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Title: 'It was sex': Law enforcement says Dennis Hastert hush-money scandal is about sexual misconduct with a male during his years as a high school wrestling coach
Source:
Daily Mail Online
URL Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art ... is-town-coached-wrestling.html
Published: May 29, 2015
Author: David Martosko, U.S. Political Editor
Post Date: 2015-05-29 16:14:24 by cranky
Keywords: None
Views: 29997
Comments: 130
Former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Dennis Hastert's hush-money scandal stems from sexual misconduct he committed during the years he was a high school wrestling coach, according to law enforcement sources. The Los Angeles Times on Friday quoted one source who said simply: 'It was sex.' Another told the paper that Hastert paid more than $1.7 million to cover up what the Times termed 'sexual abuse.' One of the officials said the 'Individual A' described in Hastert's federal indictment is a man and that the sexual misconduct allegedly occurred long before the former House speaker's political career – in the timeframe when he was a high school history wrestling and football coach. 'It goes back a long way, back to then,' the source told the Times. 'It has nothing to do with public corruption or a corruption scandal. Or to his time in office.' SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO AND TO READ THE INDICTMENT Former US House Speaker Dennis Hastert was a young high school wrestling coach (left, shown in a 1966 yearbook photo) when he committed sexual misconduct that has cost him millions to cover up, according to law enforcement sources. Hastert (right, in February) was indicted Thursday on federal charges including making false statements to the FBI SPEAKER: Hastert (right, shown with Rep. Nancy Pelosi in 2005) led the House of Representatives from 1999 to 2007 This Oct. 25, 1975 photo shows Yorkville, Ill., high school wrestling coach and former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (top left) and then-Illinois State University wrestling coach Larry Meyer (top right) watching a wrestling demonstration at a clinic in Bloomington, Ill. In addition to the public humiliation of an unsealed felony indictment, Hastert lost his lucrative lobbying job on Thursday. On its face, the criminal case charges that he knowingly made illegal bank withdrawals in a pattern of amounts just small enough to avoid triggering federal reporting requirements. But beneath the surface now lurks a sex scandal that could change how Hastert is remembered by history. Appearing Friday on MSNBC, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said she was 'surprised' at the latest revelations and called it a 'sad' episode for Congress. 'When Mr. Hastert was the speaker, our run for winning the house in '06 was to say that we were running against a culture or corruption cronyism and incompetence,' she said. 'At the time there were many indictments but we had no idea that that would include the speaker of the house.' Guessing what kind of secret Hastert had been hiding quickly became a parlor game on Thursday and Friday among Washington insiders who know the former speaker. As with the Los Angeles Times' sources, none of them who spoke with Daily Mail Online would agree to the publications of their names. 'It has to be something about the wrestling coaching in the '60s and '70s,' said one Republican House aide who has been on Capitol Hill since Hastert's first days as House speaker. A FOLEY LINK? Mark Foley resigned from Congress in disgrace while Hastert was speaker, after lurid texts and emails he sent to young male congressional pages were discovered – and Hastert allegedly sat on the information for months 404ed: Hastert's name and biography were stripped on Thursday from the website of Dickstein Shapiro LLP, the lawyer-lobbyist firm where he worked since 2008 The married 73-year-old former legislator's criminal charging document describes payments of $1.7 million in hush money to a person who lived in Yorkville, Illinois, the town where he coached and taught high school history. Including those details, according to one federal prosecutor, was a likely clue to the nature of the 'prior misconduct' Hastert was trying to cover up. 'The feds don't put superfluous facts in an indictment,' Jeffrey Cramer told the Chicago Tribune. 'If it's in there, it's relevant.' 'Individual A has been a resident of Yorkville, Illinois, and has known defendant JOHN DENNIS HASTERT most of Individual A's life,' Thursday's indictment reads. Cramer said Hastert's deep, dark secret could be devastating, given the size of the alleged payoff. '$3.5 million is a lot of money to keep a secret hidden,' he told the Tribune. 'Ten bucks says this is blowback from the Mark Foley thing,' a second Capitol Hill aide added Friday in a conversation with Daily Mail Online. That's a reference to a scandal that dogged Hastert while he was the most powerful member of the House of Representatives. HIDING A SECRET: It has emerged from law enforcement sources that Hastert's sexual 'abuse' of a minor during his coaching years led to the hush-money payments that put him in legal jeopardy THROW THE BUMS OUT: Hastert presided over the House during the period when President Bill Clinton survived a party-line vote in the US Senate following his impeachment by the House VINTAGE: Hastert is shown in 1985 when he was a member of the Illinois General Assembly In September 2006, then-Rep. Mark Foley of Florida resigned in the wake of revelations that he had sent sexually explicit emails and text messages to young male congressional pages. Hastert originally claimed he learned about the misconduct from news reports but later issued a statement acknowledging that he knew in late 2005 after staffers and other Republicans in leadership roles warned him personally about the problem. In the intervening months, Foley was allowed to co-chair a congressional caucus group focused on missing and exploited children. The bipartisan House Ethics Committee later ruled that Hastert was 'willfully ignorant' as the scandal unfolded. 