WASHINGTON—Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert allegedly agreed
to pay a former male student $3.5 million to keep secret
allegations of sexual misconduct that took place before the
Illinois Republican was elected to Congress, according to people
familiar with the matter.
Mr. Hastert was indicted Thursday on charges related to large
sums of cash he withdrew from bank accounts to pay someone
identified in court papers only as "Individual A" to keep quiet
about past "misconduct." According to the indictment, Mr. Hastert
had committed the misconduct against the individual, who was from
Yorkville, Ill., where the former speaker was a teacher and
wrestling coach.
A federal magistrate set preliminary bail at $4,500 for Mr.
Hastert and the case was assigned to U.S. Judge Thomas Durkin in
Chicago. The bail amount, included in court documents made public
Friday, will allow Mr. Hastert to stay out of custody until he is
scheduled to appear in court for an arraignment. An arraignment
hasn't yet been scheduled, but will probably take place in the
coming days.
Mr. Hastert didn't respond to requests for comment Friday.
The individual is a man who allegedly said he had sexual contact
with Mr. Hastert decades ago, according to the people familiar with
the matter. In 2010, according the indictment, Mr. Hastert agreed
to pay him $3.5 million over a period of years to keep him from
revealing the misconduct.
A series of large cash withdrawals made bankers suspicious, so
they questioned Mr. Hastert. After that, he began withdrawing money
in increments of less than $10,000 each to avoid breaching a
threshold above which banks must report transactions, according to
the indictment. That, the Justice Department says, violated a law
against "structuring" cash transactions to avoid the reporting
requirement. Mr. Hastert is also charged with lying to the Federal
Bureau of the Investigation about the purpose of the
withdrawals.
With research by Lisa Schwartz
Write to Andrew Grossman at andrew.grossman@wsj.com, Devlin
Barrett at devlin.barrett@wsj.com and Ben Kesling at
benjamin.kesling@wsj.com
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