|
 The Times quoted one official as saying investigators also have
spoken with a second person who made similar allegations that
corroborated what the first student had said about Hastert, who was
indicted on Thursday on federal criminal charges.
The second person was not being paid by Hastert, the official said,
according to the Times.
Hastert could not be reached for comment.
Announcing the charges on Thursday, prosecutors said they related to
Hastert's alleged effort to hide $3.5 million in payments he was
making to a person to conceal past misconduct but did not detail the
nature of the misconduct.
Asked why Hastert, an Illinois Republican who become his party's
longest-serving House speaker before leaving Congress in 2007, was
making the payments, the official cited by the Los Angeles Times
told the paper it was intended to conceal Hastert's past
relationship with the male.
"It was sex," said the official, who spoke on condition of
anonymity.
 An official quoted by the Los Angeles Times said the abuse took
place during Hastert's time as a high school teacher in Yorkville,
Illinois, which ran from 1965 to 1981 before he became a lawmaker.
In addition, the New York Times reported that the man told the FBI
he was inappropriately touched by Hastert during Hastert's time as a
high school teacher and coach.
Hastert, 73, was charged with structuring the withdrawal of $952,000
in cash to evade the requirement that banks report cash transactions
over $10,000, and lying to the FBI about his withdrawals.
Each count of the two-count indictment carries a maximum penalty of
five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Before his terms in Congress, Hastert served three terms as an
Illinois state representative and was a teacher at Yorkville High
School about 45 miles (70 km) southwest of Chicago for 16 years.
The Yorkville school district that had employed Hastert said in a
statement on Friday it "has no knowledge of Mr. Hastert’s alleged
misconduct, nor has any individual contacted the District to report
any such misconduct."
The district said it was first made aware of any concerns regarding
the former congressman when the indictment was released.
Former congressional colleagues expressed dismay.
John Boehner, the current Republican House speaker, said, "The Denny
I served with worked hard on behalf of his constituents and the
country. I'm shocked and saddened to learn of these reports."
U.S. Senator Mark Kirk, an Illinois Republican, called the
indictment "a very troubling development that we must learn more
about."
Judge Thomas Durkin has been assigned to the case but has not yet
set a date for Hastert's first appearance. The former congressman
has not been arrested and is not considered a flight risk, a
spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago said.
[to top of second column] |
Kelly Griffith, general counsel for the Illinois Coalition Against
Sexual Assault, said that if any sex crimes were committed, it was
unlikely a person could face charges for such crimes in Illinois
from 1965 to 1981 because they would likely be viewed as expired
offenses under a statute of limitations.
The indictment alleges Hastert agreed sometime in 2010 to pay the
person $3.5 million in compensation to conceal the misconduct,
withdrawing more than $1.7 million from various domestic bank
accounts from 2010 to 2014.
He made 15 withdrawals of $50,000 each from June 2010 until April
2012 when bank representatives, who are required to report cash
transactions of over $10,000, asked him about the withdrawals, the
indictment said.
Hastert then began to make cash withdrawals in increments under
$10,000 each, totaling $952,000, starting in July 2012, the
indictment said.
The FBI and the Internal Revenue Service began investigating the
withdrawals in 2013 and the indictment alleges Hastert lied to FBI
agents when they interviewed him about them in December.
Hastert has resigned from the board of advisers to the J. Dennis
Hastert Center for Economics, Government and Public Policy at his
alma mater Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, the school said on
Friday.
Hastert stepped down from the board of directors of ethanol producer
REX American Resources Corp on Friday, according to a regulatory
filing.
On Thursday, he resigned from the Washington lobbying firm Dickstein
Shapiro, which he joined in 2008, and resigned as a board member of
the exchange operator CME Group Inc.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest, during his daily briefing,
declined to comment specifically on the allegations against Hastert
but said, "There's nobody here who derives any pleasure from reading
about the former speaker's legal troubles at this point."
(Reporting by Will Dunham and Tom Polansek; Additional reporting by
Roberta Rampton; Writing by David Bailey; Editing by Frances Kerry
and Ken Wills)
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