Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert Indicted On Federal Charges

[peecoolyour]

Source: Buzzfeed

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has indicted former House Speaker Dennis Hastert on reporting evasion charges and lying to the FBI as part of an effort to pay off victims of “prior bad acts.”

In an indictment handed down in the District Court of Northern Illinois, the Department of Justice and IRS charged Hastert, 73, with illegally transferring funds in an effort to avoid detection by the IRS, a scheme known as “structuring.”

In the indictment, Hastert is accused of agreeing to pay one individual $3.5 million.

Although the indictment specifies neither the “bad acts” nor the victims, sources said they could be from before Hastert, who is now a lobbyist in Washington, entered politics in 1980.

Read more: http://www.buzzfeed.com/johnstanton/former-house-speaker-dennis-hastert-indicted-on-federal-char#.fqx4YL1Yq2

[lonestarnot]

1. To the basement hole with your has turd will travel!

[deutsey]

2. Couldn't have happened to a nicer slimeball n/t

[Laf.La.Dem.]

3. "agreeing to pay one individual $3.5 million"

WOW - how much money are we talking about!

FOX will report this as - Dennis Hastert (D)

[arcane1]

30. "FOX will report this as - Dennis Hastert (D) " You just KNOW they will, if they report it at all.

[SunSeeker]

62. Spot on, Laf.La.Dem:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=6744992

[Cha]

63. We know them too well. I pity their poor fox truthers.. dumbest mofos on the Planet.

[calimary]

4. Well! Looks like there might need to be a new "hastert rule"!!!

[brooklynite]

5. "Don't get caught"?

[geek tragedy]

10. a unanimous jury. nt

[calimary]

36. Breathtaking!

Last edited Thu May 28, 2015, 08:19 PM - Edit history (1)

Only thing is - that could never be focused down or isolated exclusively to the hapless mr. hastert. Seems to me almost EVERY damn CON would have that as their personal motto!

[Historic NY]

41. +++++++1 !!!

[onehandle]

6. As God is my witness, I thought he was dead. Guess he was just staying low. nt

[annabanana]

7. Took goddam long enough

I wonder if Turkey is involved?

[MosheFeingold]

18. Turkey would be my guess

He's is a lobbyist for Turkey to the tune of $400,000 per year and a wiretap of Turkish officials reportedly revealed he had been taking bribes while speaker. Never went anywhere, if I recall correctly.

A lot of the shady deals Tom Delay was implicated in (but skated on) was really Hastert, IMHO.

Bad guy. Wish this happened 20 years ago.

[cosmicone]

8. He was being blackmailed by "Individual A"

and the first rule of blackmail is to come clean yourself to get out of it like David Letterman did. The consequences of coming clean are usually less severe than anything else you do.

Unless of course Hastert had committed murder of Individual A's family member and A had proof.

[MosheFeingold]

19. Large difference

In having sex in the office vs. pay-for-play, if this is what I think it is.

[Man from Pickens]

20. Given the sums involved

it begs speculation of something horrendous like child sexual abuse

Can't say I'm all that comfortable with the actual charges of "structuring" though. That's kind of BS. I'll bet whatever he was being blackmailed over would deserve more serious charges.

[cosmicone]

22. Whatever happened is probably past statute of limitations

except murder

[Bernardo de La Paz]

54. Does sexual abuse of a minor have a statute of limitations?

[csziggy]

57. It depends on where and when it happened

In Illinois, apparently in 1986 they changed the statute of limitations from three years to longer - but it is much more complicated than that. I found a document that discusses the period of time and the decision whether or not charges should be filed. I'm pre-coffee and not a lawyer so making sense of it is not happening, but if you want to wade through it, here you go:

http://www.icasa.org/docs/statute%20of%20limitations.pdf

There is a simpler chart but it does not discuss older cases: http://www.icasa.org/index.aspx?PageID=460

The organization that put that online is the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault, http://www.icasa.org/home.aspx?PageID=500

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

9. See there is reason why some of us have called him...

...Dennis the Hastert... aka Jabba the Hutt. For over a decade. He also was a boy's wrestling coach, and I recall there having something inappropriate involved.

