Thursday, June 11, 2015

Conflicted Federal Judge To Stay On Hastert's Case

It's an outrage that it's happening, but the Obama Justice Department has agreed to let Judge Thomas Durkin, a long-time campaign supporter of former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, to preside over the criminal case federal prosecutors have brought against him. Durkin's brother, James Durkin, is the Illinois House Republican leader. Judge Durkin publicly disclosed his conflict of interest at Hastert's arraignment hearing on Tuesday and offered to recuse himself from the case unless otherwise instructed by the parties.

Judge Durkin acknowledged $1,500 in campaign contributions he made to Hastert's past campaigns, as well as the fact he also worked as a partner at Meyer Brown, the same law firm where Hastert's son, Ethan, is also a partner. Durkin told lawyers in the case he believed he could still be an impartial judge in the case and gave them until today to waive his offer to disqualify himself from the case, which they acted upon today. It's probably no accident the case wound up in Judge Durkin's courtroom in the first place.

Someone asked me today why the feds would be going after Hastert all these years later after he was no longer a member of Congress. The answer is very clear to me. Whenever the Clintons' backs are against the wall, terrible things start happening to members of the Republican Party. During the Clinton impeachment process, successive Republican members of Congress were hit with allegations of infidelity, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Rep. Bob Livingston, Rep. Henry Hyde, and Rep. Dan Burton. Gingrich and Livingston were both forced to resign from Congress, while Clinton survived impeachment despite the fact that he obstructed justice and lied under oath to cover up an inappropriate relationship he had with a White House intern. Hyde's and Burton's infidelity charges dated back many decades earlier when they served as state lawmakers in their respective states of Illinois and Indiana.

A recent Florida civil case brought by a woman who claims to have been a victim of sexual abuse by billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, a close friend and political supporter of the Clintons, was proving to be quite embarrassing to the Clintons and the Obama administration. The Obama Justice Department covered up evidence that Epstein had been exploiting underage girls in a sex trafficking ring he allegedly ran for many years, and that many prominent politicians and businessmen participated in sex orgies with these underage girls at Epstein's expansive island retreats and on his luxury jet, including Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew, among others. This nasty problem was in addition to the problems plaguing Hillary Clinton's controversial tenure at the State Department, including the exploitation of the office to benefit financial supporters of the Clinton Foundation, the Benghazi debacle and the use of a private e-mail account for official business in violation of State Department rules.

Rumors about Hastert's sexual abuse of young boys while he was a teacher and wrestling coach at Yorkville High School have been around for decades, notwithstanding the media's pretense of being shocked about the nearly four decade-old allegations. Investigative reporter Wayne Madsen wrote about it extensively nearly a decade ago during the House page scandal when members of Congress were accused of sexually exploiting underage congressional pages, charges that surfaced right before a contentious mid-year election. Madsen's reporting was immediately met with scorn and derision by other members of the media. The same media folks reacted similarly when Madsen reported on long-rumored stories in Chicago circles that both Rahm Emanuel and Barack Obama had a history of engaging in sex with men on the down low while putting on a public pretense of being straight, married men. The Secret Service even raided a Chicago bathhouse frequented by gay men, Man's Country, after Madsen reported that both Emanuel and Obama had purchased life-time memberships at the club as a warning to the club's owners to keep quiet if they knew what was good for them.

It's my belief that many members of Congress, including House Speaker John Boehner, have been and are being blackmailed by the Obama White House. Hastert's unusual prosecution for charges unrelated to the underlying allegations of child sex abuse is meant to serve as a warning of what compromised  members of Congress will face if they don't capitulate to Obama's demands on matters that Republican members should be viewing skeptically, particular the controversial Trans Pacific Trade Agreement. The secrecy surrounding key provisions of the agreement President Obama negotiated calls into question whether the Republic established under the U.S. Constitution even exists anymore. U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan's suggestion that members should pass it and wait to find out what's in it until after it becomes law was too reminiscent of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's infamous words at the time of the passage of the Affordable Care Act. All indications are that the trade pact will be at least as devastating to American workers as virtually every other major trade pact enacted over the past 50 years has been.

Members of Congress who should be viewing the trade pact with healthy skepticism seem way too anxious to get it passed and behind them with little concern about how badly average Americans will be harmed by its provisions. The timing of Hastert's indictment just as Congress took up consideration of the controversial trade bill is suspect. Hastert will likely spend little, if any, time in jail, assuming things go as planned. The government will likely reach a favorable plea agreement with Hastert, whose reputation will forever be left in tatters. Hastert will have at least avoided the embarrassment of a public trial and, more importantly, escaped the criminal consequences for his more serious crimes. The Clintons will, once again, come out on top because compromised Republican leaders in Washington will get the message and lie low about what they really know about the Clintons' long-running criminal enterprise.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

No, the outrage is that Hastert is being prosecuted for doing what he pleased with his own money.

He's not on trial for abusing kids. He's on trial for taking his own money out of his own bank account.

Let's not lose sight of the fact that the government is more evil than Hastert in this case.

Gary R. Welsh said...

He got most of that money through very shady land deals that would have tripped up many other corrupt pols.

