Hello everyone, and welcome to the 25th episode of Probable Cause. This is our fourth episode on the ‘Real’ case of Dennis Hastert. In our first segment I explained the case and predicted that it would be dropped or limited to eliminate airing the truth through real court hearings, and provided you with the broad picture of involved interests and those with much at stake if the case were to proceed as a real case.
In our second episode we went back twenty years to when the new FBI covert and illegal operations targeting high-profile US officials began with a directive issued in 1996 in response to the Clinton sex scandals.
In our previous episode I covered the three-year period between 1999 and 2002 when the operation in question became complicated by inadvertently collected unwanted information, loss of control over lower-level FBI agents, and the change of administration in January 2001.
On Thursday, October 15, 2015, our informed predictions came true with the news announcement on Dennis Hastert and the Justice Department reaching a plea deal, thus eliminating the prospect of court trial in the case. Let’s go over a few quotes from the New York Times on this new development:
Dennis Hastert, the small-town wrestling coach who rose to political power as the longest-serving Republican speaker of the House, intends to plead guilty as part of an agreement in a case where he is accused of skirting banking laws and lying to the federal investigators.
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The indictment said the withdrawals were used to “compensate for and conceal” earlier “misconduct” against a person identified only as “Individual A.” Unidentified government sources said that the money was used to cover up allegations of sexual misconduct with a male student during Mr. Hastert’s time as a high school teacher and coach in Yorkville, Ill.. Mr. Hastert has not been charged with any sex crimes, and the identity of the person he is accused of paying remains unknown.
The plea will allow Mr. Hastert, who presided over the House from 1999 to 2007, to avoid a potentially long and embarrassing trial and to keep secret information that he has hidden for years, including the identity of the former student.
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Obviously, what I’ve been publicly predicting on this case has come true. But this podcast episode is not going to be wasted on things obvious. Instead I intend for us to dig and unearth what remains beneath.
For this episode we are going to talk about the intentional and consistent censorship by the US mainstream media and pseudo-alternatives in the Real Case of Dennis Hastert. We are going to list some of the major omissions and blackouts in the case and pose the question why.
A Pedophile of the Past
The US media intentionally leaves out pertinent and logical questions that follow their limited narrative pertaining to the Hastert case. Questions such as: What kind of pedophilic activities was Dennis Hastert engaged in during his years in the US Congress?
The media is presenting Hastert and his pedophilic activities as a thing that happened in the past, and in a vacuum. Based on their narrative, Hastert’s predatory actions stopped once he became an honorable US representative. That the man miraculously saw the light, said Hallelujah, and then … well, according to them, then nothing. This is how their narrative goes:
Once upon a time there was a wrestling coach in a high school who preyed upon, sexually abused and molested minors. Then, he was elected to the US Congress and became the longest-serving Speaker of the House. Later, years after he left Congress, he was caught with his pants down on some trivial financial activities which were linked to his molestation of at least one underage person way back when.
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There have been zero attempts by the US media to investigate Hastert’s criminal deeds involving sexual violations of minors during his long congressional tenure. This, despite past exposés and witnesses who had gone on record on Hastert’s illegal-criminal activities, which included not only financial but also espionage, blackmail and sex crimes. This, despite the FBI maintaining documented records of Hastert’s sexual violations since 1996.
Please go and check the media coverage, you will find zero reference to Hastert’s ongoing sexual violations both here in the United States but also overseas during his junket trips to countries such as Turkey, Morocco and Vietnam.
You will find zero mentioning of his illegal sexual sessions held in one of his office-town house residences-including foreign and criminal entities bringing in and offering minors as means of bribery. Interestingly, all his residences and offices were wired and monitored by several different entities, including the FBI, CIA and at least two foreign lobby networks. More on that later …
Omission & Blackout in Hastert’s Proven Criminal Records
In 2005, based on testimonies and evidence provided by no less than five credible government insiders, the Vanity Fair Magazine published a major exposé on Dennis Hastert’s criminal activities that included domestic and foreign bribery, money laundering, campaign financial fraud and even participation in Chicago underground drug networks.
At the time, in 2005, not a single US media outlet provided coverage for this massive exposé. Not a single sentence was written about this exposé, at the time involving the sitting Speaker of the House. Not a word.
