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Ex-speaker Dennis Hastert to plead guilty in hush money case

Aamer Madhani
USA TODAY

CHICAGO — Former House speaker Dennis Hastert intends to plead guilty to criminal charges as part of an agreement to resolve a case in which he is accused of lying to the FBI about making illegally structured bank transactions to pay hush money to someone he wronged years ago, prosecutors and his attorneys said in court Thursday.

Former House speaker Dennis Hastert departs the federal courthouse in June in Chicago after his arraignment on federal charges that he broke federal banking laws and lied about money when questioned by the FBI.

With the announcement of the plea agreement, Hastert, 73, may be able to keep further embarrassing details about his past out of the public eye, but it could mean serving time in prison.

Lawyers confirmed Thursday in court that Hastert will plead guilty on Oct 28.

Joseph Fitzpatrick, a spokesman for the office of the U.S Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, said  "principles of an agreement" have been reached, but did not reveal which charges Hastert would admit to or whether the agreement includes prison time for the former speaker. Attorneys are scheduled to deliver a draft of the plea agreement to Judge Thomas Durkin by Monday.

Hastert, the longest-serving GOP speaker in history, was indicted in May on charges that he lied to the FBI and made hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegally structured bank payments as part of a plan to pay hush money for unspecified past misconduct to someone only identified as "Individual A".  Prosecutors say he agreed to make a total of $3.5 million in payments before he was indicted.

Hastert, who served 20 years in Congress that included nearly eight years as speaker of the House, taught and coached at Yorkville High School from 1965 to 1981.

Official: Hastert paid hush money to hide sexual misconduct

While the indictment doesn't detail the wrongdoing against the unnamed individual, law enforcement officials previously told USA TODAY that the former lawmaker made the payments to conceal sexual misconduct committed against a male student decades earlier when he worked at Yorkville High in what was then a semi-rural community west of Chicago. The officials, who were not authorized discuss the sensitive matter publicly, spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Since the indictment was unsealed, Hastert’s lead defense attorney, Thomas Green, twice complained to the judge that leaks to the media about the nature of his alleged misconduct have put an unfair burden on his client. Green called the allegations against Hastert the “800-pound gorilla” in the case and accused the government of making “unconscionable leaks.”

Steven Block, the assistant U.S. attorney who is the lead prosecutor in the case, denied in court that his office was behind the leaks.

Former House speaker Hastert pleads not guilty

Hastert attorney: Sex misconduct leaks are '800 pound gorilla' in case

The Republican from Illinois was charged with circumventing a federal filing requirement that requires banks to report withdrawals of more than $10,000. He withdrew a total of $952,000 in increments under the threshold that were then paid to the individual. Federal law requires banks to file what are known as “currency transaction reports” on withdrawals exceeding the threshold. The reporting requirement is meant to prevent or flag money laundering and other financial crimes.

Hastert, who has appeared in court only once since the court unsealed the indictment more than four months ago, did not appear at Thursday's hearing. He has yet to publicly address either the structuring charges or sexual misconduct allegations.

When queried about suspect withdrawals by the FBI in December 2014, Hastert allegedly lied and said he was keeping the cash, according to the indictment. Agents asked Hastert if he was withdrawing the money because he did not feel safe with the banking system. Prosecutors said in their filing that Hastert responded: "Yeah . . . I kept the cash. That's what I'm doing."

Hastert and the individual allegedly sat down in about 2010 to discuss the misconduct that had occurred years earlier, according to prosecutors. The former speaker allegedly agreed in that meeting and subsequent meetings to pay a total of $3.5 million.

From 2010 to 2014, Hastert withdrew a total of approximately $1.7 million in cash from various bank accounts and provided it to the person who is identified in the indictment as "Individual A," the indictment said.

Between June 2010 to April 2012, Hastert made a total of 15 withdrawals of $50,000 each from a personal bank account, court records show. The individual was paid approximately every six weeks during that period, according to the indictment. In July 2012, Hastert started making cash withdrawals in smaller increments allegedly to avoid triggering the federal filing requirement on transactions.

After the indictment became public, Jolene Burdge, the sister of a former wrestling team manager for Hastert at Yorkville High, alleged that her brother, who died of AIDS in 1995, confided to her that he was the victim of sexual abuse by Hastert when he was a teen.

Reports: Sister names alleged Hastert abuse victim

Separately, a former House colleague of Hastert said that years earlier he heard an allegation of past sexual misconduct against Hastert, but did not alert authorities. The colleague, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt, a former Democratic lawmaker from North Carolina, said he did not take action because he had “no direct knowledge of any abuse” by Hastert.

Going to trial could have proved challenging for both Hastert and federal prosecutors, said Ellen Zimiles, a former assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York.

The potential of embarrassment of what Individual A might say, if prosecutors were to call him, hung over Hastert. For prosecutors, there was the risk that the witness — who prosecutors said struck a deal to receive millions of dollars from Hastert — might appear less than credible to a jury.

“There are many different factors that go into this,” said Zimiles, who is now head of the global investigations and compliance practice at Navigant Consulting. “This is a gamble for both sides.”

Andrew Herman, a Washington defense attorney who has represented lawmakers targeted by ethics investigations in Congress, noted that with the plea it's unlikely that a full understanding of the alleged sexual misconduct against Individual A will ever come to light.

"I don't think it can be lost that none of the (allegations of sexual misconduct) are likely ever going to be anything other than allegations," Herman said. "None of that will be established in a court of law. It's all circumstantial now."

Herman added that the prosecutors' case against Hastert was "tenuous," but the rumored misconduct ultimately made going to trial untenable for the former speaker and his defense team.

"It's like Al Capone," said Herman, referring to the notorious Prohibition era gangster who was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison for income tax invasion. "You get somebody for what you can get them on, even if what you really think they did is much worse."

Hastert is the longest-serving Republican speaker of the U.S. House, serving from January 1999 until Republicans lost the House in the 2006 elections.

He was often referred to as the "accidental speaker" for his unusual rise to power following the resignation of Rep. Bob Livingston, R-La., who was set to succeed Newt Gingrich in the post but bowed out after revelations of extramarital relations.

Follow USA TODAY Chicago correspondent Aamer Madhani on Twitter: @AamerISmad

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