Lawyers for Dennis Hastert in plea negotiations with prosecutors

CHICAGO – Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert is negotiating a possible guilty plea to charges he agreed to make $3.5 million in hush-money payments to cover up wrongdoing from decades ago.

The plea negotiations, revealed Monday during a hearing in federal court, are the first indication that the bombshell charges brought against the Republican powerhouse might never be fully aired at trial.

Legal experts who spoke to the Chicago Tribune said it wouldn’t be surprising if Hastert chose to avoid a trial that almost certainly would include testimony from Individual A, the mysterious figure who prosecutors say took cash from Hastert to keep quiet about a dark history with him.

“Mr. Hastert allegedly spent millions to try to keep something secret, so a public trial certainly can’t be high on his list,” said Jeffrey Cramer, a former federal prosecutor who heads the Kroll security company in Chicago.

The indictment unsealed in late May alleges that Hastert agreed to make $3.5 million in hush-money payments to Individual A to cover up wrongdoing from Hastert’s time as a high school teacher and wrestling coach in Yorkville, Ill. According to the charges, Hastert lied about the reasons he withdrew $952,000 in cash over the previous 2 years when the FBI questioned him in December.

Though the indictment hints only at the alleged wrongdoing, federal law enforcement sources have told the Tribune that Hastert was paying to cover up sexual abuse of a Yorkville High School student years ago. The FBI also interviewed a second person who raised similar allegations against Hastert, sources said.

Cramer said it’s likely that as part of the plea negotiations Hastert’s lawyers would be seeking to keep any salacious details from coming out at a sentencing hearing.

But if Hastert tried to argue for a lenient sentence from the judge by presenting letters of support or other good works from his career, prosecutors could counter with evidence they would have presented at trial, he said.

“We don’t know what’s at the heart of this case, and it is possible we may never know,” Cramer said.

At Monday’s court hearing, John Gallo, one of Hastert’s attorneys, said the defense legal team has been discussing with federal prosecutors a possible resolution to the case short of a trial – a reference to the plea negotiations. He 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.

“This is not a situation where both sides are sitting on their hands,” Block said. “In fact, it’s the opposite.”

U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin said he was “more than happy” for both sides to resolve issues behind closed doors, but he said he wanted the case to move along. He asked both sides to give him an update at the next hearing Oct. 15 in the hopes he could then set either a trial date for March or April or an earlier date for Hastert to plead guilty.