Ex-US Speaker indicted over $3.5 million in payments

Discussion in 'Current Events' started by Tuniwalrus, May 28, 2015.

  1. Tuniwalrus

    Tuniwalrus Banned

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    I'm thinking this guy must have gone "full Sandusky" on some little kiddies. People don't just let themselves get blackmailed for $3.5M for littering. One question though - is it illegal to take money out of your own bank account?


    http://news.yahoo.com/ex-us-speaker-hastert-indicted-bank-related-charges-214129927--politics.html

    CHICAGO (AP) — Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert agreed to pay $3.5 million in hush money to keep an unidentified person silent about "prior misconduct" by the Illinois Republican who was once second in line to the U.S. presidency, according to a federal grand jury indictment handed down on Thursday in Chicago.

    The indictment, which does not describe the misconduct Hastert was allegedly trying to conceal, charges the 73-year-old with one count of evading bank regulations as he withdrew tens of thousands of dollars at a time to make the payments. He is also charged with one count of lying to the FBI about the reason for the unusual bank withdrawals.

    Each count of the indictment carries a maximum penalty of 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

    The Associated Press left a phone message seeking comment with a person at Hastert's office in Washington, D.C., where he has worked as a lobbyist since 2008; it was not immediately returned. Hastert also did not immediately return a message left on his cellphone seeking comment, or respond to an email.

    Hastert withdrew a total of around $1.7 million in cash from various bank accounts from 2010 to 2014, and then provided it to the person identified in the indictment only as Individual A. Hastert allegedly agreed to pay the person $3.5 million, but never apparently paid that full amount.

    The seven-page indictment notes Hastert was a high school teacher and coach from 1965 to 1981 in suburban Yorkville, about 50 miles west of Chicago. While the indictment says Individual A has been a resident of Yorkville and has known Hastert most of his life, it doesn't describe their relationship.
     
  2. homerjay_s

    homerjay_s New Member

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    You don't gain a position like that unless someone has dirt on you, anyway. They don't allow people that they can't control to be in positions of real decision making and power. They all have their skeletons, most of which have been deliberately fostered just for the purposes of blackmail.
     
  3. Deckel

    Deckel Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    That was my first thought after reading a report on this, but then I recalled that about the time he left, there were some stories going around about some family land trust that was benefiting from things like knowing where highways were going before anything else and then snatching up the land before the appropriations were made.
     
  4. Tuniwalrus

    Tuniwalrus Banned

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    What about the money thing - why would it be illegal to pull your cash out of the bank? That's messed up.
     
  5. 10A

    10A Chief Deplorable Past Donor

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    It's not illegal to pull cash out of your bank account. What is illegal is trying to circumvent notification laws about withdrawing money over $10,000. It's perfectly legal to withdraw that amount or over, no problem at all, it just has to be reported to the IRS to detect money laundering.
     
  6. blackharvest216

    blackharvest216 Banned

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  7. Deckel

    Deckel Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I don't understand that part at all. If you are not required to report, then you are not required to report. Besides, I never have heard of having to do the report when you took money out--just when you put money in. They clearly think they have him on something else IMO and the other shoe has not dropped.
     
  8. Tuniwalrus

    Tuniwalrus Banned

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    I wonder if that will somehow get swept under the carpet since he is a powerful bigwig in Washington. No different than Hitlery. She could go to a Girl Scout convention and shoot 100 bunnies with a shotgun out front and the media would blame it on Bush and get her some more votes.
     
  9. Tuniwalrus

    Tuniwalrus Banned

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    That's what I was thinking - a Sandusky deal. Does he guy who got the $1.7 million get to keep it if it turns out the guy was a pedophile? Is it blackmail if the person paying the cash doesn't want to prosecute? Then would it just be a gift and he just has to pay capital gains tax?
     
  10. 10A

    10A Chief Deplorable Past Donor

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    Blackmail is criminal, even against people who have committed a crime.

    "Whoever, under a threat of informing, or as a consideration for not informing, against any violation of any law of the United States, demands or receives any money or other valuable thing, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both."

    Title 18, Code 873.
     
  11. Tuniwalrus

    Tuniwalrus Banned

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    Thanks for that! I apologize for being lazy and not searching through US Code. You energetic soul. LOL

    Why do you think they just called that guy "Person A" or whatever and didn't bust him? Is he going to be the paid informant for the prosecution?
     
  12. Deckel

    Deckel Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I doubt it since this administration has a history of pursuing these sketchy cases against republicans. The former governor of virginia has every living AG of the state on record as saying that what he had done did not violate Virginia law but here he and his wife sit as convicted felons.
     
