Education
Born in Tetonia, Idaho, Hansen graduated from Ricks College (now Brigham Young University-Idaho) in 1956 and did graduate work at Idaho State University.
United States representative politician
Born in Tetonia, Idaho, Hansen graduated from Ricks College (now Brigham Young University-Idaho) in 1956 and did graduate work at Idaho State University.
He served in the United States. House of Representatives for 14 years, representing Idaho"s 2nd district from 1965 to 1969 and again from 1975 to 1985. He served in the United States. Air Force from 1951 to 1954 and the United States. Naval Reserve from 1964 to 1970. Hansen moved to Alameda, Idaho, and was established as a life insurance salesman by 1958.
He was elected mayor in 1961 and supported its merger with Pocatello the following year.
Following the merger, Hansen served as a Pocatello city commissioner until 1965. He again ran for the United States. Senate in 1968, but lost to two-term incumbent Frank Church, who would serve four terms.
Hansen ran a third unsuccessful Senate campaign in 1972, losing the primary to 1st district congressman Jim McClure. Congressman Hansen went to Tehran in 1979 in the middle of the Iran hostage crisis to try to negotiate with hostage takers through the fence of the United States. Embassy.
In 1980 Hansen published a book titled To Harass Our People: The Internal Revenue Service and Government Abuse of Power.
Hansen was reprimanded by the House in 1984 for failing to include transactions on federal disclosure forms. He was defeated for re-election by less than 200 votes that year by Democrat Richard Stallings. Hansen tried unsuccessfully to challenge the election result.
He was convicted of failing to file full disclosure forms and spent 15 months in prison.
His imprisonment is alleged to have included torture through medical neglect and subjection to "diesel therapy," a form of punishment in which prisoners are painfully shackled and then transported for days or weeks without respite. The conviction was overturned in 1995 as a result of the United States. Supreme Court decision Hubbard v.
United States, which adopted a narrower interpretation of the law under which Hansen was prosecuted. But it was not an automatic process.
First Hansen filed an appeal based on ineffective assistance of counsel, in which most of his arguments were rejected but his sentence was reduced based on a change in the law, then in further litigation, his conviction was overturned based on the Hubbard decision.
In 1993, Hansen was convicted of 45 counts of bank fraud for a multimillion-dollar check-kiting scheme
In 2014, he died at a hospital in Pocatello, Idaho, aged 83.
In Washington, Hansen was known as one of the most conservative members of Congress, and a particularly vocal critic of the Internal Revenue Service.