The school district that once employed former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) as a teacher and coach said Friday that no one had ever reported him for “misconduct.”
Hastert was indicted Thursday for allegedly lying to the FBI about withdrawing $1.7 million in cash since 2010 as hush money for an unidentified individual from Yorkville, Illinois. Hastert allegedly agreed to pay out $3.5 million total to compensate for his “misconduct” against the individual that had occurred years earlier.
The indictment did not specify what that prior misconduct was, nor did it explain the relationship between Hastert and the person he allegedly wronged, identified only as “Individual A.” The indictment did state that “Individual A” knew Hastert for most of his or her life, and Hastert’s high school teaching and coaching career in Yorkville was mentioned as material to the indictment.
The Yorkville school district said in its statement that it employed Hastert from 1965 to 1981. The district said no one had ever reported Hastert for misconduct and it had “no knowledge” of the allegations made in the indictment.
“The District was first made aware of any concerns regarding Mr. Hastert when the federal indictment was released on May 28, 2015,” the statement said. “Yorkville Community Unit School District #115 has no knowledge of Mr. Hastert’s alleged misconduct, nor has any individual contacted the District to report any such misconduct. If requested to do so, the District plans to cooperate fully with the U.S. Attorney’s investigation into this matter.”
Whatever, you don’t pay out 3.5 million for nothing, the dude did something that was going to send him to jail, or do folks like him pay that kind of money not to be embarrassed?
No shit.
The FBI don’t go after former speakers of the House for nothing.
What could he have done 35 years ago - short of murder, manslaughter, treason, arson, or forgery - that would not be subject to a statute of limitations?
The indictment isn’t for the sex crime, it is for the hush money paid and lying to the FBI. Statute on the sex crimes has long run out. Ironically, the banking laws he broke are the ones he pushed through congress as part of the Patriot Act to track money laundering, the same laws that brought down Eliot Spitzer.