News Today Dennis Hastert Reaches Plea Deal in Bank Withdrawals Case
CHICAGO — J. Dennis Hastert, the small-town wrestling coach who rose to political power as the longest-serving Republican speaker of the House, intends to plead guilty as part of an agreement in a case where he is accused of skirting banking laws and lying to the federal investigators, according to proceedings Thursday in Federal District Court here.
A federal prosecutor told the court that the government expected a written plea agreement to be given to the judge on Monday. It has asked for a hearing on Oct. 28, at which Mr. Hastert is expected to change his plea to guilty from not guilty.
It was unclear what charges that Mr. Hastert would plead guilty to and what the sentence may be. Mr. Hastert did not appear in court.
Mr. Hastert, 73, was charged in May with structuring cash withdrawals, totaling $1.7 million, in a manner intended to avoid detection by banking officials, and then lying about the withdrawals to the federal authorities. The seven-page indictment laid out a pattern of clandestine meetings and bank withdrawals.
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The indictment said the withdrawals were used to “compensate for and conceal” earlier “misconduct” against a person identified only as “Individual A.” Subsequent reports, citing unidentified government sources, said the money was used to cover up allegations of sexual misconduct with a male student during Mr. Hastert’s time as a high school teacher and coach in Yorkville, Ill.. Mr. Hastert has not been charged with any sex crimes, and the identity of the person he is accused of paying remains unknown.
The plea will allow Mr. Hastert, who presided over the House from 1999 to 2007, to avoid a potentially long and embarrassing trial and to keep secret information that he has hidden for years, including the identity of the former student. It was that man who, around 2010, met with the former speaker several times to discuss “past misconduct” by Mr. Hastert while he was teaching in Yorkville, the indictment said. Mr. Hastert taught there from 1965 to 1981.
During one meeting, Mr. Hastert agreed to pay his former student $3.5 million to “compensate for and conceal” his misconduct, the indictment said. Soon after, it continued, Mr. Hastert began taking out large sums of money from several accounts and paying Individual A in amounts of $50,000 or $100,000.
After banking officials asked Mr. Hastert to explain the withdrawals, he changed course, taking out cash in increments of less than $10,000 in an attempt to evade detection, the indictment said. Banks are required to report cash withdrawals of more than $10,000. In December, under questioning from federal agents, Mr. Hastert said that he was holding onto the cash out of mistrust of the banking system.
“Yeah,” Mr. Hastert told the agents, the indictment said. “I kept the cash. That’s what I’m doing.”
Mr. Hastert was first elected to Congress in 1986, and in 1999, he became speaker of the House after Newt Gingrich abruptly stepped down. Mr. Hastert, an easygoing and popular figure who was known on Capitol Hill as “the coach,” was adept at corralling members of his caucus and pushing the Republican agenda. He did not seek re-election in 2008.
After leaving Congress, Mr. Hastert parlayed his time as speaker into a lucrative career, starting a lobbying firm and later working at the Washington law firm Dickstein Shapiro. After the indictment in May, as his former colleagues in Washington expressed astonishment at the charges, he resigned and has stayed out of public view.
Mr. Hastert appeared at the courthouse in Chicago in June and initially pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Last month, lawyers for the prosecution and for Mr. Hastert said in federal court that they were discussing a plea agreement and asked the judge, Thomas M. Durkin of Federal District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, for more time to file pretrial motions. Legal experts said that given the nature of the charges and the evidence laid out in the indictment, it appeared likely that Mr. Hastert would pursue a plea deal rather than endure a trial.
Pretrial motions were due on Tuesday, a deadline that passed without the submission of pretrial paperwork, an indication that Mr. Hastert and the prosecutors were nearing a plea deal.
Mr. Hastert’s lawyer, Thomas C. Green, has accused prosecutors of leaking details of the case, saying that revelations of sexual abuse jeopardized Mr. Hastert’s ability to receive a fair trial. At a hearing in July, Mr. Green called the anonymously sourced reports of sexual abuse the “800-pound gorilla” in the room.
