CHICAGO -- Attorneys for ex-speaker Dennis Hastert on Friday filed dozens of letters of support from former colleagues, constituents and friends, asking a federal judge to consider the former lawmaker's decades of service when he is sentenced next week on illegal bank structuring charges. more....
Hastert, 74, pleaded guilty in October to one count of illegally structuring bank withdrawals, as part of an effort to payoff one of his former student-athletes from his days as a high school teacher and wrestling coach in a small town outside of Chicago decades ago, according to prosecutors.
Ahead of Hastert's sentencing scheduled for Wednesday, ex-CIA director Porter Goss, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and the ex-speaker's wife of 43 years were among those who appealed to Judge Thomas Durkin on behalf of the speaker. Prosecutors have asked that Hastert be sentenced to a maximum of six months in prison, while his defense team is asking for probation.
DeLay, a Texas Republican, recalled in his letter that Hastert started a Wednesday bible study that the two men took part in.
"So I know his heart and have seen it up close and personal," DeLay wrote. "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."
Porter Goss, who served as CIA director for part of the George W. Bush administration, said he got to know Hastert when they served together in the House. Goss, who was by Hastert's side during the 9/11 terrorists attacks, recalled in his letter that that the former speaker showed calm and leadership during one of the most difficult moments in American history.
Goss, in the letter, wrote about Hastert's "steady confidence and quick comprehension" as he ordered the evacuation of the U.S. Capitol.
"Standing in his office looking down the Mall at the smoke and flame coming from the Pentagon, the Speaker quietly replied to me, 'yes, we'll leave at once, but I am going to open the House Session so the chaplain can say a prayer,'" Goss wrote. "The Record will show that happened even while the hijacked aircraft targeting the Capitol was still in the air."
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