According to federal prosecutors, J. Dennis Hastert, who was the longest-serving Republican speaker of the House, intends to plead guilty to charges of skirting banking laws and lying to federal investigators. Hastert had initially pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
Hastert's attorney, John Gallo, told U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin that his client had agreed on a plea agreement on the charges that he lied to federal investigators about plans to pay someone he had wronged $3.5 million as hush money, reports CNN.
With a plea negotiation, many details, including the identity of "Individual A," the person whom prosecutors say took money from Hastert to maintain silence regarding a sinister history with him, may never become public.
"Dennis Hastert wants to avoid a sentencing hearing probably more than any other public official in history. Normally a public figure wants to present all the good things he's done in his life. But that opens the door for prosecutors to bring in their own evidence," said Jeffrey Cramer, a former federal prosecutor, who now heads the Chicago security firm Kroll, reports the Chicago Tribune.
"He's not going to walk away from this. All of the sordid allegations that created the problem would have to come out in a trial," said Charles A. Stillman, a white-collar criminal defense lawyer, according to New York Times, adding that he expected Hastert to serve prison time while agreeing with Cramer's view that it was in Hastert's best interest to avoid a trial and an exposure of the identity of "Individual A."
