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Prosecutors: Hastert sought to hide sex abuse of 14-year-old Prosecutors offer details on Dennis Hastert’s alleged sexual abuse of teenagers
(about 1 hour later)
CHICAGO — Dennis Hastert agreed to pay $3.5 million to a person the former House speaker sexually abused when the victim was 14 years old and Hastert was working as a high-school teacher and wrestling coach outside Chicago, prosecutors said in a court filing Friday that gave accounts of four alleged sex-abuse victims. Federal prosecutors on Friday laid bare some of the lurid allegations of sexual misconduct against former U.S. House speaker Dennis Hastert and asked a federal judge to subject the Illinois Republican to a sex offender evaluation.
The filing is the first time prosecutors have confirmed Hastert paid hush-money to conceal sex abuse of a 14-year-old, identified in court documents as “Individual A.” The filing recommends that a federal judge sentence Hastert to up to six months in prison. The sex abuse allegations outlined in the filing occurred when Hastert was working at Yorkville High School in the small-town suburb of Yorkville from 1965 to 1981, before he went into politics. In a memo in advance of an April 27 sentencing hearing, prosecutors spelled out in graphic detail how Hastert sexually molested or inappropriately touched five teenagers who trusted him as their wrestling coach. And as Hastert rose to power, believing his wrongdoing would never be made public, his victims struggled with the effects of his abuse, prosecutors wrote.
“While defendant achieved great success, reaping all the benefits that went with it, these boys struggled, and all are still struggling now with what defendant did to them. Some have managed better than others, but all of them carry the scars defendant inflicted upon them,” the filing says. “He made them feel alone, ashamed, guilty and devoid of dignity,” prosecutors wrote. “While defendant achieved great success, reaping all the benefits that went with it, these boys struggled, and all are still struggling now with what defendant did to them.”
The 74-year-old Republican managed to keep any hint of sexual misconduct quiet throughout a political career that carried him from the Illinois Legislature to the halls of Congress and eventually to the speaker’s office, where he was second in the line of succession to the presidency. Hastert, 74, pleaded guilty last year to violating federal banking laws, admitting in a deal with prosecutors that he withdrew money from banks in increments low enough to avoid mandatory reporting requirements. That charge, though, always belied the case’s actual underpinnings.
Hastert pleaded guilty in October to breaking banking laws as he sought to pay Individual A to ensure the person kept quiet about Hastert’s past misconduct. Hastert is scheduled to be sentenced April 27. [Dennis Hastert pleads guilty in hush money case]
Individual A is one of at least four people cited in Friday’s filing as saying that Hastert sexually abused them as children. Three were wrestlers on a team Hastert coached and the fourth was a student-manager. Another wrestler said Hastert touched his genitals while he was on a locker room massage table, but he wasn’t sure if it was intentional. A federal law enforcement official has said Hastert withdrew the money so he could pay off someone he sexually molested decades ago. And after the first victim emerged, more people came forward alleging that they or their relatives were also victimized by the Yorkville, Ill., high school teacher and coach.
According to the document, Individual A told prosecutors the abuse occurred in a motel room on the way home from a trip to wrestling camp. Between 10 and 14 boys were on the trip. Hastert, the only adult on the trip, told the 14-year-old that he would stay in his room while the other boys stayed in a different room. Individual A said Hastert touched him inappropriately after suggesting he would massage a groin injury the boy had complained about earlier. Prosecutors detailed remarkably similar stories from each of the now-grown men.
The other former wrestlers told prosecutors Hastert touched them in the locker room at Yorkville High, after saying he would give them massages. Two of those wrestlers, who were ages 14 and 17, say Hastert performed sex acts on them. One — who said he was a 14-year-old freshman when the abuse occurred — alleged Hastert told him to get on a table so he could “loosen him up,” then massaged and performed a sex act on him. Another — who said he was 17 years old when the abuse occurred — alleged Hastert offered him a massage to help him cut weight, then performed a sex act on him. That victim said Hastert kept a chair in direct view of the locker room shower stalls.
Hastert’s “history and characteristics are marred by stunning hypocrisy,” prosecutors wrote. He made his victims “feel alone, ashamed, guilty and devoid of dignity.” A third man said Hastert brushed the man’s genitals after a wrestling practice, and it was “very weird” though he was not sure if it was done intentionally. The man whom Hastert paid off alleged that Hastert touched him inappropriately in a motel room on a trip. And the fifth victim, prosecutors said, is deceased, though his sister has alleged publicly her brother confided in her that his first same-sex experience was with Hastert.
