Friday, May 29, 2015
Associated Press
CHICAGO
Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert agreed to pay $3.5 million in hush money to keep an unidentified person silent about “prior misconduct” by the Illinois Republican who was once second in line to the U.S. presidency, according to a federal grand jury indictment handed down Thursday in Chicago.
The indictment, which does not describe the misconduct Hastert was purportedly trying to conceal, charges the 73-year-old with one count of evading bank regulations as he withdrew tens of thousands of dollars at a time to make the payments. He is also charged with one count of lying to the FBI about the reason for the unusual bank withdrawals.
Each count of the indictment carries a maximum penalty of 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The Associated Press left a phone message seeking comment with a person at Hastert’s Washington, D.C., office. It was not immediately returned. Hastert did not immediately return a message left on his cellphone seeking comment, or respond to an email.
Hastert withdrew a total of around $1.7 million in cash from various bank accounts from 2010 to 2014, and then provided it to the person identified in the indictment only as Individual A. Hastert purportedly agreed to pay the person $3.5 million, but never apparently paid that full amount.