Dennis Hastert and the elephant in the room

There is an old saying- “If it walks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.”

If you read in the newspaper, assuming that anyone actually reads a newspaper anymore, Dennis Hastert the former 57th Speaker of the House of Representatives will be pleading guilty to lying to the FBI.

According to the media, he hid multiple under $10,000 cash withdrawals totaling $1.7 million to allegedly payoff an unnamed person. That was about 1/2 of the ~$3 million he was planning to pay someone. That’s also about 170 bank visits which explains why the banks grew suspicious.

As I have written before, here, when you are indicted by the federal government you have little choice other than to plead guilty. Why?

It’s because our government gives you a choice. Plead guilty to a relatively minor charge or, if you plead not guilty and go to trial, our government will slam you with so many counts that you will be found guilty on at least one.

They’ll also mention that they have unlimited resources and you don’t. So plead not guilty and it’s almost certain that you’ll go to prison forever, period. It’s called justice.

The strategy is to indict a person with so many counts that a jury will be sympathetic with at least one. They don’t know what the penalties are. That’s on purpose. They don’t know that it’s ten to twenty years or so irregardless.

In addition they will force the defendant to spend so much money that he and his family will be bankrupt in either instance. So be nice and plead guilty.

Nineteen out of twenty indicted people plead guilty, whether guilty or innocent, because of this reason. Guilt or innocence has nothing to do with it.

It’s business and the federal prison system needs inmates to validate its enormous cost, and the prosecutors need to win to enhance their legal and political careers.

If you don’t believe it, watch this recent 60 Minutes video. The comments by the prosecutor are revealing. Watch from the one minute mark.

Is Dennis Hastert’s instance, it’s reported that he will plead guilty to some charges. No one has publicly revealed whom he paid the reported $1.7 million to or why.

I believe that the FBI knows, but as it has been alleged that Mr. Hastert had sexual relations with a minor when he was a high school coach, I imagine that our government is using this as leverage.

Obviously, he still has very powerful friends because no one is speaking about why he paid $1.7 million to the unnamed individual.

If it was a business transaction, then the under $10,000 cash withdrawals to avoid bank reporting would not have been made.

So back to the duck saying. If you pay somebody $1.7 million over a number of years to keep them quiet about something that happened in the past it is called blackmail.

Mr. Hastert became an Illinois representative in 1981 when he ended his coaching job. In 1987 he was elected to the US House of Representatives. If he started making payoffs in 1987 through 2015, someone was making an average of $5,000 every month in unreported income. Is the IRS interested?

The last time I looked, blackmail is a crime. Reasonably this means that the FBI should interrogate the recipient of the $1.7 million and make an arrest if they believe that Mr. Hastert was blackmailed. They can put that person on trial.

On the other hand this may embarrass our politicians, so that part of the crime has been ignored at the moment. At least for now.

If, as the media suggests, Mr. Hastert had sexual relations with a minor many years ago and if the statute of limitations has not expired in Illinois, will Illinois prosecutors indict Mr. Hastert?

Our president speaks that we are a nation of laws. Yes, but selectively applied.

One set of laws for the rich and powerful and one law for the rest of us. That includes you and me, so keep rowing.

The notion that nobody is above the law is obviously incorrect because our layers of laws are selectively applied. That’s the problem for all of us.