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YORKVILLE, Ill. (AP) – Once powerful former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Dennis Hastert and a man who accused him of child sex abuse reached an out-of-court settlement on Wednesday on Hastert’s refusal to pay $ 1.8 million in return for the man’s silence, lawyers for the two men said.
Lawyers have not disclosed details of the settlement in the case, which was due to go to trial next week in Illinois court.
The man was only called James Doe in court documents since the breach of contract lawsuit was filed in 2016. He said Hastert only paid him about half of the $ 3.5 million promised in secret money.
Federal prosecutors said in a related criminal case that sent Hastert to jail for over a year since the deal was voluntarily reached and the victim never sought to blackmail the Illinois Republican into publicizing the abuse. This happened when the victim was a high school wrestler and Hastert, now 79, was his trainer.
Hastert paid $ 1.7 million over four years, but stopped payments after the FBI questioned him in 2014 about illegally concealing huge cash withdrawals from his bank. After Hastert pleaded guilty to a banking charge and was convicted in 2016, the victim sued for breach of contract in order to force Hastert to pay the remaining $ 1.8 million.
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