?
Why would a politician cheating on his or her spouse even be an issue to anyone?
See there was this blowjob in the oval office in the 90s...
Quote from: Martinus on October 16, 2015, 01:17:31 AM
Why would a politician cheating on his or her spouse even be an issue to anyone?
Unclear. I don't think I've ever heard it reported in Sweden.
What a creepy son of a bitch.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/04/09/us/dennis-hastert-molested-at-least-four-boys-prosecutors-say.html?_r=1&referer=http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/04/09/prosecutors_detail_dennis_hastert_s_alleged_abuse_of_teenagers.html
Quote
Hastert Molested at Least Four Boys, Prosecutors Say
J. Dennis Hastert, the former speaker of the House, after his arraignment in Chicago last June. Federal prosecutors on Friday provided details of sexual abuse allegations against him.
JOSHUA LOTT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
By MONICA DAVEY and MITCH SMITH
APRIL 8, 2016
CHICAGO — Federal prosecutors on Friday for the first time provided details of sexual abuse allegations against J. Dennis Hastert, the former speaker of the House, asserting that he molested at least four boys, as young as 14, when he worked as a high school wrestling coach decades ago.
Mr. Hastert, 74, is not charged with abuse because of statutes of limitation, prosecutors said, but he was accused last year of illegally structuring bank withdrawals to pay one of his victims in an effort to hide the abuse. He pleaded guilty in October to the banking violation, and suffered a stroke in November while awaiting sentencing, set for April 27.
In a court filing late Friday, making suggestions for a judge who will decide Mr. Hastert's sentence, the prosecutors described specific, graphic incidents that they say occurred when Mr. Hastert was a popular, championship-winning coach in a small Illinois town in the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s. The "known acts," the prosecutors said, consisted of "intentional touching of minors' groin area and genitals or oral sex with a minor."
"The actions at the core of this case took place not on the defendant's national public stage but in his private one-on-one encounters in an empty locker room and a motel room with minors that violated the special trust between those young boys and their coach," the prosecutors wrote.
A lawyer for Mr. Hastert did not reply to a request for comment on the prosecution claims. In a court filing earlier this week, Mr. Hastert, who has stayed largely out of view since the charges emerged nearly a year ago, requested probation and said he was "profoundly sorry" for past conduct, though he did not specify those actions. On Friday, Mr. Hastert also filed under a seal a response to the government's pre-sentence investigation. A hearing is set for next week on whether his filing remains under seal.
According to the prosecutors, Mr. Hastert gave one boy, a 14-year-old freshman wrestler, a massage in the locker room, then performed an unspecified sex act on him. Another boy, Stephen Reinboldt, who died in 1995, was sexually abused by Mr. Hastert throughout high school in the late 1960s and early 1970s, his sister and others told the prosecutors. A third boy, who was 17 and remembered Mr. Hastert sitting in a recliner-type chair with a direct view of the locker room shower stalls, said Mr. Hastert had told him that one way to make his wrestling weight was to get a massage, then performed a sexual act. And prosecutors said Mr. Hastert had massaged another boy's groin area after asking the boy to stay in his hotel room during a wrestling camp.
That incident became the center of the prosecution's case. It was also the reason that the allegations, which were never exposed during Mr. Hastert's eight years as the Republican speaker of the House, came to light. The boy, known in court documents as Individual A, confronted Mr. Hastert years later, around 2010, asked him why he had done what he did, and sought a settlement — beginning the payments that would be Mr. Hastert's downfall.
In late 2014, as law enforcement authorities were investigating unusually large withdrawals from Mr. Hastert's bank account, Mr. Hastert said that he was doing nothing unusual with his money — and that he simply did not trust banks. Not long after, his lawyer told the investigators a different story: The lawyer said that Mr. Hastert was paying large sums — and promising as much as $3.5 million, the authorities say — to Individual A because Individual A was extorting him for false allegations of abuse.
Document | Prosecutors Recommend Sentencing for Dennis Hastert Illinois prosecutors said they believed the former speaker of the House should face up to six months in prison.
After a series of recorded phone calls, with Mr. Hastert's cooperation, the investigators concluded that there was no extortion, but that Mr. Hastert was actually carrying out an agreed-to settlement for real abuse.
Even when Mr. Hastert told Individual A, as investigators listened in, that he needed more time to come up with more money, Individual A "did not make any threats" and even "expressed understanding," the prosecutors said. At another point, Individual A seemed agreeable, even empathetic, suggesting that they settle on smaller amounts and keep the payments as a "private, personal matter." Individual A even pushed Mr. Hastert to tell his wife about the payment agreement, and suggested that an outside lawyer or confidante might be called in.