The filing added: “It is profoundly sad that one of their earliest sexual experiences was in the form of abuse by a man whom they trusted and whom they revered as a mentor and coach.” Prosecutors urged a judge to consider all that abuse, even though Hastert’s financial dealings — withdrawing money in increments of less that $10,000 to avoid reporting requirements — ultimately formed the basis of the charge against him.
A defense filing Wednesday asked the presiding judge to give Hastert probation and spare him prison time. It cited Hastert’s deteriorating health, as well as the public shame he’s already suffered. “The federal and state statutes of limitations have long expired on potential charges relating to defendant’s known sexual acts against Individual A and other minors,” prosecutors wrote. “With this case, the government seeks to hold defendant accountable for the crimes he committed that can still be prosecuted: defendant’s structuring of cash withdrawals and his lies to the government about that activity.”
The case has been shrouded in secrecy since the May 2015 indictment. Prosecutors only confirmed at a March hearing that sex-abuse claims were at its core. [Another man alleges he was abused by Dennis Hastert]
Hastert made 15 withdrawals of $50,000 — for a total of $750,000 — from 2010 to 2012. It’s what he did next that made his actions a crime. After learning withdrawals over $10,000 are flagged, he withdrew cash in smaller increments, taking out $952,000 from 2012 to 2014. Prosecutors and defense attorneys had already agreed that federal sentencing guidelines in the case called for a prison term between zero and six months, and prosecutors recommended a term inside that range Friday, coupled with a sex offender assessment. A federal judge is not bound by that recommendation and could sentence Hastert to a term up to five years in prison.
Court records say Hastert managed to pay $1.7 million to Individual A — handing it over in lump sums of $100,000 cash — starting in 2010. The payments abruptly stopped late in 2014 after FBI agents questioned Hastert about his massive cash withdrawals. Hastert’s defense attorneys earlier this week urged a term of mere probation, arguing that Hastert was in poor health and already thoroughly shamed and remorseful over his wrongdoing.
Hastert left Yorkville High for the state Legislature in 1981. He entered Congress in 1987. His reputation for congeniality helped him ascend to become the longest-serving Republican speaker. He retired in 2007 after running the chamber for eight years. “He knows that, for the rest of his life, wherever he goes, the public warmth and affection that he previously received will be replaced by hostility and isolation,” Hastert’s attorneys wrote.
Wednesday’s defense filing said Hastert is devastated by his public disgrace and was especially hurt by the removal of his portrait from the U.S. Capitol. It added he was apologetic and “overwhelmed” by guilt. But it offers no detail on what he feels guilty about. In their memo, prosecutors also spelled out for the first time how investigators came to learn of the abuse.
Days after pleading guilty on Oct. 28, Hastert entered the hospital and nearly died from a blood infection, his lawyers have said. They’ve also said he had a stroke and required in-home care to help him dress and complete other basic tasks. In 2012, prosecutors wrote, a bank official noticed the former House speaker had made seven, $50,000 cash withdrawals over a two-year stretch, and bank officials soon contacted Hastert to ask for more information. Hastert, prosecutors said, began making smaller withdrawals that would not trigger mandatory reporting requirements — a federal crime that drew the attention of FBI and IRS agents. They wondered at first whether Hastert might be the victim of extortion, prosecutors wrote.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. When FBI agents interviewed Hastert at his Plano, Ill., home in December 2014, Hastert justified his withdrawals by saying the bank gave him a “a real hassle” about taking out $50,000 at a time, prosecutors wrote. Some time later, though, his attorney reached out to say Hastert was being extorted by a former Yorkville High School student and wrestler who alleged Hastert inappropriately touched him during a wrestling trip.
By prosecutors’ account, the FBI tried to guide Hastert on recorded calls with that person, but Hastert did not always follow their instructions. And the man on the other end of the line, prosecutors wrote, did not strike FBI agents as an extortionist. When agents interviewed him in 2015, he told them Hastert had abused him on a wrestling trip as a child, and after he confronted Hastert many years later, the two worked out a financial arrangement so he would keep quiet. Hastert ultimately paid him $1.7 million.
Read more:
Citing health issues, Dennis Hastert’s lawyers ask to delay sentencing
Attorneys for former House speaker Dennis Hastert seek probation for their client
Jaw-dropping Dennis Hastert indictment stirs deeper mystery