Now, fast forward to May 2015 and after. You’d think the US media would refer back to a directly relevant past exposé such as the Vanity Fair article, and tie it to the Hastert case, which involves financial crimes. No? Well, they did not. You won’t find a single mentioning of that exposé despite its one-hundred-percent relevance.
Think about it. The US media has had that 2005 Vanity Fair article with more than five current and former witnesses who went on record stating that: 1- the FBI had been surveilling Dennis Hastert since 1996; 2- That the FBI and DOJ had in their possession implicating documented evidence on Dennis Hastert since 1997; 3- That his criminal activities included espionage, foreign bribery, money laundering, embezzlement, drug networks in Chicago …
So why go to such lengths to omit all these related facts? It is not as if they are worried about some legal liabilities. Someone else, another mainstream publication, had already vetted those facts and witnesses, taken that risk and published it. So why?
Intentional Censorship of Hastert’s Wealth
All right. The media keeps rehashing the financial charges faced by Hastert, which include giving more than $3.5 million hush money to one of the boys he sexually abused when he was a school coach. We are not talking about some meager dollar amount here, folks. We are not talking peanuts here. We are talking about $3.5 million.
Yet, not a single media outlet is mentioning the sources of Dennis Hastert’s multi-million dollar wealth- most of which was accumulated during his congressional tenure.
In December 2009, that’s right, five-and-a-half year before this limited scandal, I wrote a lengthy piece on Dennis Hastert here at Boiling Frogs Post (The link will be posted with this podcast episode). Here are a few quotes from the article, titled Dennis Hastert: A Portrait of a Political System Termite:
Prior to his two-decade long career as a congressman, Hastert was a high school teacher in Chicago with a modest family income. Yet, somehow, he managed to become a multi-millionaire while in Congress: his financial net worth went from less than $270,000 in 1986 to an estimated $17 million. No, this was not due to a rich wife or a sudden inheritance, nor was it due to winning a lottery. This fortune came about solely as a result of his activities as a Political System Termite.
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This PST, while hard at work with his comrade termites eroding and rotting the legislative foundation, while filling up his personal pockets with hard-earned taxpayers money and building a fortune, was involved in almost every major scandal involving the Capitol Hill PST Colony during the last decade: From the Jack Abramoff Scandal to the Mark Foley Disaster, from being pocketed by foreign government(s) to making millions in congressionally earmarked land deals.
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When Hastert, a former high school teacher, was first elected to Congress in 1986, he showed assets worth less than $270,000. By mid-2006, Hastert’s net worth had increased to somewhere between $4 million to $17 million. Now, how did this happen?
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Please read the entire article on Hastert- A Political System Termite, written in December 2009. Then, check and see whether you can find any references to Hastert’s known and documented thievery in any of the articles written on the man’s indictment and guilty plea deal involving his financial crimes.
Isn’t that amazing? The US media talks about Hastert being charged with financial crimes, Hastert paying over $3.5 million in hush money to those he raped-molested. Yet, they don’t talk about how Dennis Hastert ended up with millions of dollars as he served in the US Congress on a $120K salary.
Could the media be more belligerently obvious in all their attempts in covering up the Real Hastert Case?!
Turning the Two-Way Beneficial Plea into a One-Way Deal
The New York Times and the rest of the US mainstream media keep highlighting the benefits of the plea from Hastert’s perspective, and they do so with consciously implemented limitations and censorship. Sure, Hastert will be able to avoid airing his pedophilic activities as a teacher way back when. Let’s go back and read that last paragraph from NY Times:
The plea will allow Mr. Hastert, who presided over the House from 1999 to 2007, to avoid a potentially long and embarrassing trial and to keep secret information that he has hidden for years, including the identity of the former student.
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You see, they are not mentioning the government side. The plea would provide the government with … what advantages? Now, don’t let them use that BS line that says: ‘Oh, the government would save taxpayer money and resources by not having a lengthy trial.’ Yeah, our government is so conscientious when it comes to caring for taxpayers’ dollars. Ah. We know our government’s track record when it comes to wasting taxpayers’ dollars. Don’t we? So yeah, don’t let them even get near that bs line. Other than that, the US media will not respond to your asking: What does the government get from this plea deal, dude?
If you haven’t already, go and listen to our previous episodes where I covered those with major stakes in the Hastert Case, including government players, and past illegalities committed by the DOJ-FBI which would all see the light of day had the case proceeded in courts. The answer to ‘What does the government gain from this cover-up deal?’ is provided in our previous episodes.
