Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert has been released from prison in Minnesota and transferred to a Chicago re-entry facility.
Hastert is nearing the end of a 15-month sentence that a federal judge gave him in April 2016 in a case that revealed accusations that he had sexually abused teenagers while he coached wrestling at Yorkville High School.
Federal Bureau of Prisons records show Hastert is no longer at the Minnesota federal prison where he was serving his sentence. The records indicate he is at a Chicago residential re-entry management office. Records list his release date as Aug. 16.
The 75-year-old pleaded guilty to violating federal banking law in seeking to pay $3.5 million in hush money to keep the sex abuse secret.
Hastert represented Illinois’s 14th district from 1987 to 2007. The Plano Republican succeeded Newt Gingrich as U.S. House Speaker in 1999 and held the position until Democrats took control of the House in 2007.
A man who says Dennis Hastert sexually abused him when he was a teen says he didn't ask to be notified of the former House speaker's release from prison and remains intent on moving on with his life.
Scott Cross said he doesn't regret coming forward and testifying about the abuse during Hastert’s sentencing hearing in April 2016.
Cross said he still believes Hastert's 15-month sentence was a "slap on the wrist." But he said federal authorities "got him on what they could."
