What began as a look into questionable financial transactions eventually lead investigators to unearth a sexual abuse cover-up by former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.
Hastert was released Tuesday from federal prison and is now under the supervision of a Chicago resident re-entry management field office after serving 13 months of a 15-month sentence. He pleaded guilty in October 2015 to a count of hiding money transactions.
Despite admitting to sexually abusing boys while working as a teacher and coach at an Illinois high school, he was never charged for any sexual crimes because the state’s prior statute of limitations law barred prosecution.
The case came to light following a newspaper article in 2012 that involved allegations that Hastert was using taxpayer funds for personal use, FBI Special Agent Michael Anderson told CNN.
“He didn’t tell us the truth when we met with him,” Anderson said about the first interview with Hastert. “But he did welcome us, you know, into his home. And we got quite a bit of information that ultimately resulted in one of the charges against him, which was lying to the FBI.”
Keen investigative work by the Internal Revenue Service, the FBI and the US Attorney’s Office eventually discovered Hastert had agreed to pay $3.5 million in hush money to one individual in exchange for the former student’s silence.
The IRS revealed that Hastert had been regularly withdrawing just under $10,000 in cash to give to a former student — the dollar amount specific to avoid bank reporting requirements. This raised flags to investigators.
“Everything we do, we follow the money. In fact, the question we ask when we see suspicious activity is why. You know, why it’s — why would a rational person be taking out $9,000 over a three-year period of time more than 100 times,” James Robnett, the IRS criminal investigation special agent in charge, said.
In addition to the prison sentence, Hastert also was eventually ordered to pay $250,000 to a victims fund.
He was elected to the US House of Representatives, where he served from 1987 to 2007. He served as speaker from 1999 to 2007.
