Getty Tom Delay, others defend Dennis Hastert in letters to court

Dennis Hastert’s legal team filed dozens of letters in federal court in Chicago on Friday from individuals expressing support for the former House speaker in preparation for his sentencing on Wednesday.

Rep. Tom DeLay, the former House majority whip who helped position Hastert for his role as speaker, wrote that he is a man of “strong faith” and “great integrity.”


DeLay ‘s letter is one of 41 letters signed by former colleagues and relatives as part of ongoing legal efforts to defend Hastert's character after the former speaker pleaded guilty to illegally structuring $900,000 used in payments to an individual he allegedly sexually abused while serving as a high school teacher and wrestling coach in a small Illinois town more than 30 years ago. Two other ex-students have made similar claims about Hastert, as has a woman who says her late brother reported sexual contact by Hastert.

With few exceptions, the letters filed by Hastert's lawyers say nothing about the alleged abuse or the violation of banking laws the former speaker has admitted to. Instead, they pay tribute to other aspects of Hastert's life and career.

DeLay details their relationship of nearly three decades, 12 years of which they spent working “side by side.”

“I have observed him in many different and difficult situations,” the letter starts. “He has never disappointed me in any way. He is a man of strong faith that guides him. He is a man of great integrity. He loves and respects his fellow man. I have never witnessed a time when he was unkind to anyone. He is always giving to others and helping anyone including me so many times."

The one-page note also outlines examples of activities intended to defend the former speaker’s character, such as starting a lunch-time Bible study for colleagues.

“We held each other accountable and we studied God's word and applied it to where we were at that moment," wrote DeLay, who is a longtime advocate for foster children and adoption. “Nothing could have been more intimate between us. So I know his heart and have seen it up close and personal.”

“We all have our flaws, but Dennis Hastert has very few. He is a good man that loves the lord. He gets his integrity and values from Him. He doesn't deserve what he is going through. I ask that you consider the man that is before you and give him leniency where you can,” it concludes.

U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Durkin is scheduled to sentence Hastert Wednesday. By law, he could receive up to five years in prison on the felony charge he admitted to. However, his lawyers have asked for probation. Prosecutors have not explicitly called for a prison sentence, instead proposing that the judge order Hastert to serve somewhere between zero and six months in custody.

Hastert's lawyers are basing their request for leniency in part on his recent health woes, which include spinal surgery, sepsis and a small stroke over the course of a recent two-and-a-half-month hospital stay.

One of the former students leveling the sex abuse allegations at Hastert is expected to testify at the sentencing, as is the woman who says her late brother reported sexual contact with the then-coach.

Hastert hasn't addressed the specifics of the former students' allegations against him, but has offered an apology through his attorneys. "Mr. Hastert acknowledges that as a young man he committed transgressions for which he is profoundly sorry. He earnestly apologizes to his former students, family, friends, previous constituents and all others affected by the harm his actions have caused," defense attorney Tom Green said in a statement earlier this month.

In addition to DeLay and members of Hastert's family, Hastert's former GOP colleagues Reps. Thomas Ewing, David Dreier, Porter Goss and John Doolittle also submitted letters of support. The letters were initially submitted under seal, but Durkin said they had to be filed publicly in order to be considered at Hastert's sentencing.

"Denny Hastert and I were as close as brothers, sharing our goals, ambitions, and our family life, both the ups and the downs," Ewing wrote, noting that they lived together in Washington D.C. and Springfield, Illinois, and that he backed Hastert for the speaker position. "I know him as a man of faith, integrity and honesty. He was an extremely hard worker, always willing to extend a helping hand to others.

"With his achievements during his record-setting years as Speaker, he ranked with the greatest of our former Speakers, bar none," he added.

Dreier recalled Hastert's strong public service efforts abroad. "I write to tell you that Dennis Hastert is one of the most dedicated and hard working public servants I've known," Dreier's one-page letter states.

"More than a decade ago we established the House Democracy Partnership which has worked to strengthen legislative bodies in new and reemerging democracies across the globe. It's an important part of his long list of accomplishments. Colombia was one of our partner countries. His efforts to transform that country are widely recognized," he continued.

Goss wrote at length about Hastert's character and professionalism, recalling his "calmness, steady confidence and quick comprehension of the magnitude of events" that occured on Sept. 11, 2001.

"Perhaps, the Speakers greatest gift to the House was trust," wrote Goss, who also served as CIA director. "My belief is that Members found him very approachable and took him at his word. I know many viewed him as 'Mr. Main Street, America'-a rock solid guy with center of the country values," he wrote.

While the letters submitted Friday by Hastert’s lawyers were uniformly laudatory, the judge has also received about a dozen letters, emails and phone messages urging him to give Hastert a severe sentence.

One writer, Rita Mae Barrett Deane of Orland Park, Ill., noted that while he was speaker Hastert urged that “repeat child molesters [be put] into jail for the rest of their lives.”

“Mr. Hastert is a hypocrite,” Dean declared. Referring to Hastert’s alleged victims, she added: “They were vulnerable young high school boys and he violated that trust. For that he MUST take responsibility.”

Others also urged the judge to take account of the tough-on-crime approach Hastert endorsed as a lawmaker.

“Today there are over eight hundred thousand individuals in the United States on sex offender registries. Some, like Mr. Hastert, committed heinous crimes against multiple victims, but others committed non-violent, one-time offenses, yet are being punished for life as a consequence of the harshly punitive laws that Mr. Hastert passed,” wrote Gail Colletta of the Florida Action Committee.

“As you consider the appropriate sentence for Mr. Hastert, I sincerely hope you will keep in mind the 800,000 other victims of Mr. Hastert’s, who are serving decades, if not a lifetime under ineffective and unduly harsh laws that were passed as a result of his hypocritical and self-serving actions,” Colletta added.

Hastert's wife Jean said nothing in her letter about her husband's alleged sexual misconduct several decades ago. Instead, she called him "selfless" towards others, including students. "If one of his students or wrestlers ever needed anything of him, he would be there for them, and he was never happier than when he could watch someone he helped succeed," she wrote, as she pleaded he not be sent to prison. "Now, with his failing health, I worry about how much time we will ever get together ... This has taken a terrible toll on our family."

Many of the letters were printed in a similar font, although they were signed individually. One blunt handwritten letter came from the former speaker's brother, Dave Hastert, who said he fears the combination of social isolation and physical impairment will be devastating for his brother.

"He needs 24 hr assistance, getting out of bed, dressing and everything we all do on a daily routine," Dave Hastert wrote. "He's looked down upon by the county and a lot of people, who came to him in the past for help (and not for what he being [sic] charged with), now no one wants anything to do with him. Depression, that's going to set in sooner or later ... If it were me, I'd be wheeling that [wheel] chair to the highway and waiting for a semi."