Hastert hush money is linked to child sex abuse allegations that date back decades and involve at least one male victim, according to sources who spoke with the New York Times on condition of anonymity.
If true, those accusations could account for why the ex Speaker of the House -- once one of America’s most powerful politicians -- would risk jail to pay off his still-unidentified blackmailer.
After all, similar historical claims eventually toppled mighty Penn State’s football coach Jerry Sandusky, and even the Catholic church to some degree is still reeling from its pedophile priest scandals.
As with the now-incarcerated Sandusky, Dennis Hastert also coached star athletes, albeit at a high school level as opposed to college, and it’s allegedly in that capacity that he’s accused of improper sexual contact -- presumably with one of his wrestlers.
Hastert’s indictment this week on bank fraud charges and offenses related to illicit cash withdrawals and secret payments to his victim has Capitol Hill astonished and agog today.
In fact, even former colleagues and students of Hastert when he was a teacher in Yorkville Illinois, are in disbelief now, and searching their memories for any hint of impropriety in the man they thought they knew well, and whom most believed unimpeachable.
However, according to federal prosecutors, whatever evil lurked in “Denny” Hastert’s past was worth nearly $4-million to him to keep secret.
Not to mention prison time for illegally “structuring” his hush money withdrawals in a manner intended to subvert banking-disclosure regulations … and then lying about it all when the FBI came knocking.
