Dennis Hastert Paid to Hide Sexual Misconduct With Student: Official

Dennis Hastert Paid to Hide Sexual Misconduct With Student: Official

Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert paid a man to conceal sexual misconduct while the man was a student at the high school where Hastert taught, a federal law enforcement official told NBC News on Friday.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity. Tribune newspapers reported earlier in the day that two unnamed federal officials said that Hastert paid a man from his past to conceal sexual misconduct.

Hastert was indicted Thursday on charges that he structured bank withdrawals to avoid federal reporting requirements and later lied about it to the FBI.

The indictment said that Hastert was paying an unidentified person from his past to conceal Hastert's "prior misconduct." The indictment did not specify the alleged misconduct or name the person.

The guy became a powerhouse lobbyist after his tenure as House speaker. I wonder what his voting stance on gay marriage was? Being a Republican I think we all know the answer... this may well be another case of "do as I say, not as I do."

a reply to: Blackmarketeer

Edit: Now that more info has been brought to my attention, my original post (below) is not really relevant.

IMO, this is a witch hunt. Lying to the FBI? Yes, that's definitely a crime. But "structuring bank withdrawals to avoid federal reporting requirements"? So what? That's like saying he drove 54 mph in order to avoid paying a fine for speeding in a 55 mph zone. It's like a mother giving her child $10,000 a year over 5 years to avoid paying inheritance tax on $50,000.

I don't know what his feelings on gay marriage are, but that has little to do with what he's being charged with.

this may well be another case of "do as I say, not as I do."

Sure is.

Guess it only matters when there is an R by there names

Sure can't forget JFK,Bill Clinton, John Edwards, and Anthony Weiner.

www.washingtonpost.com...

Yeah them evil Republicans!!!

The Democrats are such saints!

a reply to: Benevolent Heretic

Structuring is an actual crime though.

a reply to: Blackmarketeer

You're right, but I guess I think it shouldn't be a crime. Whose business is it how I move my money around?

Just frustrated about this today.

a reply to: neo96

The male student Hastert is accuse of sleeping with would have been a minor.

Hastert made payments to conceal sexual misconduct from high school coaching years, officials say

De nnis Hastert: What Did He Pay $3.5 Milln to Hush? CONFIRMED: Child Molester; Obama Justice Works w Blackmailer/Extorter

**** UPDATE: Looks like I nailed it on Denny Hastert nailing underage boys on the wrestling team. Like I said, he was doing his own “rasslin’.” You know what the predictable fall-out on this will be: liberals and the media will say, “One of the only Republican Speakers of the House in modern times was a gay child molester.” They will milk this the way they are milking the Duggar child molester scandal. ****

a reply to: Blackmarketeer

Wow! Thanks. Scum. It's too bad they can't arrest him for that.

a reply to: Benevolent Heretic

According to the seven-page indictment, Individual A met multiple times in 2010 with Hastert but brought up the allegations of past misconduct during at least one of the meetings. During that discussion and later meetings, Hastert agreed to pay $3.5 million to Individual A to conceal the wrongdoing, the indictment alleged.

From June 2010 to April 2012, Hastert made 15 withdrawals of $50,000 each from bank accounts he controlled and paid Individual A that cash about every six weeks, according to the charges.

After bank representatives questioned Hastert about the withdrawals in 2012, he began illegally structuring the cash withdrawals in increments less than $10,000 to evade bank reporting requirements, the indictment said.

His "structuring" alerted bank officials, which led to the FBI uncovering the extortion - Hastert had agreed to pay 3.5 million to cover up his sexual abuse of a male student when he was a teacher.

a reply to: Blackmarketeer

Got it. I have edited my original post.

I know this guy isn't clean... I get frustrated with how much the government is in my business sometimes. Thanks for the info.

originally posted by: neo96

this may well be another case of "do as I say, not as I do."

Sure is.

Guess it only matters when there is an R by there names

Sure can't forget JFK,Bill Clinton, John Edwards, and Anthony Weiner.

www.washingtonpost.com...

Yeah them evil Republicans!!!

The Democrats are such saints!

They might not be saints, but Democratic party members were never the party of the "moral majority" or "family values".

originally posted by: Benevolent Heretic
a reply to: Blackmarketeer

You're right, but I guess I think it shouldn't be a crime. Whose business is it how I move my money around?

Just frustrated about this today.

I'm with you on the hush money - - as long as it was not politically related.

But, was the kid a minor? And apparently there were others.

We need to get to the point where gay politicians no longer have to play the straight game.

originally posted by: Blackmarketeer
a reply to: neo96

The male student Hastert is accuse of sleeping with would have been a minor.

That does seem the probable suspicion.

But, guess I still need facts on age.

I basically figured this to be the case after hearing the initial report on it being someone from the past and what appeared to be pay offs.

originally posted by: roadgravel
I basically figured this to be the case after hearing the initial report on it being someone from the past and what appeared to be pay offs.

Extortion is illegal too.

Is there statute of limitation on extortion?

a reply to: Annee

The link here ('It was sex': Law enforcement says Dennis Hastert hush-money scandal is about sexual abuse of a male high school student during his years as a wrestling coach) refers to the student as a minor. The FBI is saying that there are two former students who are allegedly the ones extorting the money from Hastert to keep quiet, so I expect there will be more indictments on the way.

The Fed indictment regarding “individual A” raises some questions asked in this oped:
Why Are Prosecutors Keeping Hastert's Secret?

originally posted by: Blackmarketeer
a reply to: Annee

The link here ('It was sex': Law enforcement says Dennis Hastert hush-money scandal is about sexual abuse of a male high school student during his years as a wrestling coach) refers to the student as a minor. The FBI is saying that there are two former students who are allegedly the ones extorting the money from Hastert to keep quiet, so I expect there will be more indictments on the way.

Thank you.

Missed the minor reference.

a reply to: Annee

The extortion/blackmail began in 2010, when "individual A" began demanding payments from Hastert, and Hastert began his 500K withdrawals. When the banks alerted Hastert to the rules regarding the withdrawals, he started making much smaller withdrawals, under 10K. That got the FBI involved, apparently it's called "Withdrawal Structuring," illegal when such withdrawals are used to mask an ongoing criminal enterprise. That was addressed in the link I posted above, HAD Hastert been simply blackmailed, the feds would have gone after the blackmailers, and no charges filed against Hastert. The feds do watch for suspicious banking activity regarding high-ranking gov officials too, apparently.

But because the feds did indict Hastert over his structured withdrawals, my guess is they are not going to consider him a victim in this case, and both he and "individual A" will be seeing additional indictments, especially is "individual A" was a minor at the time of the alleged sexual abuse, making it statutory rape of a minor.

a reply to: Annee

I saw talk on the news that extortion may not be charged or is up in the air at the present. There was talk about it being an agreement between the two persons. Time will tell, I suppose.

Americans--your country is run by a bunch of pedophiles. Law and economics aren't the only f# up things you picked up from the Brits.

Your "leaders" are sick, sick people. And yet you let them go about their merry way. You elect and re-elect them. You allow them to plunder the wealth of the country at whim. You debate the finer points of their ideologies as if what they do to children at night with their pants around their ankles doesn't really matter.

Why aren't you stringing these people up? It's obvious that your legal system is incapable of holding them accountable for their actions.

Do they have to come to your house, break down your door, and kidnap your children before you care?

And I'm not talking about holding up a sign in front of the state house.