Ex House Speaker Dennis Hastert faces sentencing today on charges related to a hush-money pedophile scandal he himself exposed.
Shady banking maneuvers got defendant Hastert flagged by the Feds in 2014, but he only deepened their investigation into his illegal "structured withdrawals" by then claiming he was being "extorted" on "false accusations" of child molestation.
The alleged sex offenses have since been confirmed and date back decades to when the longest standing Republican House Speaker in American history was just a little known but highly-respected wrestling coach in Yorkville Illinois.
At Dennis Hastert's behest, FBI agents secretly listened in on phone conversations with one of his now-grown victims and quickly concluded it was the GOP's "squeaky clean" former Speaker who in fact had lied about his own wrongdoing.
Hastert's hush money cover-up is ultimately what got him nabbed last year -- not the child sexual abuse charges which involved at least four youths and took place so long ago the statute of limitations had fully expired.
Those historic sex crimes, however, were intricately linked to the multimillion-dollar banking scheme that the disgraced congressional leader pleaded guilty to devising in order to quietly payoff one abuse survivor dubbed victim "A."
The still unidentified man has recently sued Hastert as well, since the ex House Speaker never actually paid the entire amount he offered as redress for A's "pain, harm and suffering."
During the federal probe of Hastert's financial finagling, it was also revealed that, in addition to luring and fondling under-aged males, beloved Coach Hastert placed a lounge chair "in direct view of the shower stalls in the locker room where he sat while the boys showered."
Now in his 70s, Dennis Hastert could be jailed for up to five years in prison for the bank fraud he knowingly perpetrated, or, more likely, receive a short sentence that amounts to just a slap on his wrist.
Either way, though, this infamous "family values" politician and lobbyist continues to remain hushed about the pedophile scandal that brought him down last year, and will keep on receiving both state and federal pension checks in spite of it.
UPDATE 1:30 p.m. - A federal judge, apparently unmoved by the fact that Dennis Hastert arrived at court today in a wheelchair, has sentenced the the ex GOP house speaker to 15 months in prison.
ReplyDeleteJudge Thomas M. Durkin also admonished the defendant in his sentencing decision, saying "nothing is more stunning than having 'serial child molester' and 'Speaker of the House' in the same sentence."
Hastert's lawyers were arguing for leniency -- only six months or even less which, ideally, would be served through probation. They didn't get it.
E.R.