Dennis Hastert, the former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, was charged by the U.S. attorney’s office Thursday with one count of making a false statement to the FBI and one count of structuring transactions to evade the bank reporting requirement. He allegedly withdrew about $1.7 million from bank accounts and gave the money to a person only identified as Individual A. The indictment says he told the FBI he kept the withdrawn cash in his possession because “he did not feel safe with the banking system.” 
Dennis Hastert, the former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, was charged by the U.S. attorney’s office Thursday with one count of making a false statement to the FBI and one count of structuring transactions to evade the bank reporting requirement. He allegedly withdrew about $1.7 million from bank accounts and gave the money to a person only identified as Individual A. The indictment says he told the FBI he kept the withdrawn cash in his possession because “he did not feel safe with the banking system.”  — AP Photo, Susan Walsh

A scene from “My Cousin Vinny” demonstrates the difficulties Dennis Hastert may face if he goes to trial on a charge of lying to FBI agents, a criminal-defense attorney and former federal prosecutor said today.

Interrogating a suspect about a robbery and murder at a convenience store, an Alabama sheriff asks in the 1992 movie: “At what point did you shoot the clerk?”

The suspect, who is guilty only of accidentally shoplifting a can of tuna, is confused and replies: “I shot the clerk?”

Construed by the sheriff as a straightforward declaration — “I shot the clerk” — the statement leads to a murder charge.

Phillip A. Turner, a criminal-defense lawyer who is not involved in Hastert’s case, said inflection and tone of voice are important when considering statements made by suspects.

But Hastert, the former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, likely has no physical evidence to bolster a defense — if he chooses to pursue it — that there is an innocent construction to his alleged lie about why he withdrew $1.7 million from his bank accounts, Turner said.

The indictment alleges Hastert indicated to the FBI agents that he wanted to store the cash because “he did not feel safe with the banking system.”

Asked to confirm that this mistrust was the reason for the withdrawals, the indictment alleges, Hastert replied: “Yeah … I kept the cash. That’s what I’m doing.”

Although the FBI has “a billion-dollar budget” that could cover the cost of tape recorders, Turner said, it has a long-standing policy of not recording interviews of subjects in criminal investigations.

“It’s ridiculous,” Turner said. “It’s absurd.”

And he said this policy probably means the only record of Hastert’s interview with FBI agents are the handwritten notes the agents took.

Handwritten notes would contain “just the substance” of the interview, Turner said, not the tone and nuance of any statements Hastert made.

Patrick M. Collins, a former federal prosecutor now with Perkins, Coie LLP, also said the FBI interview as a whole “is going to be very relevant” to Hastert’s case.

“The key issue is going to be what did he say and how did he say it,” Collins said.

And the first question to ask on that point, he said, is whether there is a recording of the interview.

Last year, the U.S. Justice Department announced a new policy requiring the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies to electronically record statements made by individuals following their arrest but before their first court appearance.

The policy applies only to people who are in federal custody. Hastert was not in custody when he was interviewed by the FBI in December.

On Thursday, a federal grand jury in Chicago indicted Hastert.

Hastert, 73, is a former Republican congressman from Illinois who served as House speaker from 1999 to 2007.

He was a lobbyist with Dickstein, Shapiro LLP in Washington, D.C., until he resigned from the law firm within hours of his indictment.

Hastert is accused of agreeing to pay $3.5 million in hush money to a person identified only as Individual A.

Hastert agreed to pay the money to prevent the disclosure of his “misconduct” against Individual A years earlier, the indictment alleges.

From 2010 to 2014, it alleges, Hastert withdrew about $1.7 million from various bank accounts and gave the money to Individual A.

Those withdrawals included 15 of $50,000 each — for a total of $750,000 — from June 2010 through April 2012, the indictment alleges.

After he was questioned by bank officials, the indictment alleges, Hastert withdrew another $952,000 in increments of less than $10,000.

Hastert structured the withdrawals that way to prevent the banks from filing the currency transaction reports that are required by federal law for any transaction involving $10,000 or more, the indictment says.

In 2013, it continues, the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service began investigating whether the withdrawals constituted illegal structuring.

Among the questions raised by the withdrawals were whether Hastert was using the cash for a criminal purpose or whether he was “the victim of a criminal extortion related to, among other matters, his prior positions in government,” the indictment says.

The indictment alleges Hastert lied when he was questioned by FBI agents in Plano.

Plano is a city in Kendall County near Yorkville, where Hastert was a high school teacher and coached wrestling and football from 1965 to 1981.

Individual A also lived in Yorkville, the indictment says, and has known Hastert for most of his or her life.

Hastert is charged with one count of making a false statement to the FBI and one count of structuring transactions to evade the reporting requirement.

Currency transaction reports are used to collect evidence against suspected terrorists, drug traffickers, tax evaders and money launderers.

Currency transaction reports also played a part in uncovering then-New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s payments to a prostitution service. Although he was never charged with a crime, the scandal led to Spitzer’s resignation in 2008.

Today, both Turner and Sergio E. Acosta said it is unusual for a structuring charge to be brought as a stand-alone charge rather than in connection to another crime.

“These are usually related to someone who is doing it in order to cover up some kind of criminal conduct,” said Acosta, a former federal prosecutor who now is with Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP.

But in Hastert’s case, he said, there is no allegation that he structured the withdrawals to evade taxes or to conceal some other crime.

Each count against Hastert carries a maximum statutory penalty of five years in prison and $250,000 fine.

The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Durkin. United States v. John Dennis Hastert, No. 15 CR 315.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Steven A. Block and Carrie E. Sussman, who practices law under the name Carrie Hamilton.