HASTERT IN PRISON OF HIS OWN MAKING
Dennis Hastert may or may not do time, but he’s already lost what should matter most— his reputation.
Whether Hastert reveals the secrets behind the crimes for which he has been charged is beside the point. In the court of public opinion— the court that counts in the history books— he will be judged harshly all the same.
Unless, that is to say, his secrets are not monstrous. But then, why are they secrets?
In a court of law, we are told to draw no conclusions from what a defendant does not say. In the court of public opinion, people will think what they think.
Hastert, the former Speaker of the House, is expected to plead guilty on Oct. 28 to skirting federal banking laws. He is accused of committing a somewhat technical crime— structuring $1.7 million in cash withdrawals in a way designed to avoid detection— to cover up earlier misconduct.
What was this misconduct? The U.S attorney’s office in Chicago was almost coy about it in an indictment handed down in May, saying only that the money was used to “compensate for and conceal” earlier “misconduct” against a person identified as “Individual A.”
But the very first sentence of the indictment made clear where the reader’s suspicions should lie: “From approximately 1965 to 1981, defendant JOHN DENNIS HASTERT was a high school teacher and coach in Yorkville, Illinois.”
And for those who still could not read between the lines, the Sun-Times and other news organizations quickly located two anonymous but reliable sources who bluntly said Hastert had used the money to cover up allegations of sexual misconduct with a male student during his time as a teacher and coach.
There you go.
The leaks infuriated Hastert’s lawyer. He said they jeopardized his client’s ability to get a fair trial. But Hastert’s lawyer had to say that; it’s his job. He surely knew where the public’s suspicions were headed all along.
It has not helped Hastert’s case — and certainly not his destroyed reputation— that days after the indictment was released another person accused him of sexually assaulting another student in Yorkville way back when. The accuser told ABC News that her brother, who died of AIDS in 1995, revealed to her that he had been abused by Hastert for years but didn’t think anyone would believe him.
It would be easy to lump Hastert in with dozens of other crooked Illinois public officials, allowing us to ask, once again, if there’s something in our drinking water. It does get crazy.
In the very same Friday edition of the Sun-Times that reported on the latest news in Hastert’s case, other stories reported on federal probes involving former Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Ill., former schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett and Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown.
But let’s be clear: Schock and Brown have not been criminally charged. And all crooked pols and crimes are not the same. We can’t help but feel a particular disdain for those who would sexually prey on minors. Former Congressman Mel Reynolds comes to mind.
Prosecutors are expected to submit a written plea agreement to a judge on Monday. We will learn then the charges to which Hastert has agreed to plead guilty, and we’ll know better how much prison time, if any, he might have to serve. He could be going away for a couple of years.
Denny Hastert’s fall from grace came so fast and hard. He was once second in line in an emergency to be president of the United States, right after the vice president. Now he can’t buy a cup of coffee without having to contend with the quiet judgment of everybody in the coffee shop. Or even the not-so-quiet judgment.
“The Coach” is already in prison, one of his own making. If he has nothing more to say, he will stay there.
He was once second in line in an emergency to be president of the United States. Now he can’t buy a cup of coffee without having to contend with the quiet judgment of everybody in the coffee shop.