The Justice Department has charged former House Speaker Dennis Hastert with lying to FBI agents and trying to hide financial transactions intended to keep prior misconduct secret, prosecutors alleged today.
The 73-year-old Hastert, a top Republican on Capitol Hill before he left Congress in 2007, agreed five years ago to pay an unidentified person $3.5 million “to compensate for and conceal” prior “misconduct against” that person, according to prosecutors.
Over the next four years, Hastert withdrew about $1.7 million in cash from various bank accounts and provided that money to the unidentified person, according to the Justice Department.
The indictment describes the person who allegedly received the payments only as a resident of Yorkville, Illinois, who has known Hastert most of the person’s life. The indictment does not indicate the age of the unidentified person, but it describes Hastert’s time as a high school teacher and a wrestling coach in Yorkville from 1965 to 1981 as “material” to the case, in addition to Hastert’s time in Washington.
(via ABC)
Hmmm... Penn State leaps to mind...
ReplyDeleteNot to defend Hastert, but lying to the FBI shouldn't be a crime. It seems that an awful lot of what federal prosecutors charge isn't considered criminal in other jurisdictions. One way to avoid lying to feebs is to say nothing when they start asking questions. Anyone but a dimbulb politician should know that.
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