CHICAGO (AP) — The Latest on the sentencing of former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert (all times local):
7:30 a.m.
Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert has arrived at a federal courthouse in Chicago for his sentencing in a hush-money case centered on sex-abuse allegations.
A man helped the 74-year-old Republican out of a black SUV and into a wheelchair along the curb outside the high-rise courthouse in downtown Chicago on Wednesday morning. His attorneys say he has been in poor health after nearly dying from a blood infection and suffering a stroke in November.
Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert arrives at Chicago Federal Courthouse for sentencing @CBSEveningNews pic.twitter.com/0WkyIHV1aa
— Gilad Thaler (@GiladThaler) April 27, 2016
Hastert pleaded guilty to breaking banking law as he sought to pay someone $3.5 million. Prosecutors say it was hush money to conceal past sexual abuse against a student wrestler while Hastert was a high school teacher and coach.
His plea deal sets out a sentencing guideline ranging from probation to six months behind bars. But the judge could impose a harsher sentence.
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1 a.m.
Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert is stepping before a judge to learn his punishment in a hush-money case centered on sex-abuse allegations.
At Wednesday’s hearing in Chicago, federal prosecutors intend to focus on accusations that Hastert molested at least four students when he coached wrestling at an Illinois high school.
The 74-year-old Republican pleaded guilty to breaking banking law as he sought to pay someone $3.5 million to conceal dark secrets from his past. His plea deal suggests a sentence between probation and six months behind bars.
But Judge Thomas M. Durkin made comments at recent hearings suggesting he could impose a far stiffer sentence than a half-a-year in prison.
If that happens, Hastert would become one of the highest-ranking politicians in American history ever to be incarcerated.
The wheelchair is a nice touch.
A man helped the 74-year-old Republican out of a black SUV and into a wheelchair along the curb outside the high-rise courthouse in downtown Chicago on Wednesday morning. His attorneys say he has been in poor health after nearly dying from a blood infection and suffering a stroke in November.
I clerked for a trial judge many years ago. It’s amazing how many convicted criminals find (1) God and (2) life-threatening illnesses, prior to their sentencing.
Why hell! Just a wheelchair and walker??? Oh Denny! You should have gone full “Vincent ‘The Chin’ Gigante” on em’ and showed up in a bathrobe, house slippers and softly talking to yourself and occasionally weeping. Could have been a nice additional touch. And where’s the Babble’? Clutch a Babble’ and touch your flag lapel pin lovingly.
Why… The judge might have sentenced you to home monitoring and bed rest.
How much you want to bet that the chair vanishes later today? He must have retained Whiplash Willie as his attorney (The Fortune Cookie).
I hear the (Federal) Bureau of Prisons has plenty of wheelchairs in its inventory. 30,000 prisoners older than 50, in the federal system alone.