Politics & Government
Dennis Hastert Support Letters Made Public
Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and former CIA Director Porter Goss both showed their support.

41 letters written in support of former U.S. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert were made public Friday.
Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and former CIA Director Porter Goss were just two of the many people who wrote to show the man they knew.
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“We all have our flaws, but Dennis Hastert has very few. He is a good man that loves the lord. He gets his integrity and values from Him. He doesn't deserve what he is going through. I ask that you consider the man that is before you and give him leniency where you can,” DeLay wrote, according to Politico.
Other letter writers include University of Chicago Head Wrestling Coach Leo Kocher, David Kapple, who wrestled on a team coached by Hastert, and former Illinois Attorney General Tyrone Fahner, according to the Chicago Tribune.
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But it wasn’t just former colleagues and politicians. Hastert’s family also wrote letters.
His wife, Jean, said the legal battle has taken a “terrible toll” on her family and asked the judge to consider them when he’s sentenced April 27.
Son Ethan Hastert said he was shocked to learn of the allegations and the guilty plea.
"That is, perhaps, because we know my father as the man who has done so many wonderful things for so many,” Ethan wrote, according to ABC News.
Federal Judge Thomas Durkin said that letters written in support of Hastert must be made public in order to be considered at sentencing. They were originally filed attached to a report that is routinely sealed.
Hastert pleaded guilty in October to charges of lying to the FBI and evading currency reports. He will face probation or up to five years in prison for allegedly making structured withdrawals from a bank so as not to have to report them and in order to pay $3.5 million in hush-money to Individual A, who Hastert allegedly sexually abused while he was a teacher and wrestling coach at Yorkville High School.
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