Ex-Speaker Hastert ordered to surrender to federal authorities June 22
Disgraced former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert must surrender to federal authorities by 2 p.m. June 22 to begin serving his 15-month sentence for violating the very banking laws he helped shepherd through Congress following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Hastert pleaded guilty in October to structuring cash withdrawals in a hush-money payout to a former student who said he was sexually abused by Hastert. During his sentencing hearing last month, Hastert, 74, acknowledged sexually abusing teens during his tenure at Yorkville High School where he taught and coached wrestling from 1965 to 1981.
Calling the former congressman a “serial child molester,” U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Durkin ordered Hastert serve his sentence at a federal facility, possibly in Rochester, Minnesota, where he will receive treatment for diabetes and a stroke he suffered late last year.
Federal Bureau of Prisons representatives would not disclose where Hastert will serve his sentence.
Prosecutors established that Hastert agreed to pay a total of $3.5 million in hush money to a former student dubbed “Individual A” — known in a separate civil proceeding against Hastert as James Doe — to keep the former student from revealing the sexual abuse. Hastert has not been charged with sexual abuse because the statute of limitations ran out long ago.
Between June 2010 and December 2014, Hastert paid the man $1.7 million. From 2010 to 2012, Hastert made 15 withdrawals of $50,000. After bank officials informed him they had to report withdrawals of more than $10,000 as required by the Patriot Act, Hastert began withdrawing cash in smaller increments to avoid those reporting requirements.
When asked by federal authorities about the withdrawals, Hastert lied, claiming Individual A was blackmailing him.
Last month, attorneys for Individual A filed a lawsuit under the fictitious name James Doe against Hastert in Kendall County seeking the remaining $1.8 million Hastert originally agreed to pay. That case is pending.
Court documents show Hastert has paid the $250,000 fine which Durkin ordered applied to a national crime victims' fund.