One of Hastert’s alleged victims is Scott Cross, 53, a former Yorkville High School student athlete who testified at today’s hearing.
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Hastert, the longest-serving Republican House speaker in history and a successful global lobbyist who was earning $75,000 a month, pleaded guilty last October to the crime of structuring.
He was also sentenced to two years of supervised release once he finishes his prison term.
Hastert for the first time admitted to sexually abusing at least one teenage boy when asked directly by Durkin, but said he did not recall molesting Scott Cross, the younger brother of former Illinois House Republican leader Tom Cross, to whom Hastert was a political mentor.
IL stripped former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Dennis Hastert of his teacher’s pension on Wednesday, but his sentencing for a federal financial crime linked to past sex abuse will not cost him a second, more lucrative state pension. “I wanted you to know the pain and suffering he caused me then, and still causes me today”. Hastert “takes sole responsibility for this tragic situation and deeply apologizes to all those affected by his actions”, they said in a statement. At the sentencing, Hastert admitted to wrongdoing and apologized to the boys he “mistreated”, including Reinboldt. “They looked up to me and what I did was wrong”.
Barbara Blaine, national president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a group that advocates for sex abuse victims, said she was pleased with the sentence. When Durkin asked whether he sexually abused one wrestler specifically, Hastert said yes.
He faces a prison sentence of up to five years.
Hastert had pleaded guilty to paying hushing money to cover up the accusations.
Judge Durkin said that Hastert’s sentence would have been higher if not for Hastert’s age.
Federal Judge Thomas Durkin, who gave Hastert a longer sentence than recommended by prosecutors, described the former politician as “serial child molester”.
“As a 17-year-old boy I was devastated”, Scott said.
Had it not been for the statute of limitations on sex crimes running out long ago, the judge said, Hastert could well have been convicted of sexually abusing children. The Republican served under presidents Bill Clinton in 1999 and George Bush between 2001 and 2007 but his reputation is in tatters as he becomes one of the highest-ranking politicians in United States history to go to prison.
She turned toward Hastert and said, “Don’t be a coward. tell the truth”. He called his abuse by Hastert, who was his wrestling coach, as “his darkest secret as [Hastert] became more powerful”. Durkin said that an extremely aggravating factor in the sentencing was that Hastert lied to federal agents about the money and falsely claimed that the victim was extorting him.
Due to a stroke in November of 2015, Hastert is expected to surrender himself to a penitentiary’s medical facility at some point in time, but it’s now unclear when that will be. He was the equipment manager on Hastert’s very successful Yorkville High School wrestling team.
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His punishment would have been much more severe, had he been charged with sexual abuse of a minor.
