Disgraced former Republican Speaker of the House and convicted child molester Dennis Hastert has reportedly settled one of his ongoing legal issues surrounding his abuse of teenagers during his time as a wrestling coach at Yorkville High School, Illinois. The Associated Press reports that a “tentative out-of-court settlement” was reached between Hastert and one of the men he abused as a child regarding hush money Hastert had promised to pay back in 2010.
The settlement comes days before a civil trial between Hastert and the man (only identified as James Doe) was to begin. According to AP, the trial would have focused on whether or not Hastert still owed the man $1.8 million in a hush-money deal the two had verbally agreed upon. In the deal, the victim, a student of Hastert’s when he was abused, would keep quiet about Hastert’s sexual abuse in exchange for a total $3.5 million paid out over 5 years. The agreement between the former Speaker and James Doe was the focus of Hastert’s indictment on federal charges in 2015, after Hastert was investigated for moving around large sums of money in violation of banking reporting requirements. That investigation revealed the details of his sexually predatory past.