An arraignment has been scheduled on Thursday for former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert in a Chicago courthouse where he’s to answer to charges related to claims he agreed to pay another person $3.5 million to cover up “prior bad acts.”
U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin is set to preside at the hearing at 10 a.m., according to a report Monday from the Chicago Tribune.
WND reported earlier when Hastert was indicted on accusations he “structured” cash withdrawals from his bank to conceal the movement from federal officials, and then lied about the cash when the FBI asked him.
The indictment was handed down in the District Court for Northern Illinois and came after the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service assembled their claims against Hastert, 73.
Hastert is scheduled to enter a plea to the charges Thursday, and the Tribune reported he “likely” will be released on his own recognizance.
The structuring and lying counts carry maximum penalties of five years behind bars and a $250,000 fine, each.
The Tribune reported that the charges stemmed from his payments to “Individual A,” who was from Yorkville, “where Hastert worked as a high school teacher and wrestling coach from 1965 to 1981.”
The report said, “Several law enforcement sources have said that Hastert was paying off a man to conceal sexual abuse from the time Hastert taught and coached at Yorkville.”
Prosecutors allege the withdrawals of less than $10,000 had had totaled $952,000.
Reuters reported that Hastert has not made a public statement since the indictment was released and court records do not yet list an attorney representing him.
Hastert, a Republican, left Congress in 2007. He served three terms as a state representative in Illinois before going to Washington.
Wheaton College, where Hastert attended, already has decided to remove Hastert’s name from a public policy center on campus, officials said.
The Washington Post cited the “mystery” that surrounded the case.
Its report said the abuse allegations were not the focal point, since the actions allegedly happened so long ago, but authorities were trying to determine if there were other victims.
It also noted Hastert not only has not made a statement, he has not been seen since the legal charging documents appeared.
And the Post reported, “That individual’s identity remains perhaps the biggest mystery yet.”
“A half-dozen of Hastert’s wrestlers, fellow teachers and other Yorkville contemporaries interviewed in recent days all said they never heard even the barest suggestion of wrongdoing,” the Post said.
from PropagandaGuard https://propagandaguard.wordpress.com/2015/06/02/former-speaker-of-the-house-to-be-arraigned-thursday/
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