  13. Professor Peabody

    Professor Peabody Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Denny's big mistake was not consulting the Clinton's on how to set up a Charitable Foundation that actually uses a whopping 15% of what they take in on charitable activities (the Red Cross is at 91%) and setting up a shell company to manage his money.
     
  14. Natty Bumpo

    Natty Bumpo Well-Known Member

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    Much is yet to be exposed.

    If Hastert paid $3.5 million in hush money, what unseemly malevolence was worth that much to hide?

    The bland fellow evidenced all the razzle-dazzle of a wad of long-overchewed gum.

    At least, whatever perfidy he has been attempting to conceal will have negligible partisan impact on GOP Congressional approval, already at a dismal 22%.


    Meanwhile, the pantywaists will inevitably lash out incoherently about their Liberal! Liberals! Liberals! rather that honestly confront the matter.
     
  15. Grizz

    Grizz New Member

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    You would have thought they could have mentioned that he was a Republican Speaker, and was the longest serving Republican Speaker. So where are all of our 'law and order' right wing friends?
     
  16. TomFitz

    TomFitz Well-Known Member

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    Hastert was generally regarded as the figurehead that "Hot Tub" Tommy DeLay installed.

    DeLay was arguably the most corrupt Congressional leader in generations. Between Hastert, Nordquist, Rove, DeLay, Casino Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed, Cheney and a much of the rest of the Bush team, official Washington smelled a good deal like Teapot Dome in the early 2000's.

    The irony of this is that the media generally reported allegations or scandals associated with these people as individual incidents and did little to tie them together, even though most of these people knew each other and often operated together.

    In Hastert's case, I suspect the real story has something to do with the earmark for the freeway interchange he enabled, an interchange that vastly increased the value of one of his backer's real estate.
     
  17. Grizz

    Grizz New Member

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    I suspect that this is far from over and we'll know soon enough exactly what this was about, tho speculation is all over the place, just about everything except using chickens for sex.
     
  18. Grizz

    Grizz New Member

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    Found this on Daily Kos. It's the sort of stuff that makes you go, "hmmmmmm"...


    When news broke that former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert had been indicted for structuring transactions to avoid IRS detection and lying about it to the FBI, it sounded like routine corruption. The details of the indictment, though, point in a different direction, stressing Hastert's time as a high school teacher and that Individual A, who Hastert was attempting to pay off "to compensate for and conceal his prior misconduct against," "has been a resident of Yorkville, Illinois and has known defendant JOHN DENNIS HASTERT most of Individual A’s life." So how do we read this?

    Okay ...

    So, yes, we are probably talking about someone who Hastert knew in his capacity as a teacher and coach, and despite the fact that this person was extorting him for $3.5 million—a significant pile of money—Hastert is in trouble. These are not good signs.
    Hastert has resigned his position as a lobbyist.
     
  19. Dispondent

    Dispondent Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I'm shocked, corrupt Illinois politician, and it actually made the news...

    I'm all for him being punished if he's convicted, unlike some I want full accountability for politicians, even if they are from my side...
     
  20. In The Dark

    In The Dark Well-Known Member

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    This 'false statements' crime is the only reason you need to NEVER TALK TO ANY AGENT OF BIG FED.

    NO STATEMENT. EVER.
     
  21. In The Dark

    In The Dark Well-Known Member

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    No worries. I have picked it up with tongs and flushed it.
     
  22. In The Dark

    In The Dark Well-Known Member

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    It likely started as a modest extortion. Once the payment is made future demands for payment are guaranteed.
     
  23. Natty Bumpo

    Natty Bumpo Well-Known Member

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    Yes, you're probably right. It's unfortunate, because I think he had amassed enough good will that he could have weathered it at the time had he come clean - whatever it was.
     
  24. Tuniwalrus

    Tuniwalrus Banned

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    News just came in - turns out he liked the little boys. It was a Sandusky play.

    http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/denn...ual-misconduct-time-teacher/story?id=31400518

    Dennis Hastert Allegedly Engaged in Sexual Misconduct During Time as Teacher, Sources Say
    May 29, 2015, 4:18 PM ET

    Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert allegedly engaged in sexual misconduct during his time as a high school wrestling coach and history teacher, ABC News has learned from sources with knowledge of the case.

    Associates and former colleagues of Hastert expressed surprise and dismay today over allegations that he disbursed $1.7 million in hush money payments to conceal alleged misconduct from a period before he entered politics.

    The school district that employed Hastert from 1965 to 1981 as a high school history teacher and wrestling coach noted it "was first made aware of any concerns regarding Mr. Hastert when the federal indictment was released" Thursday.
     
  25. Grizz

    Grizz New Member

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    Yes. I'm sure that's what you do with anything that conflicts with the wonderful fantasy world you live in. And, you'd better turn on your TV to a real news channel. Looks like a sexual molestation of a child.
     

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