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| FILE - In this June 9, 2015 file photo, former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert arrives at the federal courthouse in Chicago for his arraignment on federal charges in his hush-money case in Chicago. Hastert is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday, April 27, 2016. |
CHICAGO
(AP) -- When Dennis Hastert pleaded guilty last year to breaking
banking laws, sentencing guidelines suggested that the former House
speaker would probably serve no more than six months in prison for
making illegal withdrawals to conceal a dark secret from his past.
But
after prosecutors lifted a veil of secrecy from the case, the judge
made comments that suggested he might impose a longer sentence,
potentially putting Hastert behind bars for several years, because of
allegations that he molested at least four student athletes when he was a
high school wrestling coach.
Word that one of
the accusers will speak at the sentencing hearing is sure to turn up
the pressure on Judge Thomas M. Durkin to reject defense calls for
probation and send the 74-year-old Republican to prison.
If
that happens, Hastert, who was second in the line of succession to the
presidency after the vice president and the nation's longest-serving GOP
speaker, would become one of the highest ranking politicians in
American history ever to be incarcerated.
Prosecutors
have said they would have preferred to charge Hastert with a sex crime.
But because the statute of limitations on sexual abuse ran out decades
ago, they settled for banking violations. Hastert admitted evading
financial regulations when he began withdrawing money to pay another
victim $3.5 million to ensure his silence.
Authorities
have made it clear they intend to treat the sex-abuse allegations, not
the banking violations, as their focus at sentencing. Court practices
generally allow discussion of a defendant's personal history and
character, especially if some bad behavior is related to the crime.
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POSSIBLE SENTENCE
Punishments
available to the judge range from probation and home confinement to a
maximum of five years in prison. Until this month, it was hard to gauge
what Durkin might be thinking. But at a recent hearing, he let his
dismay show for the first time.
The judge
repeatedly singled out how Hastert in a 2015 interview with federal
agents sought to deflect blame by falsely accusing Individual A of
extorting him with a bogus sex-abuse claim. That lie happened last year,
the judge said. And unlike the abuse allegations, it was not distant
history.
The lie would factor into the sentencing calculations, Durkin added: "That's a big one."
Hastert's
plea deal set the sentencing range from zero to six months in prison.
But guidelines in federal court are just that: guides. Judges have huge
discretion, so Durkin could impose a prison term of more than a year or
two.
The defense asked for probation, citing
Hastert's failing health and the price they say he's already paid in
public humiliation. Prosecutors did not recommend a specific sentence,
but their reference to sexual abuse on nearly every page of their
26-page sentencing memo strongly suggests they want notable prison time
for Hastert.
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SEX ABUSE ALLEGATIONS
Prosecutors
did not confirm until recently that Hastert's case had anything to do
with sexual abuse. When they finally did confirm it, they went into
graphic detail, including how Hastert would sit in a recliner chair in
the locker room with a direct view of the showers.
It
was Individual D, the one who plans to testify Wednesday, who provided
the detail about the chair. Individual D was 17 when Hastert abused him
in a locker room after offering the teen a massage, according to court
documents filed by the government. Hastert, it said, "removed Individual
D's pants and told Individual D to turn over on his back. Defendant
then performed a sexual act on Individual D."
The
victims, prosecutors said, were between 14 and 17. Hastert was in his
20s and 30s. The abuse occurred in a motel and the locker room at
Yorkville High School outside Chicago and included "touching of minors'
groin area and genitals or oral sex with a minor," prosecutors said.
In
court documents, the accusers, all males, are designated only by
letters A through D. Only Stephan Reinboldt, who died in 1995, is named.
His sister, Jolene Burdge, is the only other person scheduled to make a
victim statement. She spoke previously to The Associated Press and
other media organizations, saying that her brother told her about
Hastert's conduct before his death.
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HASTERT STATEMENT
It isn't clear whether Hastert will make a statement at the sentencing or whether any statement would include an apology.
Hastert
has not personally apologized in any forum to date. In arguing for
probation, defense attorneys described Hastert as apologetic, saying
their client "is deeply sorry and apologizes for his misconduct that
occurred decades ago and the resulting harm he caused to others."
Conspicuously absent was any mention of sexual abuse.
His
lawyers may have risked raising the judge's ire in another related
filing, in which they questioned whether what Hastert did to Individual A
- including touching his genitals during a massage - legally
constituted sexual abuse.
Prosecutors hit back
at that defense notion in their sentencing memo: "There is no
ambiguity; defendant sexually abused Individual A."
