Remember Denny Hastert?

Dennis Hastert, the former US house speaker, moltested four boys while working as a high school wrestling coach, prosecutors have said.

Hastert agreed to pay one of his victims, who was aged 14 at the time of the abuse, $3.5m, court filings have shown.

The filing is the first time prosecutors have confirmed Hastert, who worked as house speaker from 1999 to 2007, paid hush-money to conceal sex abuse.

  Guardian

Call me jaded, but I can't believe he's alone as a Congressman in his depravity.

Prosecutors say Hastert still was abusing boys when he first decided to run for office, but the now-74-year-old Republican managed to keep any hint of sexual misconduct quiet throughout a political career that carried him from the Illinois Legislature to the halls of Congress and eventually to the speaker’s office, where he was second in the line of succession to the presidency.

How he managed to keep it quiet is directly related to my doubts that he was the lone molester in Congress. There should be a Spotlight investigation of that great den of iniquity.

It chronicles a chain of deception that began with Hastert exploiting his position of trust as a teacher and coach and carried on years later to include lying to bank officials and making false claims of extortion to the FBI to conceal his wrongdoing.

The filing recommends that a federal judge sentence Hastert to up to six months in prison for violating banking laws as he sought to pay one of his victims, identified in court documents as “Individual A,” to ensure the person kept quiet.

Six months for violating bank laws. Nothing for being a sex predator - for molesting boys?

Prosecutors noted the statute of limitation on any sex-abuse charges have long since run out, making the banking charges the only ones they could pursue.

Because money is much, much more important than the well-being of children.

Days after pleading guilty, Hastert entered the hospital and nearly died from a blood infection, according to his lawyers. They also say he had a stroke and required in-home care.

[...]

The defense has asked the judge to give Hastert probation and spare him prison time, citing his deteriorating health and the public shame he’s already suffered.

Sure. He's the victim here.

Giving me the opportunity to say my favorite phrase:  hoist with his on petard.