Former House Speaker Hastert Indicted In Probe Into $3.5M In Withdrawals

NPR ^

[navysealdad]

Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury in Chicago. The Illinois Republican, 73, is charged with trying to evade cash withdrawal requirements, and with lying to the FBI about it.

[kiryandil]

if DC is ever going to be cleaned up, dirty politicians have to be ruthlessly exposed, and all of the compromised have to be chucked.

Ain't going to happen. Hillary Clinton committed MANY MULTIPLE felonies (obstruction of justice), and they're NEVER going to charge her. Lois Lerner committed MANY MULTIPLE felonies by supplying confidential tax information to persons & agencies who were not allowed to receive it (I worked for the Department of Commerce in the last Census, as a supervisor. We had to train our people about such felonies. Lerner knew, being a VERY higher-up.).

Hastert gets arrested for withdrawing his own money, except for The King didn't like the way he did it.

Sorry, if the gruberment is not going to prosecute Clinton or Lerner, I'm not going to listen to the gruberment's "explanations" of why it's OK to prosecute Hastert.

As far as I'm concerned, the gruberment is just government by gunthug, and bullyboy.

[apoliticalone]

Of course it isn’t, but if it was up to me - any politician, cop, judge or DA or any other sworn public official would see many years breaking big rocks into little rocks if ever convicted of a crime while in office, or while employed in the public interest.

I would have zero tolerance for them as their unethical actions can undermine everything that is important as well as confidence in our government. Their politics should mean nothing.

[manc]

When the hell is Clinton going to be indicted?

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

Me neither. But I understand why some people want to.

[LibFreeUSA]

He should've.......

1. set up a 'Charity' corporation

2. given some 'speeches' (get paid)

3. hired his 'payback guy' as 'charity consultant'

.... and then it's all..... LEGAL!!!!!!

[kiryandil]

Let the politicians be hoisted on their own petard.

It is kind of amusing that Hastert apparently thought that he was still one of The Masters.

Any wary peasant learned many things from Martha Stewart.

[combat_boots]

I think of the IRS intrusion into small businesses-largely White owned-and KEEPING HALF the money they illegally seize, even if ordered to return it.

We have NAZIs at the helm.

[kiryandil]

I read the indictment. The blandness leads you to believe it’s “a live boy”.

[kiryandil]

I think of the IRS intrusion into small businesses-largely White owned-and KEEPING HALF the money they illegally seize, even if ordered to return it.

This needs to repeated as often as possible.

Not only that, if you confront them about it, they're non-responsive - if they don't flat-out threaten you.

[tcrlaf]

Well in this case it appears the law helped uncover a crime. Hastert was paying $3.5 million to someone as hush money.

From Twitter:
5 minutes ago
LA Times Justice Reporter is saying Hastert paid the money to a former wrestling student, so...it’s pretty clear where this is going

[tcrlaf]

As expected, MSNBC’s Dom Dyke is making a HUGE deal about this, as is CNN.

You’ll note however, that they can’t be bothered by looking into things like Clinton Corruption.

[TribalPrincess2U]

I saw it after I posted. I thought your post was funny.

[SamAdams76]

It always amused me how people would think that they were safe so long as they stayed under the $10,000 threshold at which the bank needed to report the transaction to the government.

Bank tellers can actually be prosecuted and held criminally liable for not also reporting transactions under $10,000. This is called the SAR (Suspicious activity report) and yes, even if you withdraw multiple sizable transactions under the $10,000 limit, you will still be reported with the SAR and can be prosecuted for "structuring" and "evasion" - as well as the bank employee, if he/she does not submit the SAR in a timely manner.

[SeaHawkFan]

Maybe Hastert was paying back the guy he sold the property to for the highway that never got built.

Hastert was dirty. Boehner is caving to Obama because Obama has just as much, or more, dirt on Boehner.

[Intolerant in NJ]

Yet not a word about the IRS or the Clinton Foundation....

[topfile]

"The indictment charges that Hastert began withdrawing money from various bank accounts"

WHHHATTT???? I don't think that's what the law was about.These laws are being abused.

[Triple]

The amounts and frequency can trigger a report requirement by he financial institutions to the fedgov.

They may ask you something about the transaction at the time when it is above 10 k. Imo - better to take a few transactions above 10k than trying to hide from the report.

If you said wedding expenses and Vegas trip, at the time of withdrawal. That would probably be the end of it. I am pretty sure there is no law against lying to the bank manager, but not certain.

Trying to avoid that report to the fedgov, much more suspicious.

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

and blackmailed.

[Moonman62]

Maybe they watched gladiator movies together.

[Ken H]

I think it's an unconstitutional law that never should have seen the light of day. However, I have zero sympathy for Hastert, who was four square behind the drug war. How many people went to jail or suffered financial ruin under this law while he was Speaker?

Hoist on his own petard, he was.