Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert reached a plea deal with prosecutors Thursday, admitting that he agreed to pay $3.5 million in extortion money to hush up allegations of sexual misconduct with a minor when he was a high school wrestling coach.
The deal was announced durting a hearing in District Court in Chicago. The Illinois Republican will officially plea guilty to lying to the FBI about the payments on Oct. 28.
The plea caps a sordid saga that shocked both Washington and his home state of Illinois. Hastert, 73, had cultivated a reputation as a lawmaker without a hint of scandal while searving as speaker from 1998 through 2007. He was revered back home for his coaching record, having led Yorkville High School, where he also served as a teacher, to a state wrestling title in 1976.
That all came crashing down in May when Hastert, by then a lobbyist, was indicted by a federal grand jury for federal charges that he lied to federal agents about why he withdrew $952,000 from his accounts, just under the amount that requires banks to report the transaction. Subsequents reports revealed that the money was to pay an unnamed individual who threatened to reveal damaging information about Hastert’s misconduct while at Yorkville High School.
The FBI said the former speaker attempted to hide $1.7 million in withdrawals from his bank accounts over the last five years by making withdrawals in amounts just under the reporting requirements.
Hastert has not publicly spoken since the charges became public. He has not been charged with any crimes directly related to abuse of minors.
The extortionist has been described by anonymous federal authorities as a Yorkville High School student who Hastert had molested decades earlier.
After the indictments became public, Jolene Budge, sister of former Hastert student Steven Reinboldt, said her brother confided to her in 1986 that he had been molested by Hastert before he graduated high school in 1971. Reinboldt died of AIDS-related complications in 1995.