And it is this same government that does not want Hastert’s known and documented sexual crimes to become public. Not only would it expose the government’s illegal surveillance, government use of illegally collected evidence for their own blackmail purposes, but also the fact that the government, despite its knowledge of Hastert’s ongoing sexual crimes against minors, and many other crimes during his congressional tenure, did nothing to stop and apprehend and prosecute this prick. It would be a crime for the government to let criminal activities like those take place under its watchful eyes, and do nothing about it. It wouldn’t only be morally scandalous, but it would get into government liability areas.
The Judge Question
Other than a few blurbs here and there we have not seen much coverage on the Judge who is assigned to the Hastert Case. Considering the red flags going up all over this judge one can’t help but wonder why.
Thomas Durkin, the federal judge assigned to preside over the criminal case against Hastert has repeatedly donated to Hastert’s congressional campaigns, federal campaign finance records show. So obviously we are looking at a judge who supported, donated to and voted for the defendant here.
There is more: the judge’s brother, Jim Durkin, happens to be a prominent figure in the state’s GOP leadership. He serves as minority leader in the Illinois House, a post he was elected to in 2013. Ha-ha!
But wait- there is more: Judge Durkin made the donations while he was a partner at a private law firm, Mayer Brown. Guess what? The Chicago law firm of Mayer Brown happens to be where Hastert's son, Ethan Hastert, is an attorney. Aha!
Allow me to read a paragraph from my 2009 article on Hastert:
Also very characteristically, this PST’s larva, despite their widely known and acknowledged intellectual and reputational challenges, have been supported and courted into becoming PSTs within the same colony and its network. Hastert’s oldest larva, Joshua, became a lobbyist for Podesta-Mattoon with hot-shot clients such as Lockheed Martin, and all this while his dad served as the Speaker of the PST Colony. Another one, Ethan, who was arrested and cited in 2001 on charges of driving under the influence of alcohol and other traffic violations, who also happened to work for Dick Cheney while his dad headed the PST colony on Capitol Hill, is now running for his father’s old seat, set to prove himself a PST worthy and qualified for the Capitol Hill Colony.
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The questions of Why & How
It is not really difficult to see the lengths to which the US media has gone to blackout and censor the most obvious and crucial facts and implications pertaining to the Hastert Case.
Interestingly, the censorship and omission applies to both sides of the isle: Left-Wing media outlets as much as Right-Wing ones. It has become one of those very few instances of the censorship transcending the partisanship game of divide-and-conquer. It’s been as if there exists a firm agreement between those with stakes and the entire mainstream media community.
Who is at the top orchestrating the case and related coverage? How are they pulling off this uniform, consistent media misinformation and misdirection campaign? Why? These are a few questions among many we need to ask and answer.
We will continue our coverage of the Real Hastert Case with coming podcast episodes, BFP Roundtable sessions, Corbett video reports and written commentaries.
As part of our ongoing coverage of and campaign on the Real Hastert Case, due to their direct relevance, we are offering both my e-books at under $2. Classified Woman: The Sibel Edmonds Story has sections on Hastert, government surveillance of elected officials and related cover-ups. Those of you who have read The Lone Gladio know the relevancy of it very well. If you have not read the book, make sure you pay attention to Chapters 3, 10 & 13. Please spread the word and encourage those you know to take advantage of this campaign.
Now it is time to wrap up our fourth segment in our series on The Real Hastert Case. Thank you for joining me on this 25th edition of Probable Cause. Several links with related information will be posted on the website under this episode. I am looking forward to your responses, questions and all your comments. I’ll be back soon to pick up where we left off. So long; and until then.
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Show Links & Notes
The REAL Hastert Scandal: Pedophilia, Drug Money & Blackmail
Dennis Hastert Reaches Plea Deal
Corbett Report-Hastert Reaches Plea Deal to Cover Up Case
Details of Dennis Hastert's Alleged Sexual Misconduct May Stay Buried Forever With New Plea Deal
The Statute of Limitations for Childhood Sexual Abuse in Illinois
Dennis Hastert: A Portrait of a Political System Termite
The Lone Gladio (Book)
Classified Woman: The Sibel Edmonds Story
Sibel Edmonds: An Inconvenient Patriot (Vanity Fair)
Hastert Judge also donated to his Campaigns