Former speaker of the US House of Representatives makes first court appearance related to charges he agreed to pay $3.5m to keep someone from revealing secret

Former Republican House speaker J Dennis Hastert pleaded not guilty in a packed federal courtroom on Tuesday, amid charges he illegally withdrew hundreds of thousands of dollars and reported allegations of sexual misconduct with a student during his time as a high school wrestling coach.

Dressed in a dark suit and blue tie and with no family members at his side, Hastert – who, as speaker of the House, once stood just two steps away from the presidency – entered the courtroom moments before proceedings began. Once robust , he now appeared stooped and thinner as he sat close to his attorney, Thomas Green. Presiding US district judge Thomas M Durkin asked if Hastert had read the charges, which include illegally withdrawing cash to cover up a still-unspecified past misconduct, and then lying to the FBI about his reasons for withdrawing the money.

Throngs of television crews and reporters from around the country were posted outside Chicago’s federal courthouse hours before Hastert’s scheduled 2pm hearing. As part of Hastert’s bond agreement, he must allow for DNA testing, surrender his passport and avoid contact with any alleged witnesses or victims in the case. He must also turn over any firearms on his suburban Illinois property.

The federal indictment states that in 2010 Hastert, now 73, agreed to pay an unnamed individual $3.5m to cover up past “misconduct” he committed against this person. Hastert then allegedly began paying that individual via $50,000 increments, but then reduced those to under $10,000 after the activity was questioned by banking officials. Four years later, when questioned by the FBI regarding money, Hastert falsely stated he was keeping it.

Hastert barely spoke during the brief hearing, except for mumbling a series of “Yes sirs” to questions posed to him by the judge.

In a surprising move, Durkin went on to list his own professional and political ties to Hastert which the judge felt could be misconstrued as improper connections, including that he was once “friendly business colleagues” with Hastert’s son Ethan at Chicago law firm Mayer Brown where the two previously worked together. Durkin then added that, while he had “no doubt” of his own impartiality in the case, he would go ahead and voluntarily recuse himself unless both parties agreed to waive that recusal. He told attorneys they have until 4 pm Thursday to decide whether he should be removed from the trial.

Durkin also mentioned money he’d previously donated to Hastert re-election campaigns. Federal Election Commission records show that Durkin, who was an attorney in Chicago donated $500 to the “Hastert for Congress” campaign in 2002 and $1,000 in 2004, according to reporting from the New York Times. At the time of the contributions, Durkin was a Chicago lawyer in private practice.

While the indictment makes no mention of Hastert engaging in any inappropriate sexual behavior, a woman has publicly accused the former House speaker of having sex with her now-deceased brother when Hastert was a teacher and men’s wrestling coach at a suburban high school in Yorkville, Illinois. Last week, Jolene Burdge told the Associated Press that, before his death from Aids in 1995, her brother Stephen Reinboldt confessed to her that his first homosexual experience had been with Hastert and that the sexual contact had lasted throughout Reinbolt’s high school career.



Assistant US attorneys Steven Block and Carrie Hamilton are assigned to prosecute Hastert’s case for the state. While absent from Tuesday’s hearing, head US attorney Zachary Fardon will still make any final decisions in prosecuting Hastert’s case. No stranger to high profile cases, Fardon led the 2005 corruption trial against former Illinois governor George Ryan, who was convicted on fraud and racketeering charges and ultimately spent over five years in prison.

Hastert could ultimately face up to ten years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted on both counts.