[mindwalker_i]

11. Don't worry, Tom Delay will get him out of it

[bvar22]

12. I've got to know.

What were the "bad acts"?

[HereSince1628]

15. Something worth 3.5 million...

prior to his 'work' in government Hastert was a teacher and wrestling coach.

Even talking about Illinois politics....which career is most likely to result in 3.5 million in hush money?

[dgibby]

27. Something to do with a bed

and either a dead girl &/or a live boy, perhaps??? Just a guess, but it has to be something just as serious, considering the money involved.

[Hoppy]

51. Or a sheep from the taxidermy store.

[jeff47]

52. I'm guessing it has something to do with his old job

Wrestling coach at a school. So my utterly-not-based-in-any-facts guess is sex with one of his students.

[KamaAina]

13. Finally!

(cue "Miami Vice", "Hawaii Five-O" or "Dragnet" theme)

[longship]

21. DUMMMM-DE-DUM-DUM! nt

[KamaAina]

34. DUMMMM-DE-DUM-DUM-DUMMMM!

[KamaAina]

14. Dennis Hastert is a lobbyist in Washington?

Srsly? I'm shocked. Shocked!

[wordpix]

60. I guess that's how he came by $3.5 million for the payoff

It's hard werk being a lobbyist - all those phone calls to make and hands to shake.

[Person 2713]

16. Scum is now a lobbyist shit. Let him lobby in jail

Ugh

[CTyankee]

17. HAHA! The bastard Hastert had it coming...

I am LOVING IT!

[AngryAmish]

23. Rule 14 of politics: Every Illinois politician is corrupt

My money is Hastert raped some kid back in the day and was getting blackmailed. The statute ran on the rape so the got him on this.

Go to jail, shorteyes.

[alp227]

25. Hastert was also speaker at the time of the Mark Foley scandal.

Hmm....

[AngryAmish]

29. Hmm indeed.

Some day society will realize buggering boys is wrong.

[alp227]

24. What's up with Illinois & crooked politicians of both parties?

Wow. FOUR governors have been convicted of crimes while in office.

And in recent years, we've got the cases of Reps. Jesse Jackson Jr. and Aaron Schock.

[AngryAmish]

32. It is simply a very corrupt state.

The game is rigged and we just play the game.

I played for 20 years. I sat out this last cycle and got a lot of phone calls. I am sick of paying these assholes and I am closing my practice in 18 to 24 months.

What galls me is we have to host these assholes at my club so we don't run afoul of the law somehow. They drink booze on my dime, eat like pigs and expect us to pay for their caddies.

Fuck these guys.

[trof]

42. Wow, I'd like to hear more about THAT.

can you tell?

[AngryAmish]

44. What is there to tell?

That every politician in I have ever met in Illinois is a grifter.

This is not news.

[trof]

46. Guess so. I lived there in the late 60s. The Sec.of State?...

Was found to have hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash stashed in shoe boxes in his (residence) hotel room?
I think we had to make checks for driver's licenses or something to him personally?
Memory fades.

[Oldtimeralso]

33. Just Think of the Collectors Value

Illinois is the only state where the license plates are autographed by a former elected official at the site of manufacture!!!

[LawnKorn]

26. You just knew Hastert was sleazy

Now I hope he rots in jail for the rest of his miserable existence.

[brett_jv]

28. Hope he goes down hard ...

However not sure where y'all get the idea that this has anything to do with payoffs for a coverup of sexual misconduct. He's being busted for trying to hide money from the IRS, so to me it seems rather more likely that the $3.5M transfer was done to try to avoid a tax liability for that money.

[moonscape]

45. Reports expressly said

he was paying off an individual "in order to compensate and conceal his prior misconduct" against that specific person. And the person is someone who has known him a very long time, in his hometown where he was a coach. The sexual component is speculation because it's not stated who the person is or why Hastert was paying him/her off.

