Former GOP House Speaker and homophobe Dennis Hastert has just reached an out-of-court settlement in a hush money lawsuit involving decades-old allegations of sexual abuse days before the case was set to go to trial.
Hastert, who served as Speaker of the House from 1999 until 2007, during which he moved a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage after beating back attempts to strengthen hate crimes legislation, was being sued by a man accusing him of abusing him decades ago.
The alleged abuse happened in the 1970s when Hastert was a teacher at Yorkville High School and a state wrestling coach. His accuser, who has only been identified as John Doe, was a former student athlete who said the ex-lawmaker molested him when he was 14-years-old during a trip to an out-of-state wrestling camp.
In 2016, the man filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit against Hastert seeking an unpaid balance in hush money payments. Hastert only paid $1.7 million of a reported $3.5 million agreement before the payments stopped when he was was accused of structuring bank withdrawals to evade bank reporting requirements and making false statements to the FBI.
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In a plea deal with federal prosecutors, Hastert pleaded guilty to the structuring charge and the charge of making false statements was dropped. In their court submissions, prosecutors alleged that Hastert had molested at least four boys, some as young as 14 years, during his time as a high school wrestling coach.
At his sentencing hearing, Hastert admitted to the abusing boys he had once coached. A federal judge called him “serial child molester” then sentenced him to 15 months in prison, two years’ supervised release, and a $250,000 fine.
The terms of the Hastert’s settlement this week are not being publicly released, but Kristi Browne, the lawyer for his accuser, told reporters that, while the litigation is officially over, her client will continue to be affected by what happened to him as a child forever.
“It’s never over for a victim of child sexual abuse,” Browne said, according to the Tribune. “It impacts them the rest of their lives.”
Neither Hastert nor his attorney John Ellis have commented on the settlement.
Graham Gremore is the Features Editor and a Staff Writer at Queerty. Follow him on Twitter @grahamgremore.
Cam
It isn’t “alleged” sexual assault if he was convicted or admitted to it. Queerty can state flat out that he did molest those kids, not allegedly.
As usual with Republicans, another typical Republican child molester.
Max
a homophobic creep that molested male children. disgusting hypocrite. abuse of adult power and surely guaranteed his place at the infernal pit.
stagehand1
He’s a republican. Who could expect anything more?
Fahd
My best wishes to his victims in continuing with any therapy to reduce the impact this has had on them.
A question that remains for me is how someone who comes into Congress from having been a high school teacher/wrestling coach can use his position in Congress to get to the point where he can pay millions in “hush money”, pay fines in the hundreds of thousands, and pay endless legal fees which must be into the millions of dollars too. To me, being elected to Congress shouldn’t automatically lead to that accumulation of wealth, but apparently there’s no crime involved there – at least it’s not mentioned. Maybe there’s some insurance involved.
On the bright side, at least his victims weren’t looking at a situation where they couldn’t even get monetary compensation from their molester.
nitejonboy
May he burn in hell. Wouldn’t bother me if someone took care of him, if ya get my drift, SOB would have it coming.
Phuryous4
The judge called him a “serial child molester” but only sentenced him to 15 months in prison? Were there sentencing limits?
barryaksarben
YEah the unofficial ones that only affect white guys
hoosier1969
If I recall the case correctly, the statute of limitations had long passed on the child abuse charges. He was sentenced based on the other “money laundering” charges. And yes, he got the “White Guy Special” with those charges.
Kangol2
This horrendous homophobic pedophile monster was not only elected to Congress but made Speaker of the House by the GOP. His crimes weren’t just “alleged,” Queerty, he was convicted of them, and he admitted to molesting more children. He should never have gotten out of prison; his sentence was a joke.
trojanboy
Spawn of satan
TomG
We already KNEW that GOP members were closet gays and abused page boys but it seems Hastert started early in his abuse of boys. However, both he and the abusee should be arrested one for sexual assault of minors and one for extortion.