CHICAGO (AP) – Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert is due to report by Wednesday afternoon to a federal prison in southeastern Minnesota that has held other disgraced VIPs, including a former congressional colleague and a televangelist.
Starting his 15-month sentence in a hush-money case caps an already epic fall from being second in line to the presidency to an admitted child molester. Prosecutors say the 74-year-old Republican sexually abused at least four boys when he coached high school wrestling.
The nation’s longest-serving GOP speaker will be known as Inmate No. 47991-424 and becomes one of the highest-ranking U.S. politicians to ever do prison time. A look at what awaits Hastert:
WHEN AND WHERE
Hastert must show up at the Rochester Federal Medical Center by 2 p.m. Wednesday. Inmates-to-be usually wait until just before the reporting deadline, but Hastert, who has been free on bond, could choose to report earlier to elude a crush of reporters and TV cameras. U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Durkin recommended this facility for the ailing Hastert during sentencing on April 27.