Plea deals are often based on the discretionary powers of the presiding judge, but it is expected when Dennis Hastert will plead guilty, he is more than likely try to seek avoiding jail time.
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With the announcement of the plea agreement, Hastert, 73, may be able to keep embarrassing details about his past out of the public eye, but it could mean serving time in prison.
Since the details of the plea deal were not announced in court on Thursday, it’s unclear specifically what he will plead to. The money was supposedly to hide claims of unspecified past misconduct. In exchange, Hastert’s attorneys could have negotiated for the plea agreement to leave out the details behind his payments to Individual A, he said. Each count is punishable by up to five years behind bars. That suggests the charges are linked to that history without saying exactly how. The payments are not related to Hastert’s years in Congress but instead to his years as a high school wrestling coach from 1965 to 1981. “There may be nothing in the plea agreement about why he did it. We may never know”. “He was a great father, a great husband and a great friend, and nobody in their wildest dreams could ever think this could have happened”.
After Hastert was indicted, a Montana woman, Jolene Burdge, came forward with claims that Hastert had molested her brother, Steve Reinbolt, a Yorkville grad who died in 1995 of AIDS complications. It triggered a search for Hastert’s alleged hush-money recipient, but that hunt has so far been unsuccessful. That caught the attention of the banks, and after he was questioned by bank representatives, he began withdrawing cash in increments of less than $10,000, allegedly to avoid further scrutiny.
Hastert then told the Federal Bureau of Investigation he was keeping the cash for himself, which the indictment said was a false statement. “That’s what I’m doing”.
Attorneys for the Illinois Republican appeared in federal court in Chicago this morning before Judge Thomas M. Durkin. Hastert defeats Democratic opponent with 52 percent of vote – the closest of his many elections.
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If the case were to proceed to trial, Hastert’s attorneys have said they plan to file a lengthy motion to dismiss the indictment. “And he just turned around and kind of looked at me and said, ‘Who is ever going to believe me?'”
