Dennis Hastert, the longest-serving Republican Speaker of the House in USA history, was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison Wednesday for unlawfully structuring payouts in order to cover up the sexual abuses he perpetrated as a wrestling coach in IL decades ago.
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Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert departs the federal courthouse Wednesday, April 27, 2016, in Chicago, after his sentencing on federal banking charges which he pled guilty to a year ago.
Hastert pleaded guilty in 2015 to lying and violating banking law, but the 74-year-old can not be tried for sexual abuse because the statute of limitations passed years ago.
Scott Cross, a 53-year-old businessman who lives in the Chicago suburbs, was on the Yorkville High School wrestling team that Hastert coached in the 1970s. The statute of limitations has expired on those cases, but prosecutors charged him previous year with paying money to one of the victims to cover up his misconduct. Durkin then pressed for details, asking directly if Hastert sexually abused the victims.
Cross, the first victim to ever speak publicly about the abuse, choked up as he described how Hastert molested him in the wrestling locker room in 1972.
2007: Hastert steps down as speaker after becoming longest-serving Republican in the position.
But after prosecutors lifted a veil of secrecy from the case, the judge made comments suggesting he might impose a longer sentence, potentially putting Hastert behind bars for years, because of the abuse allegations. “They looked to me and I took advantage of them”. “I trusted him”, he said.
1986: Hastert is nominated to replace a Republican congressman who is battling cancer, and wins a close election.
Jolene Burdge said Hastert abused her brother, Stephen Reinboldt, throughout his years at Yorkville High School. He allegedly says he’s taking the cash home because he doesn’t trust banks.
When Durkin read the sentence, Hastert sat unmoving in his wheelchair, hands folded on his lap, shoulders hunched and his face drawn.
Admonishing Hastert from the stand, she said, “You were supposed to keep him safe, not violate him”, and she continued, “You took his innocence and turned it against him”, turning him toward a life of high-risk behavior that eventually killed him.
Apparently, the Republican had been contacted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2015 as to why he had been withdrawing large amounts of money when he claimed he was being blackmailed by a person only identified as “Individual A”. This is what set in motion the hush-money deal that unraveled, leading to Hastert’s guilty plea on a charge of evading bank currency reporting requirements.
“I don’t know anything about the people who have come forward”, former Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) told BuzzFeed in an interview. It means that for years Dennis Hastert worked with and politically supported the brother of one of his victims.
“He doesn’t deserve what he’s going through”, Delay wrote of Hastert, a confirmed child molester.
APRIL 25: “Individual A” sues Hastert for breach of contract, saying he’s owed more than half of the $3.5 million promised.
He also said he “mistreated athletes”. Despite his evidence Hastert said he did not remember Cross, but admitted that he abused others. The sister of one victim says today was a victory and that Hastert will finally brought to justice. “I was wrong and I accept that”.
Hastert’s lawyers pleaded with the judge to consider his years of public service when sentencing.
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Below, a timeline of Hastert’s career and court case.