'Why did he cover that up?' the second House staffer asked on Friday. 'Did he have a similar problem with a gay thing, and was he afraid of what would happen to him if he outed Foley?' But the Associated Press spoke with David Corwin, whose son wrestled for Hastert at Yorkville. 'You won't get anyone to say anything bad about him out here,' he said. 'Everybody loved him. The kids loved him and they still do.' Dickstein Shapiro, the firm where Hastert had worked since 2008, dropped his name and biography from its website within an hour of the announcement that a federal grand jury had charged him with two felonies. Hastert was previously co-leader of the firm's public policy and political law practice. The firm's website had previously noted that as a member of the Illinois General Assembly he 'spearheaded legislation on child abuse prevention.' He now faces two charges, each of which could send him to prison for five years and cost him $250,000 in fines. GLORY DAYS: Hastert was close with fellow former speaker Newt Gingrich Hastert was third in the presidential order of succession but now could go to prison for a decade Federal prosecutors in Chicago say he structured the withdrawal of $952,000 in cash in order to evade the requirement that banks report cash transactions over $10,000. He allegedly paid $1.7 million out of an agreed-upon $3.5 million amount to the mysterious 'Individual A' in order to 'compensate for and conceal his prior misconduct.' The indictment alleges that beginning in June 2010 Hastert withdrew $50,000 at a time and handed it over at six-week intervals. Two years later he switched to making withdrawals of less than $10,000. That's the cutoff point above which banks must file 'Currency Transaction Reports' with the federal government. The grand jury charged him with pulling money out of at least four separate banks on 106 different occasions, and lying to the FBI about it. In December 2014, according to the government, 'Hastert falsely stated that he was keeping the cash.' The Justice Department quoted him telling FBI agents: 'Yeah ... I kept the cash. That's what I'm doing.' He had allegedly told them that he didn't trust banks and meant to store his wealth on his own. The federal indictment does not explicitly say Hastert was being blackmailed or extorted, but does describe how investigators tried to determine whether he 'was the victim of a criminal extortion related to, among other matters, his prior positions in government.' In addition to leaving his lobbying job with Dickstein Shapiro, Hastert resigned Thursday from the board of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. 
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#1. To: cranky (#0)
He was part of the crew that sought to hang Clinton high for lying about a blowjob. As you measure out, so shall you be measured. Live by the sword, die by the sword.
#2. To: Vicomte13, cranky, All (#1)
Total BS. This was nothing more than a shot across the bow of anyone who continues to pursue the corrpution of the Clintons, especially their so-called charitable Foundation. Remember Hillary have the FBI records of just about everyone. The clear message is if you pursue this we will get our revenge AND we know what you did. They are pure scum, as are just about all of the Democrats that cover for each other.
Or at least that was the image he wanted the public to believe. Who knows what he was working on in the background and what deals he was cutting with the Dims in order to not be outed himself?
As you measure out, so shall you be measured. Live by the sword, die by the sword. I'm not defending Dennis Hastert in the least; He was a disgustingly corrupt reptile before he was a Congressman as well as during. BUT here's an important question: Was Hastert an unrepentant serial molester his *entire life*? This is material because we know that Bubba Klinton has been a serial rapist, molester, traitor, and sell-out of principle during *his* entire life. That said, What exactly do you find objectionable in this case? Is it that Hastert -- a molester of boys as a wrestling coach decades ago -- should be part of the "same crew" to "hang" Klinton for a mere "blow job"? (btw you DO realize that "perjury" was the main charge, among other un-addressed charges like serial RAPE, right?); OR, do you find the notion that justice applied by someone like Hastert should NOT be part of any prosecution? In *that* case, since we are ALL hypocrites, how DARE ANY of us "cast the first stone" and apply justice?? REMINDER: While Bubba Klinton was President of the United States of America *and* Commander-in-Chief, he molested of-age interns, used the People's House as a personal whore-house as he as he engaged in treason and racketeering. While Governor of Arkansas the same Bubba Klinton engaged in rape, blackmail, murder, and drug running. Let us note for the record that the two last Democratic Presidents thoroughly abused the office of Presidency and USCON. But I digress... Ergo, do you still want to compare the relative sins of Hastert and Bubba?? "Live and die by the word," eh? Technically, you've sinned today. You sinned yesterday. And tomorrow you will sin as well. By that criteria shouldn't that very same "sword" and hammer of justice be inevitable for all of us who can't help *but* sin? Your sense of political as well as moral equivalency and justice is disappointingly warped. Your sense of Redemption, Repentance and understanding of Grace are woefully inadequate. (And NO, your Priest and today's per-communion confessional session will NOT make you "clean." EVER. That my friend is a matter of GRACE, and only Grace.)
You're not going to defend Hastert and rail against the $10,000 reporting requirement?
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Replies to Comment # 1. As you measure out, so shall you be measured.
#18. To: Vicomte13 (#1)
He was part of the crew that sought to hang Clinton high for lying about a blowjob.
#37. To: Vicomte13 (#1)
He [Hastert] was part of the crew that sought to hang Clinton high for lying about a blowjob.
#43. To: Vicomte13 (#1)
End Trace Mode for Comment # 1.
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