Posted on 05/29/2015 12:21:39 PM PDT by Red Badger
And why isn’t the blackmailer being charged with Extortion?
(Pity that he wasn't imprisoned back when it happened, and went on to **** the rest of us as Speaker for 8 years.)
This makes no sense. Transferring your own money to anyone without notifying the U.S. Government shouldn’t be against the law. (Yes, I know it is.)
The last time I checked, blackmail is against the law.
I’m no Hastert fan but, IMHO, he is being screwed by Washington. They should slap his hand and arrest the blackmailer.
Can someone tell me how he committed a crime by taking his own money and giving it to someone else?
He decided to take out his own money and give it to another person, the fact he’s being prosecuted for this shows how crazy these banking laws are.
Um, wrong thread dude.
CC
I agree. It is a crime but it shouldn’t be. It is illegal to take your own money out of the bank in such a way as to avoid reporting limits. That’s crazy.
I can see lying to the FBI being a crime. I also thought Clinton was guilty of a crime when he lied under oath.
I worry that Hastert will commit suicide. He looks terrible. Anyone who would pay that much money to keep something quiet is going to be very devastated when it goes public. It apparently happened around 40 years ago.
This day and age they should just argue that blackmail, bribing, lying, etc all all innate human traits that people are born with and cannot help. So we should be celebrating it rather than shaming it and making it illegal. Maybe we should be giving it some sort of tax benefits.
Do we know what the misconduct was? Can we assume it was illegal? Otherwise, how was the law broken by Hastert when he was being extorted?
Do we know what the misconduct was? Can we assume it was illegal? Otherwise, how was the law broken by Hastert when he was being extorted?
++++
He was arrested for transferring his own money to a blackmailer. If the money was going to the Red Cross he would still have been arrested.
How is that illegal?
“Do we know what the misconduct was? Can we assume it was illegal? Otherwise, how was the law broken by Hastert when he was being extorted?”
If you do not molest boys, your chances of being tempted to pay an Extortion are greatly decreased.
An unintended consequence might be that Constitutional Conservatives can be more demanding that our candidates don't hide their pasts. I'd like to know how how many supposed constitutional conservatives knew about this. I'd also like to know (as we suspected) how many of those who traitor us when they get to DC are being blackmailed.
Will Hastert go down silently or will he POINT OUT others currently doing a similar dance?
Banks have to report large withdrawals to the Feds. Part of the Drug War going way back. Structuring your withdrawals to avoid hitting that reporting limit is a crime.
How is that illegal?
++++
There is a $10,000 limit on cash transfers. Above that amount the banks have to report it. He skirted that law by transferring in smaller amounts but totaling $3,500,000.
That’s against the law - for some reason.
The only lie was him not telling the FBI why he was taking out the money, that’s ridiculous.
This law is flat out wrong.
I can understand they want to know and may want to investigate suspected money transfers etc for organized crime/drug reasons, but once they conclude that the money isn’t being used for any illegal purpose, to then charge someone with a crime for moving their own money around is ludicrous and wrong!!
I have no doubt whatever he agreed to pay to cover up is probably not pretty, but to be charged with a crime because you are doing legal things with your own money and don’t want to tell the busy body fed what it was is repugnant.
Charging someone with violating that law, just for violating that law is incredulous!
This law was put in place to track illegal things, for someone to decide to do something legal with their own money should NEVER result in them being charged with a crime!
The FBI coming to ask him what it was for, and then finding out it was not for anything illegal should have been the end of it. This is an absolute abuse of the law.
Clinton and 0bama have the advantage of having killed some of those same types of affairs. Dead men tell no tales. 0bama’s gone on to have even people who have touched his relevant papers killed, a la Loretta Fuddy (SCUBA diving, anyone?)
I don’t know, but to agree to pay someone 3.5 Million to keep quiet tells you whatever it was, would have destroyed him.... my guess would likely be something sexual in nature.
However, paying someone to keep quiet is not a crime in and of itself.... so this entire prosecution is insane.
He spent his own money on something he wanted to spend it on, once the FBI investigation proved that what he was doing with his money was not a crime, that should have been the end of this.
This is an abuse of the law as far as I’m concerned. How and what he decided to do with his own money is none of the feds business, to not tell them what it was for should not be a crime. Once the FBI discovered the money was not from or going to anything illegal that should have been the end of it. IF you can go to jail for just doing things with your own money and telling the Fed to get bent when they come asking about it, then we live in a tyrannical state. This law needs gone.. to be prosecuted purely from this is insane.
Not if he wants to have a nice place to live.............
The lying to the FBI however, was only a result of them investigating his money transfers... so its a garbage prosecution on all counts. Why should he have to explain what he is doing with his own money? If the fed investigates and can’t prove what he was doing with the money is illegal, then that’s it.
This is insane at every level.
This is clearly an abuse of the law, and not what this law was put on the books for. It is on the books to catch criminals, nothing that Hassert did with the money was illegal, so once the FBI determined that, that should have been the end of it.
To do something legal with your own money, should not be putting you at risk for jail time... this is wrong, in every aspect.
I have no doubt whatever he paid to keep quiet will be ugly, and probably sexual in nature, but what he has been charged with should not be a crime.
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