The Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly) Board of Trustees Co-Chairs Anthony Barsamian and Van Krikorian encouraged the United States Court to “impose the maximum lawful sentence on Defendant John Hastert” in the case of United States v. John Dennis Hastert.

The Assembly Co-Chairmen delivered a letter to the Honorable Thomas M. Durkin at Everett McKinley Dirksen United States Courthouse in order to rebuke the Letters In Support Of Defendant John Dennis Hastert, filed by Defendant's counsel on April 22, ECF No. 94.

“Defendant is not a person of good moral character," Barsamian and Krikorian stated. "He is not deserving of the Court's sentencing leniency."

Hastert is being charged for bribing his sexual abuse victims, of which some of the monies used were traced back to the Republic of Turkey and its domestic shell entities.

“Tragically, Defendant's actions, in addition to silencing his victims, also helped silence the voices of innumerable American descendants of ethnic Armenian women and children who were sexually abused and forced into slavery by their Ottoman Turkish aggressors,” the Assembly Co-Chairs pointed out.

Sibel Edmonds, an FBI translator at the time, provided confidential testimony to congressional staffers, the Office of Inspector General, and the 9/11 Commission, where she reported hearing Turkish wiretap targets boast that they [Turks] had a covert relationship with a very senior politician, former Speaker Hastert, since 1999. "The targets reportedly discussed giving Hastert tens of thousands of dollars in surreptitious payments in exchange for political favors and information," Vanity Fairdisclosed  as far back as 2005.

The monies allocated from Turkey, which included monthly payments of $35,000, thwarted congressional legislation that would recognize the Armenian Genocide.

 “Defendant's trading in his role as Speaker to peddle foreign influence for such reprehensible ends is a powerful indicator of his cold, calculated immorality,” Barsamian and Krikorian emphasized in the letter.