The Thin Gruel of the Hastert Prosecution

[mystery-ak]

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/05/did-hastert-break-the-law-118438.html?hp=m4#.VWxYy0aGMYt

The Thin Gruel of the Hastert Prosecution

We should all be concerned about Dennis Hastert's strange indictment.

By SCOTT HORTON

May 29, 2015

Rarely in recent memory has political Washington been caught more off-guard by an indictment than by the news that broke Thursday concerning the charges against former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. Prosecutors had run a tight ship in conducting their investigation, which apparently stretched back to 2013. The announcement immediately fed stories that spoke of “corruption.” Hastert—at one point second in line of succession to the president—was described as the highest-ranking official ever charged in Illinois. The case was quickly shuffled into a familiar Beltway narrative about corrupt politicians and lobbyists.

That was a mistake.

The specific charges against Hastert involve “structured withdrawals,” Hastert is alleged to have taken down a series of transfers from financial institutions all just under the ten thousand dollar reporting threshold, allegedly to evade reporting them to the government. As an add on, Hastert is accused of having lied to federal investigators when questioned about these withdrawals.

These reporting requirements, first adopted in 1970 and recently expanded in the USA Patriot Act—a notable legislative accomplishment, ironically, of Dennis Hastert—were designed to furnish tools for law enforcement in combatting money laundering and drug trafficking. Are the feds saying that Hastert is a money launderer or a drug trafficker? No. What exactly was wrong with his unreported withdrawals? There is a strong suggestion of improper purpose, but the indictment is sparing with the facts.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/05/did-hastert-break-the-law-118438.html#ixzz3boceKDMW

[Bigun]

The fundamental problem in the Hastert case is simple: what, exactly, is the crime? As presented, the crime consists of a series of structured withdrawals supposedly designed to avoid a reporting duty, about which Hastert misled federal agents when they questioned him. This is not only extraordinarily thin gruel, it is also ripe for abuse.

Indeed!

[sinkspur]

As I noted in an earlier article on this topic, this is nothing but a politically-motivated indictment by a corrupt political Justice Department. Hastert did nothing wrong.  He  didn't even claim blackmail. 

No, once again we see the hand of Eric Holder and the cooperation of Loretta Lynch in a lynching of an old Republican who's been out of office for nine years.

[alicewonders]

This is all about keeping the Republicans on the defensive with what will be a continuing "drip, drip" of bad news - and keeping anything negative about Hillary and other Democrats out of the news - so they can maintain the offensive.

Expect this to happen on a weekly basis until the election.  This is how it's done.

[sinkspur]

This is all about keeping the Republicans on the defensive with what will be a continuing "drip, drip" of bad news - and keeping anything negative about Hillary and other Democrats out of the news - so they can maintain the offensive.

Expect this to happen on a weekly basis until the election.  This is how it's done.

But there's nothing to this and everybody knows there's nothing to this.

[alicewonders]

But there's nothing to this and everybody knows there's nothing to this.

Yep.  This is just a little thing they've been sitting on and holding for when they need a distraction.  I mean, why is this coming out now?  And all they really have is that he made withdrawals under the amount that would be reported to the IRS's "bad list". 

Yet, I'm seeing the pedophile posters and such all over the liberal social media.  It's a done deal to them.  Many conservatives are now cringing and going on the defensive - so afraid that they will be next. 

The only way to handle this type of guerrilla warfare is to just ignore it and stay on the offensive.  You can trot out every tidbit of bad news about Hillary's shenanigans and you will get a collective shrug from liberals.  So?

The Republicans need to go on the attack with issues that millenials, minority groups and conservatives alike agree on.  This is what I see Rand Paul doing - you have to find common ground and put a bulls-eye on it and don't be distracted by these shiny sparkly news stories that don't amount to a pile of dung.