[minnesota_bound]

Former speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.
How is the current speaker Boehner feeling now?
How many bribes has he taken?

[Wyrd bið ful aræd]

"beginning in approximately July 2012 he started structuring those withdrawals in increments of less than $10,000 to evade currency transaction requirements that withdrawals of $10,000 or more be reported."

I fail to understand why the government has any compelling interest to monitor how people choose to store and retrieve their own money.

[GreyFriar]

This is all about the law the government created that controls how much of your own money you can take out of the bank at any one time. The only “crime” here is that you want your money in cash and don’t want to leave it in the bank where the government can confiscate it.

[grania]

This does lend credence to our suspicions that DC pols are being bribed.

[Ken H]

That would have to be over 350 withdrawals in 3 years.

[HomerBohn]

Hastert, Michel, Boehner.

‘Birds’ of a feather.

Worthless.

[SkyPilot]

Sharpton owes the IRS over $3.5 Million back taxes.

Holder and Obama have turned the "Justice" Dept into the Gestapo.

[tcrlaf]

Hastert was being extorted, he was paying off the extortion, and gets indicted for lying to the FBI about it??

HELLO!!
McFLY!!!
How many Democrats should be IN PRISON for this very same thing, trading influence via extortion?

[stockpirate]

Indicted by a Chicago grand jury, I wonder how many black democrats were on that grand jury?

I know the answer, 12

[Parley Baer]

Chump change compared to the Clintons.

[9thLife]

For every dollar Hastert allegedly or actually "structured", I contend Hillary and Co. "structured" a hundred.

Who's investigating?

[Karl Spooner]

Why keep your money in a bank that tattle tails on what you do? They don't give you anything for it anyways.

[deweyfrank]

All the crooks should pay the price, regardless of their political affiliation. They all appear to be stealing from us. I’m tired of it.

[grey_whiskers]

Blackmailed for what?

Can’t be a dead girl — outraged fatehers seek revenge, not blackmail.

...so the alternative is what? A live boy??

[semaj]

What is Hastert's political party affiliation? One would never know from reading the NPR article.

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

I think the cash rules are unfair, but not that big of a deal to obey for the customer. They are a royal pain for banks.

If he did something else illegal that is another matter. And ok he should not structure his cash transactions to avoid reporting. That is pretty stupid. Still it is a dumb rule.

[untwist]

Interesting how this major indictment comes down on a Republican who’s been out of politics and out of the public eye for nearly a decade, all for withdrawing his money. Maybe it was bribes, but if so, why not charge him with that?

Meanwhile, Obama has a certain go-to riot-making jive-ass who owes the IRS over $4.5 million, and is a frequent guest in the White House. No justice investigation there. There is a major IRS abuse of Tea Party citizens, no justice indictments there. IRS hacking scandal, no justice investigation there. Major meltdowns of American cities with wild-assed out of control prosecutor in Baltimore, no investigation there.

Too busy doing double-jeopardy on a Cleveland cop who’s been acquitted or Darren Wilson in Ferguson after the local Grand Jury refused to indict. Too busy chasing a bunch of foreign FIFA soccer guys that 99.9% of the American people couldn’t give a crap about. We are melting, folks.

[Timber Rattler]

The indictment charges that Hastert began withdrawing money from various bank accounts, and that beginning in approximately July 2012 he started structuring those withdrawals in increments of less than $10,000 to evade currency transaction requirements that withdrawals of $10,000 or more be reported.

These anti-structuring laws/regulations are just wrong. Sounds like he was being blackmailed.

[Crystal Palace East]

The 3.5 mil $ was a payoff for a pre-first House, election”act”. He was a high school football and wrestling coach. Joe Paterno - type deal?

[Major Matt Mason]

Not a big fan of Hastert, but this is probably as much of a nothingburger as the Delay and Stevens indictments, which ended up essentially being thrown out. It is all about trying to paint the GOP as corrupt to use as a talking point in the next election cycle.