During the 1990s through the 2000s, Americans saw the most extreme criminalization and prisonization of any society in human history. Policymakers at every level created and extended a vast police state, with thousands of prisons, cops all over every street, troopers patrolling every highway and warrantless surveillance of virtually all communications.
At the lead of this police-state transformation was the U.S. Congress, and at its helm was Dennis Hastert, the Speaker of the U.S. House during the George W. Bush years. Hastert led the House in enacting draconian measures such as the USA Patriot Act, the Telecom Immunity Acts (to immunize telecom firms which violated client privacy) and a vast expansion of police powers and budgets at the federal level.
Now Hastert has been caught by the web he helped construct. The Justice Department looked into Hastert’s banking habits and investigated why Hastert appeared to be engaging in a large amount of cash transactions. Federal prosecutors have indicted Hastert for lying to FBI agents about the reasons for his cash withdrawals. The real reason for the cash withdrawals? The federal indictment tantalizes us with hints of salacious details, claiming Hastert need the cash to pay off an “individual” who would otherwise go public with embarrassing information about Hastert’s “misconduct.”
The indictment does not specify what “misconduct” Hastert was paying to keep quiet. Adultery? Satan worship? Child molestation? Hiring hitmen? Too many unpaid parking tickets?
Rest assured the Feds will roll out such intriguing details in the coming months. All in the pageantry of the modern American Stalinesque neoSoviet justice system that Hastert helped create and empower.
