Dennis Hastert, Former House Speaker (Photo : Reuters)
Former United States House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) received a federal grand jury indictment on Thursday. The Illinois Republican allegedly made over $950,000 in cash withdrawals in a hush money cover-up to keep a Yorkville, IL citizen silent about "prior misconduct."
The bribe money was allegedly paid to someone in the town where the 73-year-old Hastert served as a high school teacher and coach, from 1965 to 1981. The indictment does not name the alleged misconduct, according to Talking Points Memo.
Hastert received one criminal charge for avoiding bank regulations by withdrawing $952,000 in increments lower than $10,000. He received another charge for one count of lying to the FBI about the odd cash withdrawals. Each of the indictment's two counts has a maximum penalty of five years in a federal prison, and a $250,000 fine.
Hastert has made no public statements about the indictments.
Soon after resigning from the U.S. Congress in 2007, he began working at a Washington, D.C. lobbying and law firm. Hastert resigned from his post on Thursday.
The federal indictment states that from 2010 to 2014, Hastert allegedly withdrew a total of about $1.7 million from different bank accounts. He allegedly paid part of $3.5 million in hush money promised to "Individual A."
The indictment reveals that Individual A, a resident of the Chicago suburb Yorkville, has known Hastert during most of the former's life. However, the person's relationship to Hastert was unstated.
Part of the investigation researched if Hastert had been a victim of "criminal extortion" related to issues such as his government jobs. However, the indictment provides no further details.
Legal experts explained that extortion cases can be complicated. Phil Turner, a former federal prosecutor, said that in bribery cases prosecutors must often decide if the extorted person or the person extorting is a bigger victim, according to Huffington Post.
Hastert replaced Newt Gingrich (R-GA) as House Speaker in 1999. When he resigned from Congress in 2007, Hastert was the longest-serving Republican House Speaker.
