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Chicago, Illinois: Former U.S. speaker pleas guilty in hush-money case
The judge said he could possibly sentence him to up to five years along with fine when he’s sentenced in February, although national prosecutors urged a sentence of zero to half a year in prison for Hastert.
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Hastert was charged with lying to FBI investigators about his payment plan for “Individual A” and structuring bank transactions under $10,000 to avoid triggering federal reporting requirements.
All that has been acknowledged officially is that Hastert agreed sometime around 2010 to make $3.5 million in regularly scheduled payments to keep secret “past misconduct” involving an individual the former speaker has known for most of his life. The retrial is set to begin Wednesday in U.S. District Court in downtown Chicago. Further, when confronted by FBI investigators, Hastert lied about his motivation for the withdrawals.
Since the plea deal offers a range of punishment, the sentencing hearing could include arguments from prosecutors on why Hastert should spend a few time behind bars and from the defense about why he should be spared prison.
A separate charge of lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation was dismissed in the case.
Wednesday’s plea deal effectively sealed the fall from grace from a little-known politician in rural Illinois.
In the statement, Hastert mentioned how he initially withdrew cash deposits in the amount of $50,000.
“Now that Mr. Hastert has pled guilty, and the Court has accepted his guilty plea, the case will proceed to sentencing”.
According to the Associated Press, Hastert did not divulge any new details as to why he paid $3.5 million to an unidentified person during the brief hearing.
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The sentencing range is below what a few legal experts had predicted. They thought prosecutors would press for six months to two years in prison. He also parlayed his connections into a lucrative lobbying career after leaving Congress in 2007. These criminal miscreants usually confine their felonies to actions that feather their own nests, something Hastert clearly was not doing. That career is almost certainly over. After learning withdrawals over $10,000 are flagged, he supposedly began taking out smaller increments, eventually withdrawing $952,000 from 2012 to 2014. His influence and power will be gone”, said Dick Simpson, a co-author of “Corrupt Illinois: “Patronage, Cronyism, and Criminality”.