I'm not so sure it was bribery to conceal a crime or extortion with the threat of coming forward. Nonetheless the victim is the victim and Denny is the abuser and the POS.

Side note: I was in Florida over this winter and ran to the bank (Chase) to make a cash deposit ($2,300) for a friend who owns a restaurant. I had to show ID as it was explained to me it was bank policy, not government policy, for cash deposits over $500 if the depositor was not a co-signer on the account the deposit was being made. The teller said the reason was money laundering and drug dealing prevention and I didn't care as she was BEAUTIFUL to look at while filling out the paper work and I obviously had nothing to hide. ;)

Denny could have taken whatever amount he wanted out of the bank but obviously with something to hide didn't want a paper trail and thus structured the withdrawals to prevent being detected and keep his dirty little secret to himself. Got to feel a little sorry for his family and wife as they had nothing to do with the crime but not as sorry as I feel for the victims who will live with this for the rest of their lives.

BTW Just heard Boston police killed a man on the terrorist watch list, threatening them with a knife. Great job and thanks for saving taxpayers a bundle! http://www.wcvb.com/news/police-shoo...f-cvs/33350364

There is no bribery to conceal a crime. At this point there is no crime in either one of those cases. It doesn't matter if we are talking about Hastert or Cosby. Once the statute runs out, there is no crime. Any hush money at this point is to avoid public humiliation. It's not to avoid being prosecuted for a crime.

Has Hastert been charged with what you referred to as "the ongoing crime of bribery to conceal a crime"? Of course not. It would not apply in this case. The same goes for Bill Cosby. He can pay any one of these women to keep quiet. That is not illegal at this point. In cases where the statue of limitations has not expired, it is a crime to bribe a victim to not press charges or to bribe a victim to drop charges.

It's not 'my' clinical definition it's 'the' definition. Probably why 16, 17, and 18 year olds are often charged as 'adults' and why 16 year olds are able to drive and in some states marry and why 18 year olds are able to join the military.

I think your 'wide portion of America' is an exaggeration but at least we agreed for a couple minutes. :tro:

Hastert took credit for getting the PATRIOT Act passed, which made indicting people committing this kind of action (the money withdrawals, not the abuse of minors) easier. I'm not sure if that counts as irony or karma.

Irony, karma would be him getting a mop handle stuck up his azz till it comes out his mouth.

Unfortunately I'm sure with his connections he'll never do time, get a huge fine and disappear into some hole. Or he'll put off trial long enough his fat azz will die of 'natural' causes.

Both.
He lied to the fbi, and took withdrawls in a way to hide acrutiny...when the fbi got sord, they thought he might have had something going on from when he was in congress....he should have told the truth. Might have hit the press anyway, but he wouldnt be facing charges.

The FBI were tipped off by a second male victim. They knew exactly what they were targeting going in. Supposedly another member of congress was also tipped off years ago to Denny's love of boys but thought it just a made up rumor.

The problem is though Denny committed two crimes; lying to the FBI and structuring withdrawals to avoid filing both are rather minor and unless he's charged with separate counts for each withdrawal he'll likely escape with a minor sentence after a plea compared to what he could have faced for sexual assault and sex with a minor times how many times he committed each offense. Again I feel sex crimes should have no statute of limitations but it is what it is.

Couldn't a lawyer make a case that the crimes were ongoing as hush money was paid to conceal them?

Don't know but an interesting argument for prosecutors to consider which, I'm sure they have. From what I understand the hush money didn't begin until the mid 2000's which would have made it some 20 years plus after the sexual abuse occured.

Just wish the law placing a statute of limitation on sexual abuse/rape crimes was changed and I think the Denny Hastert Law would be a apropos name.

Read not too long ago that over 75% of women locked up in Cook County Jail were victims of sexual abuse some time in their lives. As I stated before a victim of abuse lives with it for a lifetime so I think an abuser/offender should as well be prosecutable over a lifetime.

And again 04-Jun-2015 :tro:

Stop it!

Another victim disgusting that Denny had the gall to write 'My right hand man' in the lad's yearbook.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/exclu...ry?id=31530828

Denny hiding out in Wisconsin :eek:

Man he has the look of a creep!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...l-charges.html

Jus sayin:D

I'm wondering what the recipient did with $3.5M in cash. Did he spend it? Or did it go into financial institutions in a progression of structured (illegal) deposits?

I think he received only a portion of the promised $3.5M, if I remember right about 900K.

I'm sure he declared it and filed proper State and Federal taxes. :rolleyes:

One of Denny's other boy toys, identified by name, and outed by his sister died of AIDS in the mid 90's.

Oddly the victim(s) no longer have a gender among Chicago media outlets.:wf

Sorry, I had to go back to the article and read that "only" $1.7M was paid starting in 2010 and going through 2014. I wonder what took so long for an indictment?

"Recipient" must be really pissed that Hastert got caught.

it took a while because when the bank first questioned him, hastert than changed how he withdrew. but taking out money right at the limit like he was doing...well, it's like using different docs and pharmacies to get your various pain pills. sooner or later, it'll come up again. and then he lied to the fbi when they asked, so they dug deeper...and here we are.
the funny part is that he was a big proponent of those rules, and knew them well-but they still tripped him up?
and the fbi only dug more because they were concerned that he was being blackmailed from his time in congrss-was there an issue with governmental secrets and the like?
well, no there wasn't. at that point, when they came to him, he should have told them exactly what was up. because it might have come out, but he would have nothing to worry about other than bad press. now he has that, along with criminal charges, which is a lot worse than some bad press!
as for molestation, i really think they need to lengthen the statute of limitations for cases like that. it can take years for a kid to grow up and get the will to say 'hey, i'm not going to be a victim anymore'.