Source : http://www.nytimes.com
A federal prosecutor told the court that the government expected a written plea agreement to be given to the judge on Monday. It has asked for a hearing on Oct. 28, at which Mr. Hastert is expected to change his plea to guilty from not guilty.
It was unclear what charges that Mr. Hastert would plead guilty to and what the sentence may be. Mr. Hastert did not appear in court.
Mr. Hastert, 73, was charged in May with structuring cash withdrawals, totaling $1.7 million, in a manner intended to avoid detection by banking officials, and then lying about the withdrawals to the federal authorities. The seven-page indictment laid out a pattern of clandestine meetings and bank withdrawals.
Continue reading the main story
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The indictment said the withdrawals were used to “compensate for and conceal” earlier “misconduct” against a person identified only as “Individual A.” Subsequent reports, citing unidentified government sources, said the money was used to cover up allegations of sexual misconduct with a male student during Mr. Hastert’s time as a high school teacher and coach in Yorkville, Ill.. Mr. Hastert has not been charged with any sex crimes, and the identity of the person he is accused of paying remains unknown.
The plea will allow Mr. Hastert, who presided over the House from 1999 to 2007, to avoid a potentially long and embarrassing trial and to keep secret information that he has hidden for years, including the identity of the former student. It was that man who, around 2010, met with the former speaker several times to discuss “past misconduct” by Mr. Hastert while he was teaching in Yorkville, the indictment said. Mr. Hastert taught there from 1965 to 1981.
During one meeting, Mr. Hastert agreed to pay his former student $3.5 million to “compensate for and conceal” his misconduct, the indictment said. Soon after, it continued, Mr. Hastert began taking out large sums of money from several accounts and paying Individual A in amounts of $50,000 or $100,000.
After banking officials asked Mr. Hastert to explain the withdrawals, he changed course, taking out cash in increments of less than $10,000 in an attempt to evade detection, the indictment said. Banks are required to report cash withdrawals of more than $10,000. In December, under questioning from federal agents, Mr. Hastert said that he was holding onto the cash out of mistrust of the banking system.
“Yeah,” Mr. Hastert told the agents, the indictment said. “I kept the cash. That’s what I’m doing.”
Mr. Hastert was first elected to Congress in 1986, and in 1999, he became speaker of the House after Newt Gingrich abruptly stepped down. Mr. Hastert, an easygoing and popular figure who was known on Capitol Hill as “the coach,” was adept at corralling members of his caucus and pushing the Republican agenda. He did not seek re-election in 2008.
After leaving Congress, Mr. Hastert parlayed his time as speaker into a lucrative career, starting a lobbying firm and later working at the Washington law firm Dickstein Shapiro. After the indictment in May, as his former colleagues in Washington expressed astonishment at the charges, he resigned and has stayed out of public view.
Mr. Hastert appeared at the courthouse in Chicago in June and initially pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Last month, lawyers for the prosecution and for Mr. Hastert said in federal court that they were discussing a plea agreement and asked the judge, Thomas M. Durkin of Federal District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, for more time to file pretrial motions. Legal experts said that given the nature of the charges and the evidence laid out in the indictment, it appeared likely that Mr. Hastert would pursue a plea deal rather than endure a trial.
Pretrial motions were due on Tuesday, a deadline that passed without the submission of pretrial paperwork, an indication that Mr. Hastert and the prosecutors were nearing a plea deal.
Mr. Hastert’s lawyer, Thomas C. Green, has accused prosecutors of leaking details of the case, saying that revelations of sexual abuse jeopardized Mr. Hastert’s ability to receive a fair trial. At a hearing in July, Mr. Green called the anonymously sourced reports of sexual abuse the “800-pound gorilla” in the room.
Source : http://www.nytimes.com
