Ex-US House speaker faces more public disgrace
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FORMER House speaker Dennis Hastert, once among the US’s most esteemed political figures, faced more public disgrace after prosecutors revealed sordid details of alleged sex abuse while he was a high school teacher and wrestling coach.
Hastert allegedly molested boys as young as 14 and agreed to make secret payments totaling US$3.5 million to one victim. It is a precipitous fall from grace for a man once second in line to the presidency.
On Saturday, Hastert’s lawyer said the former house speaker acknowledged he had committed past “transgressions,” but declined to describe those acts.
The statement came a day after federal prosecutors detailed for the first time allegations by five former high school students of abuse that took place when Hastert taught and coached wrestling at Yorkville High School in Illinois from the 1960s to the early 1980s, before his congressional career.
Hastert’s abuse consisted of “intentional touching of minors’ groin area and genitals or oral sex with a minor,” according to prosecutors, who condemned Hastert’s “stunning hypocrisy.”
The statutes of limitations have long passed on the alleged abuse, so Hastert is only being charged with breaking financial laws.
The 74-year-old Republican lobbyist pleaded guilty in October to illegally structuring bank withdrawals over four and a half years that prosecutors identified as hush money.
He told government agents he was being extorted by someone falsely accusing him of abuse, but recorded conversations between him and the person identified as “Individual A” cast doubt over his claim.
In the end, Hastert was able to actually pay Individual A US$1.7 million — about half the agreed amount — between 2010 and 2014 in regular payments that only stopped when the government started investigating him.
At a sentencing hearing scheduled for April 27, prosecutors are expected to seek a six-month sentence for the Illinois lawmaker, taking note of his ill health as Hastert suffered a stroke after pleading guilty.
His lawyers asked for probation.
Hastert was speaker of the House of Representatives from 1999 to 2007.
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