Anonymous said...

Yes, it is an outrage that supporter, friend, and crony Judge Thomas Durkin may be allowed to preside over the case of his friend Dennis Hastert; Durkin’s business relationship with Hastert family members is highly troubling as well. All these political connections in this Hastert situation remind me of Lawrence’s former Mayor Tom Schneider's (R) legal troubles after he colluded with his cronies to sell the Lawrence water company and how GOP political hack attorney David Brooks’ wife political hack attorney Susan Brooks (R)- then US attorney for the southern IN district- sure seemed to do her darn best to keep the guilty guy from being ruled guilty. In Indiana, political connections pay dividends and those dividends are enormous. Doesn’t that seem often to occur when political supporters and friends and allies are allowed to be involved in legal cases such as these? Just as with Tom Schneider’s unbelievable acquittal in disregard of the facts and with friendly Susan Brooks involved and at his side, the Dennis Hastert fix is probably in.

Skanky political hack attorneys aside, Advance Indiana again nails it that whenever a Clinton is in trouble by being exposed yet again for their dirty dealings, their dirty money, and their non-stop graft, charges arise against any Republican to deflect the horrid truth of the leeches we call The Clintons. Advance Indiana has my complete agreement that the socialists in the White House must have much dirt on John Boehner and other congress persons and probably also on McConnell and some GOP senators. The stunning allegiance Boehner and McConnell and even Paul Ryan have for leftist liberal Democrat Barak Obama’s anti- US Constitution schemes– allegiances against almost every promise Boehner and McConnell made during their re-election campaigns- has to be proof positive something more than dirty politics is occurring.

Anonymous said...

Really? "Whenever the Clintons' backs are against the wall, terrible things start happening to members of the Republican Party."? You blame Denny Hastert's prosecution for violating banking laws on the Clintons? And then throw in a little Obama gay sex allegation out of thin air to complete the circle. I guess you believe all this nonsense beyond a reasonable doubt, but I'm with the crowd chortling scorn and derision. Don't get me wrong, I think there is plenty of ugliness with the Hastert prosecution. I continue to be upset with gov. prosecution for lying to federal investigators when they aren't able to prosecute for underlying crimes. The statutes of limitations have run on child molestation. All he did was assert his innocence to investigators. And for that he will be charged with some obstruction of justice charge. Same thing that happened to Martha Stewart. Couldn't get her for insider trading, so they charged her with lying to investigators when all she did was claim she was innocent. And I think the man doing what he wanted to do with his own money was his business and shouldn't be a crime. He earned it, even if it was probably somewhat dirty lobbying money. And he paid taxes on it. Why shouldn't he pay it to some creep if he wants to? The whole damn thing ought to be dismissed. But to blame it on the Clintons, I just think its another dumb conspiracy theory. And if you can't pin it on the Clintons you're happy to pin it on Obama. Please.

Gary R. Welsh said...

Anon. 6:14, you and the mainstream media may choose to ignore it, but it's a fact the gay choir director at Obama's church, Donald Young, was murdered in December 2007 a short time after word started spreading of claims he made of a sexual relationship with Obama. Young's mother confirmed the close relationship her son had with Obama. Nobody ever established any other motive for someone entering his apartment (not breaking and entering) and shooting him multiple times without stealing anything. Chicago police aren't much interested in solving his killing either. Hastert's alleged sins are horrific, but there are equally troubling questions about Obama's past that are conveniently ignored by a fawning media.

Anonymous said...

Excellent, excellent, excellent rebuttal, Gary, to what I can only characterize as the sheer nonsense spewed by Anon 6:14. Left of center liberals, their slavish and fetishlike devotion to criminals like Bill and Hillary Clinton and far left liberal socialist figureheads like Barak Obama, engage in a continual suspension of reality to protect their cult religion dogma. And within Anon 6:14's left liberal cultish dogma is not a wit of logic but a boatload of emotional gibberish. These are typical leftist liberal "thought" patterns. They work to connect dots that have no causation, they strive to sound intelligent while being only snarky, and they excel in blaming anyone but the culprit.

Anonymous said...

Donald Young is your smoking gun? Another black man on the south side of Chicago murdered and because he was gay and used to be in Obama's church you pin his unsolved murder on Obama? Probably everyone in that church's mother has claimed to be friends with our President. If you were a judge on that case you wouldn't even allow that in as evidence. I don't understand your constant attempts to smear Obama as a murderous homosexual. He doesn't appear homosexual in any way to me. I just find your fascination with it odd, and your steady drumbeat of insinuation that he is also a murderer, also quite odd.

Gary R. Welsh said...

Sure there were a lot of people at Rev. Wright's church who knew Obama, but there was only one who was claiming a sexual relationship with him. "He doesn't appear homosexual in any way." I don't know how to respond to that. Dennis Hastert didn't appear to be homosexual when I used to see him at the Illinois State House on a daily basis and occasionally with his wife and two young boys. I would never have guessed the Bruce Jenner I watched win the Triathlon at the Olympics as a kid felt like a woman on the inside.

Anonymous said...

Move over Alex Jones you've got some local competition.