October 15, 2015

Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert Pleads Guilty in Hush-Money Case (Updated)

He may face six months in prison.

Former US House Speaker Dennis Hastert arrives at a federal courthouse in Chicago for his arraignment.AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Update, 10/28/15: Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) pleaded guilty today in a Chicago federal court to a felony charge for violating federal banking laws designed to combat money laundering. As part of the plea agreement, another charge for lying to the FBI about his cash withdrawals will be dropped. The judge could sentence the former legislator to five years in prison, but news reports indicate that he’s more likely to face up to six months incarceration or probation. He will be sentenced on February 29.

Lawyers for former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) told a federal judge on Thursday that Hastert would be pleading guilty to federal charges related to the payment of hush money to cover up alleged sexual misconduct during his days as a gym teacher and wrestling coach at Yorkville High School in Illinois.

A federal grand jury indicted Hastert in May for allegedly lying to the FBI after investigators questioned him about $1.7 million in cash withdrawals he made that violated federal reporting requirements that guard against money laundering. The indictment alleged that Hastert was using the cash to secretly pay off “Individual A,” a man believed to be a former student at Yorkville during the time Hastert taught there, between 1965 and 1981. According to the indictment, at one point last year, Hastert was delivering as much as $100,000 a month to the individual in question, and he’d promised to deliver $3.5 million in total to prevent the man from publicly disclosing Hastert’s past alleged sexual misconduct. The scheme described in the indictment is perhaps one of the most unsophisticated Washington cover-ups in recent memory. When the FBI asked Hastert about the cash withdrawals, he claimed he just didn’t trust the American banking system—a strange excuse for a former member of Congress turned Washington lobbyist.

Politico reports that the plea deal will likely involve at least a year in prison for Hastert for violating federal banking laws. But the plea deal will likely keep any alleged sexual misconduct hushed up by sparing Hastert a trial, in which the details of his alleged abuse of a high school student may have received a full public airing. Since his indictment, reports have surfaced suggesting Hastert may have sexually abused at least two other boys from his high school. A plea deal may also put an end to any further inquiries by law enforcement into his past.

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate