Isnt Extortion News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Threatening to go public with it. isn't extortion a crime? >> extortion is a crime. just because individual a was not charged today. it doesn't mean a charge might not be coming down the line or it could be a charge exists right now and is sealed and we don't know about it. i don't think just because there are no charges pending at least public live now, we don't know what's going to happen down the line. >> i asked, too, keeping in mind other different types of criminal charges against public officials where it's more typically what we're looking at is something like bribery or an alleged qui...

For the underlying crime of this alleged sexual misconduct with a kid or with kids while he was a teacher and a coach back in illinois before he ever entered politics, especially if prosecutors did talk to more than one kid, who says he or she went through that with him, even if only one of the kids decided to blackmail him for it down the road. legally how did we get here? what's going to happen next? joining us is jeffrey cramer. he's a former federal prosecutor. he's now the seep i don't remember managing director in chicago. thank you very much for your time. thank you for being here. >> g...

Breadcrumbs to follow in terms of how it came to be. and it was the cash. the feds say in their indictment they started in 2013 looking into large, suspicious withdrawals dennis hastert had been withdrawing since 2010. they started looking to see if he was using them for a criminal purpose. in addition because denny hastert was a former high ranking politician they say they were looking to see if he was the victim of a criminal extortion related to among other matters, his prior positions in government. turns out, according to law enforcement sources today, he was not being criminally extorted...

Nbc has not -- has not corroborated this aspect of the reporting and is not testifying to it. that's why i'm being specific in attributing it to the "l.a. times "and to "buzz feed." but where we're at now is speaker hastert has paid bail, he's out on his own recognizance, he's due to be in court as soon as next week to face these charges, but if these reports from law enforcement sources today turn out to be accurate, i mean, two big questions, right? if dennis hastert was being extorted, if he was being shook down by someone he alleged live sexually abused when that person was a teenager and ...

Being shook down for this $3.5 million and he was paying it sloppily, which is why he got caught. it's extortion itself a crime? why is there no indictment for whoever was extorting him, shaking him down, blackmailing him? and then there's this other matter of what he was being extorted for. and this is not in the indictment. and this is according to law enforcement sources speaking to multiple press outlets today. but if federal prosecutors turned up evidence that dennis hastert engaged in some kind of sexual misconduct with a student while he was a teacher and a coach, isn't there an underly...