Dennis Hastert Allegedly Duggared A Student While He Was A Teacher

Dennis Hastert came to power because of scandals. He rose from a junior GOP leadership position back in December 1998 after the Republicans ousted Speaker Newt Gingrich — himself riddled with scandals and affairs and adultery — and after Gingrich's presumed successor, Representative Bob Livingston, admitted to an extramarital affair and turned down the post. So the Republicans decided to go with Hastert, someone they believed had nothing to hide, except, well, not so much …

Last week Dennis Hastert, who in recent years has worked as a DC lobbyist, was indicted on charges of paying out $1.7 million over the last four years to cover up his alleged sexual abuse of a male minor while he was a teacher and a wrestling coach in Illinois decades ago. Hastert was also indicted on charges of lying to the FBI about the reasons for those large cash withdrawals he allegedly used to buy the man’s silence.

“It goes back a long way, back to then. It has nothing to do with public corruption or a corruption scandal. Or to his time in office. It was sex.” — FBI official

The indictment claims that while Dennis Hastert was working as a teacher and coach in Yorkville, Illinois from 1965 to 1981, he apparently has a sexual relationship with a male minor student at the student. And, in 2010, that student — identified as Individual A in the indictment — approached Hastert and then, over the course of the next four years, Hastert paid the man $1.7 million of an agreed upon payout of $3.5 million for Individual A’s silence.

Hastert made several cash payments beginning in 2010, withdrawing $50,000 at a time, but when the activity was questioned by banking officials, he reduced the withdrawals to under $10,000. But all those withdrawals, all in the same amounts, caught the eye of financial regulators, who suspected Hastert was either trying to evade federal reporting requirements, or that he might be the victim of criminal extortion arising from his government work. Then, when FBI agents asked him about the withdrawals. Hastert told them that he distrusted banks and that he still had the cash in his possession, which they later learned was not true.

So, the indictment came down, and Dennis Hastert immediately resigned from the board of directors at CME Group; he also resigned his position as co-leader of Dickstein Shapiro's Public Policy and Political Law practice. That same day, Illinois legislators put on hold a proposal to spend $500,000 to erect a statue in the state’s Capitol to honor Hastert, and the following day Dennis Hastert then resigned from the board of the J. Dennis Hastert Center for Economics, Government and Public Policy at his alma mater, Wheaton College.

Dennis Hastert has not responded to requests for comment.

Isn’t this the week for powerful Republicans and Christians to be caught with their pants down having inappropriate sexual relationships with minors? And while I don’t want to lump Dennis Hastert and Josh Duggar and all other Christians and Republicans in the same barrel — because not all Christians and Republicans are child molesters — I cannot help but wonder about all the people who preach about being one way, and then are discovered to be pedophiles, because, let’s face it, Individual A — who gets no points for extorting money from Hastert — was a minor when the alleged sexual conduct took place.

And I’m sure we’ll being hearing more about it as the week goes on ….

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photo via The Gateway Pundit