Former U.S. house speaker Dennis Hastert was sentenced to 15 months in prison, followed by 2 years of supervised release at a Chicago court on April 27. The sentencing makes Hastert one of the highest-ranking politicians in American history to be incarcerated.
The hush-money trial involved at least four students who he allegedly sexually abused decades ago when he was a wrestling coach at an Illinois high school.
Hastert told the court he was “deeply ashamed,” and that “he mistreated” students he coached, admitting that he sexually abused his victims.
Hastert, the 74-year-old Republican who served as U.S. House Speaker from 1999 to 2007, was wheeled into the Chicago Federal Courthouse before his sentencing.
Last year, he pleaded guilty to breaking a banking law as he attempted to pay $3.5 million to a person named in court documents as Individual A to hide his past. His plea suggested probation to a maximum of a 6 month sentence.
