Dennis Hastert pleads guilty to evading banking laws; deal recommends up to 6 months in prison

CHICAGO – Dennis Hastert pleaded guilty Wednesday to evading banking laws in a hush-money scheme, averting a trial by agreeing to a deal with federal prosecutors that recommends the former House speaker serve no more than six months in prison.

The plea helped seal the downfall of a man who rose from obscurity in rural Illinois to the nation’s third-highest political office. During his eight years as speaker, Hastert was second in the line of succession to the presidency.

Before accepting the plea, the 73-year-old Republican was warned by the judge that he could go beyond the recommendation and give Hastert up to five years behind bars when he is sentenced in February.

Because the plea agreement has a sentencing range from no prison time to six months, U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Durkin could also decide to put Hastert on probation or home confinement.

As he stepped to the lectern to answer a series of questions, he spoke in a voice so soft that the judge at one point told him to speak up.

The hearing revealed no new details about why Hastert agreed to pay $3.5 million to an unidentified person. The indictment says the payments were meant to conceal past misconduct by Hastert against that person, but it does not explain the nature of the wrongdoing.

The Associated Press and other media, citing anonymous sources, have reported that the payments were meant to hide claims of sexual misconduct from decades ago.

At the half-hour hearing in Chicago, a subdued Hastert read from a brief written statement that — like his indictment — focused narrowly on how he technically broke banking laws.

By pleading guilty, Hastert avoids a trial that could have divulged the embarrassing secrets dating back to his days as a high-school wrestling coach that he presumably wanted to keep under wraps by paying hush money.

Judges are also generally more likely to give lighter sentences to defendants who accept responsibility for their actions and spare the government the cost of a trial.

The 15-page plea deal, which Hastert signed Wednesday, was released after the hearing. In it, he acknowledged the unnamed person and that the two “discussed past misconduct” by Hastert against that person, who is only referred to as “Individual A.” That discussion led to the agreement for $3.5 million.

In exchange for the plea, prosecutors were expected to drop a charge stemming from lying to the FBI.

Sentencing was scheduled for Feb. 29.

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Associated Press Writer Eric Tucker in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

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Follow Michael Tarm on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mtarm .

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This story has been corrected to show that Hastert pleaded guilty to evading banking laws, not lying to the FBI.