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WNIJ's summary of news items around our state.

Dennis Hastert Sex Abuse Accuser Expected To Testify In Two Weeks

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A person accusing Dennis Hastert of sex abuse is expected to testify at Hastert's sentencing in two weeks. The judge said he wants to consider if Hastert lied to the FBI when he said a person he was paying money to was extorting him.

Prosecutors say Hastert was paying the money to ensure that an individual stayed silent about being abused decades ago. He pleaded guilty to breaking banking law.

Hastert's lawyers are questioning whether what the former U.S. House speaker did to a former wrestler to whom he agreed to pay $3.5 million was actually sexual abuse.

A defense filing unsealed Wednesday calls “ambiguous” a motel-room incident given by the man at the center of the hush-money case, known in court papers as “Individual A.” Individual A was 14 and Hastert was a high school wrestling coach at the time.

Hastert's pleaded guilty to breaking banking law as he sought to pay Individual A. His sentencing is April 27.

Prosecutors say Individual A said Hastert suggested he could massage the boy's groin injury and touched him inappropriately. They described it as sexual abuse.

Defense attorneys say they “are not so certain that the incident qualifies as sexual misconduct” but that Hastert “deeply regrets” the episode.

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