Ex-speaker pleads guilty to bank fraud
Hastert allegedly was covering up misconduct with a male student
CHICAGO — Former House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert pleaded guilty in federal court here Wednesday to violating federal banking laws in a deal with prosecutors that allows him to avoid, at least for now, a thorough public reckoning of the sexual allegations that generated the case.
Hunched before a federal judge, Hastert spoke only when prompted and steered clear of specifics. He admitted that he withdrew money from banks in increments low enough to avoid mandatory reporting requirements and that he paid someone to keep decades-old misconduct a secret.
“I didn’t want them to know how I intended to spend the money,” Hastert said when asked to describe his misdeeds.
He did not address a more lurid allegation that the cash was meant to buy the silence of a former student he had molested years ago.
The plea marks a personal nadir for a man who served as House speaker for longer than any Republican in history. Friends and former colleagues said Wednesday that the case will undeniably tarnish Hastert’s reputation.
“We’re all dismayed about the whole thing,” said Dallas Ingemunson, a former local GOP official in Illinois and longtime friend of Hastert’s.
Federal sentencing guidelines call for Hastert, 73, to face zero to six months in prison, although U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin said Wednesday that he could deviate from that range. The maximum possible sentence for the charge is five years in prison.
Hastert was charged in July with breaking federal banking laws and lying to investigators — ostensibly dull counts that prosecutors alleged stemmed from an intriguing plot. According to an indictment, Hastert, who was a teacher and wrestling coach in Yorkville, Ill., before he got into politics in the early 1980s, agreed to pay someone $3.5 million to cover up “past misconduct” against the person.
A federal law enforcement official has said the person was a former male student of Hastert’s who alleged that Hastert molested him years ago. The indictment says Hastert paid the person about $1.7 million from 2010-14.
The molestation allegation never came up at Hastert’s plea hearing Wednesday. Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Block said Hastert paid a person who confronted him about past misconduct in an attempt to “compensate for and keep confidential” what he had done. Block said the misconduct had occurred decades ago and was “against” the person whom Hastert paid, but he did not name the person or specify the misconduct.
Hastert acknowledged that after the bank asked about his large cash withdrawals, he started withdrawing smaller amounts to avoid scrutiny.