Dennis Hastert, the former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, is facing federal charges in an alleged attempt to conceal large bank withdrawals, used to pay an individual for past “misconduct” on the part of the former veteran politician, federal prosecutors announced on Thursday.You could take multiple angles on this one. Among your choices:
The unnamed individual, a resident of Hastert’s hometown of Yorkville, has known Hastert for most of his life. The alleged misconduct happened many years earlier, according to the indictment.
According to the indictment, in 2010, Hastert met with and then agreed to provide an unnamed individual $3.5 million “in order to compensate for and conceal his prior misconduct against” that person, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago.
- Hastert was a teacher and wrestling coach before he got started in politics. It's quite possible that Hastert did more than teach wrestling moves to someone back in the day. Maybe he'll be in the same cell block as Jerry Sandusky.
- The structuring law is problematic. The reason it exists is primarily to make it easier to watch money being moved around, particularly drug money. Like much of the War on Drugs, there's a lot of collateral damage.
- It's certainly convenient to have another Republican scandal going on right now. Gives the reporters something else to talk about that isn't related to other politicians who have spent time in the Land of Lincoln.
- It's especially interesting that the person Hastert was paying didn't start asking for money until after Hastert left Congress. There's a reason for that. Hastert has been a Washington lobbyist ever since he retired from Congress. I would imagine that lobbying is especially lucrative for a former Speaker of the House.
All will be revealed in due course. Getcha popcorn.
2 comments:
Hastert has been crooked for much of his time in office, amassing many millions of dollars in wealth, not unlike Harry Reid. Nail him.
Count me as very, very uneasy that we're going after someone on this charge when we have clear misconduct charges to pursue on the part of dozens of people in the IRS and BATF. And count me very, very uneasy that we're going on the witness of someone who will not be named.
Not that I doubt that most politicians these days are crooked, but this is too convenient for another crooked politician from Illinois.
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