Did former House Speaker Dennis Hastert serve time for charges related to past sexual abuse of a minor?
Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert was sentenced in 2016 to 15 months in prison, two years of supervised release and other penalties for paying hush money to cover up sexual abuse of a minor. Hastert, who served as speaker from 1999 to 2007, had abused an unnamed “Individual A" when he was his wrestling coach several decades ago.
While statutes of limitations had expired on any potential charges related to the abuse of Individual A or other minors, investigators discovered that Hastert agreed to pay Individual A $3.5 million in compensation. Hastert was charged for the illegal structuring of cash withdrawals and for lying to the government about those activities in order to hold him “accountable for the crimes he committed that can still be prosecuted.”
Hastert admitted to sexually abusing multiple minors; the sentencing judge called him a “serial child molester."