The Latest: Hastert's lawyer responds to prosecution filing
CHICAGO (AP) - The Latest on former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert's hush-money case (all times local):
3:05 p.m.
Dennis Hastert's lawyer has responded to a new filing by prosecutors that alleges the former U.S. House speaker abused at least four former students.
A statement emailed Saturday on attorney Thomas Green's behalf doesn't mention abuse. It speaks only in general terms about past misconduct by the 74-year-old Republican.
It says "Hastert acknowledges that as a young man he committed transgressions for which he is profoundly sorry."
His accusers say the abuse occurred when Hastert taught and coached in Yorkville, Illinois, in the 1970s and 1980s.
Green repeats what an earlier defense filing contends. He says "the public shaming" and "isolation" of Hastert has already been a significant punishment. Wednesday's filing asks for probation when Hastert is sentenced April 27.
Prosecutors' Friday filings detailed the alleged abuse for the first time. It said it occurred in a locker room and in a motel room.
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10:30 a.m.
Comedian Andy Richter says he remembers the chair facing the showers that Dennis Hastert placed in the boys' locker room at the high school where Hastert coached wrestling before becoming a congressman.
Richter went to Yorkville High School in the 1980s. He tweeted about the chair Friday night after prosecutors mentioned it in a court filing in the former House speaker's hush-money case.
Richter, the sidekick on Conan O'Brien's TV show, says he was "struck by how easy it was" for Hastert to do that. He added: "Nobody questioned it."
Prosecutors say Hastert agreed to pay $3.5 million to a man he sexually abused when the man was a 14-year-old wrestler on Hastert's team. The court filing details sexual abuse allegations involving five former students.
Hastert pleaded guilty in October to breaking banking laws in connection to the payments.
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12:40 a.m.
Prosecutors in Dennis Hastert's hush-money case are seeking up to six months in prison for the former U.S. House speaker.
Prosecutors said they are seeking zero to six months in prison as part of a Friday court filing. The filing also says Hastert agreed to pay $3.5 million to a victim for sex abuse when victim was 14 years old.
The 74-year-old Republican managed to keep any hint of sexual misconduct quiet throughout a political career that carried him from the Illinois Legislature to the halls of Congress and eventually to the speaker's office, where he was second in the line of succession to the presidency.
Hastert pleaded guilty in October to breaking banking laws as he sought to pay $3.5 million to someone referred to as Individual A to ensure the person kept quiet about Hastert's past misconduct.
He is scheduled to be sentenced April 27.