Like the results, dislike the means

[mme_hardy]

So, former House Speaker Dennis Hastert has been  indicted for making illegal payments and covering them up.   What was he covering up?  Hastert paid an unnamed man $3.5 million to keep the man silent about Hastert's abusing him when he was a minor and Hastert taught high school.   The abuse happened, at the latest, in 1981.  It's way, way too late for the victim -- I think we can assume the story's true or Hastert wouldn't have coughed up that much money -- to have gotten a day in court.  This would have been the only way to make Hastert pay for his crime.  You do the best you can under law.

All that said, Hastert isn't being prosecuted for the abuse.  Hastert is being prosecuted, essentially, for having been blackmailed.    According to the New York Times, the indictment was for making "cash withdrawals designed to hide those payments and for lying to federal authorities about the purpose of the withdrawals."   If you're being blackmailed, you have to cover up the payments, because otherwise the whole thing goes public.

Hastert is almost certainly an abuser, and this looks like a case of "prosecute him for tax fraud, because we can't get him for his major crimes."  But this still disturbs me.  Hastert didn't steal the money, and there's no evidence that he didn't pay taxes on it.  He just did his best to keep the transfer out of the news.

The article is (trigger warning!) full of people saying "He's such a great guy, I can't understand how this happened."  You would think by now that the nation would have realized that abusers usually come across as nice guys to other adults, and that character isn't a single unitary thing.   "He talked a great show" is not synonymous with "He couldn't have done anything wrong to a child."

Pfeh.

Comments

[recessional]

The specific thing they're getting at is for lying to federal authorities, I think.

The idea of that kind of crime having a statute of limitations boggles me.

[ironed_orchid]

The idea of that kind of crime having a statute of limitations boggles me.

I'm fairly sure it doesn't in some other countries.

[recessional]

It doesn't here! That's part of why it boggles. Nothing indictable expires here.

[legionseagle]

Nor here.

[movingfinger]

I'm wondering whether the person receiving the payments is now in an uncomfortable situation vis à vis the IRS.

[mme_hardy]

You'd think, wouldn't you? How do you report income from blackmail? Unless the victim is the person who rolled over for the Feds.

[movingfinger]

Still gonna owe taxes on it. I don't see anything to say this was kept under the tax-free gift amount annually.

[sara]

Yep. There's that, and there's that you can't, when asked what you're doing with an amount of money over $10K, refuse to tell the government what you're doing with it.

In this case he seems to have told them he was stuffing it under the mattress, which does seem suspicious; even a Republican mattress can't be expected to contain $3.5 million in small unmarked bills.

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

The gift tax thing is for the donor, not the recipient -- excess gift-giving results in consequences for one's estate tax. The recipient doesn't pay tax on a gift, only on income derived from that capital (interest, dividends, etc.).

[vom_marlowe]

I would guess that the victim may have been given immunity for blackmail/unreported income in exchange for talking to the Feds, yeah. The Time only says it's unclear whether the former-student will be charged. I'd have expected a charge at the same time.

This story has a very strange feel to it--it's quite late in the day to begin demanding blackmail money. The fact that it was all cash is also strange to me. It would be easier to hide the trail via physical gifts, I'd think.

I don't know what the IRS limit is for gifts, but it's pretty high, I think.

[movingfinger]

It's not high enough to cover his volume; it changes from year to year (going up a bit) and this year is is $14K. No way are his transfers "gifts" in the IRS sense.

Physical gifts still leave a trail---title (in a vehicle), deeds (real estate), or just plain receipts.

[mme_hardy]

Apparently the reason the Feds wound up pulling the strings that led to the FIFA mess was that (can't find the Times link) the guy who rolled over on FIFA higher-ups never paid income taxes at all. Think about that. IIRC the IRS went after him, then passed the whole mess on to the corrupt-finances people in the IRS, who had experience with tracing where money is going.

[kore]

Yeah....not to go all triggery myself, but abusers are usually REALLY GOOD at putting up fronts for people who might otherwise investigate. Because they know what they're doing is wrong! Do criminals walk into your house and take your TV set and say "Seeya"? No, they break in when people are asleep. (Terrible analogy, but JESUS.)

Also, I understand "But X is nice and good to me so he must be nice and good to everyone" is a human fallacy, but boy, am I tired of it ("X is such a good friend offline, I can't believe he's really stalking someone online") and that's another thing abusers do, cultivate people in positions of power/influence. Bah.

[ironed_orchid]

I wonder if it's really blackmail if the abuser is the person who initiates the idea of paying someone to keep silent.

Not saying that this is the case here, but it wouldn't be the first time people with money deliberately gave it to those who could expose them.

[vom_marlowe]

Yes, I thought that, too. The story just has an off pattern feel to it, for me.

[that-which.livejournal.com]

He's had a reputation for being an ignorant thug for years, and he's supposedly not too popular with his own party, so I'm not surprised he's being taken down whatever way they can. It's just -How in the holy hell do they choose their speakers? Gingrich was boinking the current Mrs G in parked cars during the impeachment scandal, a guy who molested underaged boys in his care was in charge while the national elections became a referendum on teh evul gaiz - seriously, are they that incompetent at background checks in the leadership or is there some sort of I know what _your_ evil secret is mutual assured destruction going on?