Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert Pleads Not Guilty To Federal Charges

By aaroncynic in News on Jun 9, 2015 8:25PM

Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert appeared in federal court today to plead not guilty on charges that he illegally manipulated bank withdrawals and lied about it to bank officials and the FBI.

After making his way through a scrum of media that had been camped out at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse in the Chicago Loop, Hastert appeared before U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Durkin, flanked by his attorneys Thomas Green and John Gallo. It marks the first time the former Speaker has appeared in public since he was indicted in May.

Hastert is accused of agreeing to pay out $3.5 million in cash to an unnamed individual to cover up alleged sexual misconduct that took place when he was a high school wrestling coach in Yorkville, Illinois. The New York Times reports two anonymous sources briefed by the FBI stated that Hastert was paying a former student to not publicly come forward about sexual abuse that happened years earlier.

According to the indictment, Hastert withdrew a total of $1.7 million in cash from 2010 to 2014 from various bank accounts he controlled. From June of 2010 through April 2012 he made 15 withdrawals of $50,000 in cash from accounts at three different banks and supplied that money to the unnamed individual every six weeks. After bank officials and the FBI took notice, he then attempted to conceal the withdrawals by making them in smaller amounts.