Of the abuse of Individual A, prosecutors said there was "no ambiguity."
Prosecutors said the motel incident had happened during a trip to a wrestling camp, in which several other boys shared a room but where Individual A and Mr. Hastert spent the night together. Individual A told prosecutors he did not know why Mr. Hastert had singled him out.
The court filing says Mr. Hastert had the boy strip naked and lay on a bed under the guise of treating a groin pull, but it "became clear to Individual A that defendant was not touching him in a therapeutic manner to address a wrestling injury but was touching him in an inappropriate sexual way." The boy then ran across the room, confused and embarrassed, before Mr. Hastert asked him to get onto Mr. Hastert's back and to give the coach a massage. "Defendant lay on the bed in only his underwear, and Individual A gave him a back massage," the prosecutors said. "They then went to sleep in the same bed."
When Mr. Hastert was charged last year, the accusations rattled the town of Yorkville, Ill., about an hour west of here. Mr. Hastert, a Republican who served as House speaker from 1999 to 2007, was regarded as a hero by many in Yorkville, where he had taught high school. But prosecutors said Mr. Hastert's life had been "marred by stunning hypocrisy."
They alluded to a fifth boy from Mr. Hastert's days in Yorkville who recalled Coach Hastert brushing against his genitals during a massage at one point. But he said he was unsure whether the contact was intentional though he found it "very weird."
Of the boys, prosecutors said: "He made them feel alone, ashamed, guilty and devoid of dignity. While defendant achieved great success, reaping all the benefits that went with it, these boys struggled, and all are still struggling now with what defendant did to them."
In the court filing, prosecutors said they believed Mr. Hastert should face up to six months in prison, as suggested under federal guidelines.
Prosecutors took note of Mr. Hastert's poor health, but said that Mr. Hastert could continue getting medical care in prison if needed.
Steven A. Block, an assistant United States Attorney, said that Mr. Hastert's sentencing judge should "balance the positive nature of defendant's public service with the need to avoid a public perception that the powerful are treated differently than ordinary citizens when facing sentencing for a serious crime."
Not sure why this isn't a really big story. The guy was speaker of the house.
Long time ago.
Quote from: alfred russel on April 10, 2016, 10:16:30 AM
Not sure why this isn't a really big story. The guy was speaker of the house.
He is out of office, thus not a useful scandal for political purposes.
Well, I'll be damned. :(
Jerry Sandusky, the sequel.
Quote from: Caliga on April 10, 2016, 06:28:56 PM
Jerry Sandusky, the sequel.
Which involved an assistant college football coach, retired for a bit more than 10 years.
While this case involves a speaker of the house, retired for a bit less than 10 years.
I remember when Hastert was chosen as Speaker, he was presented as just the type of boring, vanilla, scandal-free kind of guy we needed. Sad to say, but the first thing I thought of when I heard he had been a wrestling coach was "crap, hope he's not some kind of pedo".
Never ignore your gut, I guess.
Quote from: alfred russel on April 11, 2016, 12:09:28 PM
Which involved an assistant college football coach, retired for a bit more than 10 years.
While this case involves a speaker of the house, retired for a bit less than 10 years.
The first case also involved a cover-up by a beloved cultural icon.
Quote from: Peter Wiggin on April 11, 2016, 12:28:23 PM
Quote from: alfred russel on April 11, 2016, 12:09:28 PM
Which involved an assistant college football coach, retired for a bit more than 10 years.
While this case involves a speaker of the house, retired for a bit less than 10 years.
The first case also involved a cover-up by a beloved cultural icon.
I can't get to a beloved cultural icon, but there must be some cover up angle to work here. Surely there must have been rumors--see derspeiss's post about just a hunch he had. And surely some other house members must have tried to quash them that would just be sound politics.
We live in the age of sensationalism and clickbait journalism.
Quote from: derspiess on April 11, 2016, 12:25:25 PM
I remember when Hastert was chosen as Speaker, he was presented as just the type of boring, vanilla, scandal-free kind of guy we needed. Sad to say, but the first thing I thought of when I heard he had been a wrestling coach was "crap, hope he's not some kind of pedo".
Never ignore your gut, I guess.
Well fortunately he kept it under wraps until it didn't matter anymore. To the party anyway. Probably matters quite a bit to him.