Former Speaker Hastert released from prison

Former Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) has been released from a Minnesota federal prison where he served 13 months for a bank fraud conviction linked to his effort to conceal his past sexual abuse of teenage boys, USA Today reported. 

Hastert, 75, pleaded guilty to a May 2015 indictment that accused him of illegally structuring bank withdrawals and lying to the FBI in an effort to pay off someone known publicly as “Individual A,” who claimed that Hastert had abused him and later offered him a sum of $3.5 million to stay silent. 

Individual A said Hastert paid him about half of the agreed upon sum and sued him for the other half.

{mosads}The former Speaker admitted to the judge at his April 2016 sentencing hearing that he had sexually abused children in 1970s during his time as a wrestling coach at Yorkville High School in Illinois. 

Judge Thomas Durkin called Hastert a “serial child molester” at the sentencing, after prosecutors found at least five individuals Hastert abused during his time as a coach prior to his political career. 

Hastert is now being supervised by a residential re-entry management field office based in Chicago, after serving 13 months of his 15-month sentence. The judge sentenced the ex-Speaker to two years of supervised release, and he must report to a probation office within three days of the release. 

Hastert is the longest-serving Republican Speaker in history. He served 20 years in Congress and eight years as Speaker of the House.

“Nothing is more disturbing than having serial child molester and Speaker of the House in the same sentence,” the judge said.