Tag: Dennis Hastert

Why Dennis Hastert’s conviction is an outrage

Guest Post by

Not only Republicans should be appalled by the 73-year-old’s treatment

Getty Images/ Scott Olson
Former Republican Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert arrives at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse on Oct. 28 in Chicago.

If you aren’t outraged by what just happened to “disgraced” former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, you’re not paying attention.

No, it doesn’t matter if you think he’s a raging hypocrite.

No, it doesn’t matter even if you think he’s a personal or political sleazebag.

And, no, it doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat or a liberal or an independent and you despise Hastert because he is a Republican.

None of that matters a damn. We do not have justice in this country only for our friends or our buddies or people we like on TV. Anyone who thinks justice is only for people who are on their “team” should be strapped to a parachute and thrown out of a plane over Afghanistan. You want to live in a tribal chaos? Knock yourself out.

Here in America we are supposed to live under a fair and just system of law, and by any reasonable count this entire case is an absolute disgrace.

Hastert admitted to the court that he knew what he did was ‘wrong.’ Bah. He only ‘broke the law’ because the law is an outrage.

Dennis Hastert, now age 73, faces possible jail time after pleading guilty this week to making a series of illegal bank withdrawals and evading federal financial regulations. He denied a second charge of lying to federal investigators about it.

His crime? Withdrawing $1.7 million of his own money from his own bank accounts.

His own money.

His own bank accounts.

Yeah.

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Famous politician gets caught in his own web

Famous politician gets caught in his own web

Guest Post by Mark Nestmann

Talk about a comeuppance. Former Speaker of the House of Representatives Dennis Hastert, who helped force through Congress stricter laws against anonymous cash transactions, now faces financial ruin – and an extended jail sentence – thanks to the very same laws.

Hastert withdrew at least $1.7 million in cash from bank accounts he controlled while trying to avoid having the transactions reported to the US Treasury. That apparently set off alarm bells with the anti-laundering software banks use to identify “suspicious transactions” in customer accounts.

Now, Hastert has been indicted for violations of the Bank Secrecy Act and lying to federal investigators about the purpose of the withdrawals. Each charge carries a penalty of as much as five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The government can also seize every dime in the bank accounts Hastert used illegally.

The first crime Hastert stands accused of committing is “structuring.” This is the act of making an effort to avoid reporting cash transactions by breaking up one transaction into a series of smaller amounts. Hastert was evidently trying to avoid having the banks he dealt with complete a “currency transaction report,” which they must file with the US Treasury for cash deposits or withdrawals larger than $10,000.

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