Former Speaker of the House J. Dennis Hastert has faced accusations of sexual abuse from multiple men who were on the high school wrestling team he coached, according to CBS. Their statute of limitations passed by the time his trial took place, but he was convicted of attempting to pay one of the men off to keep quit about the assault, and he'll be going to prison for it on Wednesday, The New York Times reported.
During his hearing in April, Hastert admitted to sexually abusing the wrestlers, CBS reported at the time. "They looked to me, and I took advantage of them," he said while awaiting his sentencing. "I apologize to the court and to the people of the United States."
He had offered to pay one victim $3.5 million to cover up the abuse, which violated a banking regulation.
Haster was the longest-serving Republican Speaker in the country, serving from 1999 to 2007. He coached wrestling from 1965 to 1981 and has been accused of abusing at least five young men during that time.
He will head Wednesday by 2 p.m. to the Federal Medical Center in Rochester, Minn. to start a 15-month sentence. His lawyers had claimed the 74-year-old was too physically unwell to serve the sentence, but the center is designed to address inmates' medical issues. After 15 months, he will have two years of supervised release, during which he will be unable to communicate with the former wrestlers. He will also pay a $250,000 fine for the crime.
