CHICAGO (AP) – Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, awaiting sentencing in a hush-money case, had a stroke during the first week of November and has been hospitalized since then, his attorney said Thursday in a statement.
Attorney Tom Green said in a statement that Hastert had a stroke, has been treated for sepsis, which is a complication from an infection, and had two back surgeries while in the hospital.
“We are very hopeful that Mr. Hastert will be released from the hospital in the early part of the new year,” Green said. “The family very much desires that during Mr. Hastert’s continued hospitalization his privacy will be respected.”
Hastert was accused in May of evading banking regulations as part of a plan to pay hush money to conceal his “prior misconduct.” Anonymous sources told The Associated Press and other media outlets that Hastert wanted to hide claims that he sexually molested someone decades earlier.
The 73-year-old pleaded guilty Oct. 28 to a felony count of evading bank reporting laws in a hush-money scheme. In the written plea agreement, the Illinois Republican directly acknowledged for the first time that he sought to pay someone $3.5 million to hide misconduct by Hastert against that person dating back several decades – about the time the longtime GOP leader was a high school wrestling coach.