Hastert Portrait Removed from House Hallway

[SteveRogers]

I completely agree with Classic Conservative. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the hush money part either. He was free to do what he wanted as I have previously stated, and it is despicable that our government is prosecuting him for that. Also, I'd bet there are a lot of portraits of slaveholders in our Federal buildings. Must all those be removed too, or does "time-context" make that acceptable. Is there no objectively morality?

This article is not exactly about the topic, but a lot of it involves how I feel on the matter of this case: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/426386/denny-hastert-money-laundering-sentencing-reform

Lol, the government isn't prosecuting him for paying hush money. He absolutely had the right to pay off his blackmailer. What he did not have the right to do was launder money for that purpose any more than he had a right to sell drugs or rob a bank to raise his hush money.  

As for whether the House should be removing his portrait, my gut says that it feels like a disservice to the public for the House to start trying to remove the history of its terrible leadership choices.

[SteveRogers]

I completely agree with Classic Conservative. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the hush money part either.

I guarantee you that you have never been more wrong in your life.

It is commonsense that structuring should not be a crime when no other crime bring committed let alone when they are a victim of other crimes. What good does taking this case do? It's utter silliness, and they are only doing it as statutes expired for other crimes.

What good does structuring your transactions do? It is worth noting that the prosecutor in such cases is required to prove that the defendant knew about the reporting requirements and purposefully structured their transactions to avoid them. Yes, the law is designed to prevent individuals from hiding the flow of cash to and from criminal activity, but it wouldn't be a very useful law if you had to prove the existence of another crime in order to charge it. The whole point is that the hiding of the money is itself a crime.