Former House speaker indicted by feds
Hastert, now a lobbyist in Plano, accused of illicit bank withdrawals, paying to conceal ‘misconduct’
Dennis Hastert, the former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, is charged with lying to the FBI and structuring cash withdrawals to avoid bank reporting requirements.
CHICAGO — Dennis Hastert, a former speaker of the House of Representatives, has been charged with lying to the FBI and making cash withdrawals from banks in a way that was designed to hide that he was paying $3.5 million to someone for his “misconduct” from years ago, a federal indictment released on Thursday said.
Hastert, 73, the longestserving Republican speaker, now works as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C, but has a residence in Plano.
The indictment, announced by the United States attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, said Hastert, who was once a high school teacher and wrestling coach in Yorkville, Ill., had so far paid $1.7 million to the person, who had lived in Yorkville and had known Hastert for most of his or her life. Hastert worked in Yorkville from 1965 to 1981.
In 2010, during meetings between Hastert and the unnamed individual, the two discussed “past misconduct” by Hastert against the person, according to the indictment.
In those meetings and in later discussions, Hastert agreed to provide money to the person “in order to compensate for and conceal his prior misconduct,” the indictment said. It said he was structuring the cash withdrawals in increments designed to avoid bank reporting requirements. The indictment does not provide details of the misconduct.
Hastert could not be reached for comment at his office in Washington. The charges each carry a penalty of as much as five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, the prosecutor’s office said. Hastert is to appear at an arraignment at a future date, the prosecutors said.
Kimberly Nerheim, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office, declined to identify the person who was being paid by Hastert or to comment on whether that individual would face any charges.
Hastert, first elected to Congress from Illinois in 1986, was suddenly catapulted to speaker in 1999 after Newt Gingrich had stepped down.
According to the federal indictment made public on Thursday, Hastert gave money to the unnamed person for four years, starting in 2010.
On Dec. 8, 2014, Hastert was interviewed by federal agents. He said that he was not paying anyone with the money, but was keeping the withdrawals for himself because he felt unsafe with the banking system. “Yeah,” Hastert told the agents, according to the indictment. “I kept the cash. That’s what I’m doing.”