Plea Deal for Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert May Be Coming Soon

A plea deal for former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert may be announced Thursday when lawyers for Hastert appear in federal court Thursday.

The Chicago Tribune reports that Hastert’s lawyers are currently trying to negotiate a deal with prosecutors that would keep allegations of hush-money payments from coming out in a public trial.

Defense and prosecution lawyers were both scheduled to appear at 9 a.m. before U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin, according to the Tribune, who would like to set a trial date for March or April or an earlier date for Hastert to plead guilty.

The plea negotiations were revealed in a hearing late last month when John Gallo, one of Hastert’s attorneys, said the defense had been discussing with federal prosecutors a possible resolution to the case short of a trial — a signal to a possible guilty plea. At the time, Gallo called the talks “productive.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Block confirmed for the judge that talks on a plea deal were ongoing and asked that the two sides be given additional time for the discussions.

Hastert has been charged with lying to the FBI and evading federal rules governing bank transactions, according to an indictment released Thursday, May 28.

Hastert withdrew large sums of money in order to pay off a person known only as Individual A, according to the indictment.

The indictment states:

In or about 2010, Individual A met with defendant JOHN DENNIS HASTERT multiple times. During at least one of the meetings, Individual A and defendant discussed past misconduct by defendant against Individual A that had occurred years earlier.

During the 2010 meetings and subsequent discussions, defendant JOHN DENNIS HASTERT agreed to provide Individual A $3.5 million in order to compensate for and conceal his prior misconduct against Individual A.

Shortly thereafter, defendant began providing Individual A cash payments.

It later came out that the misconduct mentioned in the indictment was of a sexual nature that occurred when Hastert was employed by Yorkville High School as a teacher and wrestling coach.

Jolene Burdge recently said that her late brother, Steven Reinboldt, was a victim of Hastert’s but said Reinboldt was not Individual A and neither she nor her brother ever received money from Hastert.