[csziggy]

58. The indictment says the payoffs were for bad acts prior to 1981

1. At times material to this indictment:
a. From approximately 1965 to 1981, defendant JOHN DENNIS HASTERT was a high school teacher and coach in Yorkville, Illinois. From approximately 1981 to 2007, defendant JOHN DENNIS HASTERT was an elected public official, including eight years as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. From approximately 2008 to the present, defendant JOHN DENNIS HASTERT has worked as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C.
b. Individual A has been a resident of Yorkville, Illinois and has known defendant JOHN DENNIS HASTERT
most of Individual A’s life.
c. In or about 2010, Individual A met with defendant JOHN DENNIS HASTERT multiple times. During at least one of the meetings, Individual A and defendant discussed past misconduct by defendant against Individual A that had occurred years earlier.
d. During the 2010 meetings and subsequent discussions, defendant JOHN DENNIS HASTERT agreed to provide Individual A $3.5 million in order to compensate for and conceal his prior misconduct against
Individual A.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2089603/hastert-indictment.pdf

The payoffs were specifically for "past misconduct by defendant against Individual A that had occurred years earlier." Given that Hastert's career prior to being elected to office was as a high school teacher and wrestling coach, it seems logical that sexual misconduct against a minor could be involved. Even though that would not longer be prosecutable, it is not something that a lobbyist - Hastert's career since retiring from elected office - would want to have known.

[alp227]

31. Chicago Tribune article, for those averse to clicking Buzzfeed/Huffpo...

[link:http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-dennis-hastert-20150528-story.html|
Ex-House Speaker Hastert charged with evading currency rules, lying to FBI]

[asjr]

35. Better late than never. Hastert was a bucket of dirt when he

was in D.C.

[seafan]

37. Sibel Edmonds, August 2005: Hastert received illegal payments from Turkish nat'ls for favors.

August 10, 2005

Article cited is in this direct link.


The wheels of justice are very slow, but they grind exceedingly fine.


Ex-House Speaker Dennis Hastert indicted on federal charges, May 28, 2015

[rurallib]

38. It's like someone woke up the Justice Department!

Do they have a new leader?
YES THEY DO!


"You, Hastert! Come on down!"

Is she circling into arresting some Wall Streeters?

[herding cats]

39. Sibel Edmonds is again proved right. nt

[sofa king]

40. The indictment has "young boy" all over it.

But the real fun will be in asking where, exactly, Denny got the money in the first place. Was that the suitcases of Turkish heroin money he got for pulling the Armenian genocide resolution?

That would be sweeeeet.

I'm done being nice about assholes like Hastert. Now that America is dead and he's one of the jackals who fattened himself on its corpse, I don't care how he goes down, just that he does.

[former9thward]

43. Hastert violated a fundamental rule.

Never, never talk to the FBI under any circumstances about anything. If he had not talked they probably would have dropped the whole matter.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

47. Don't forget the Foley page scandal and Hastert's role: "willfully ignorant"

In a December 2006, the House Ethics Committee determined that Hastert and other congressional leaders were "willfully ignorant" in responding to early warnings of the Mark Foley congressional page scandal, but did not violate any House rules.[19][20]

-- Wikipedia

Kind of plays into the blackmail speculation about sexual misconduct from his years as wrestling and football coach?

[Sgent]

48. I'm a bit perplexed

It was his money, he decided to pay the person off instead of whatever it was (I'm thinking child abuse) coming to light. Unless there is a murder, treason, or similar, its past the statue of limitations.

I'm not sure when becoming a victim of blackmailing was a crime.

[oberliner]

50. 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.

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/former-speaker-dennis-hastert-indicted-in-payment-scheme-118387.html#ixzz3bUKtvmMj

[Sgt Preston]

56. Note: nowadays, any cash transaction over $5K is reported.

It's a "suspicious activity." And your bank teller goes to jail if he or she tells you about it.

[sofa king]

61. Thanks to Denny and the PATRIOT Act....

It amuses me to no end that he didn't know about the laws he rammed through Congress, and it looks like someone broke the hell out of those non-reporting laws to warn him about it, too.

[oberliner]

49. What was he paying to have hushed up?

Any educated guesses?

[csziggy]

59. Read the first part of the indictment

https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2089603/hastert-indictment.pdf

Just the first few points in section 1 allow for a lot of speculation.

[KinMd]

53. Whoever he was paying will need a lawyer abouyt now also

Extortion and income tax evasion for starters

[Tom Ripley]

55. I look forward to seeing this scumbag do the perp waddle