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Hastert to assault victim: Pay back $1.7M in hush money

CHICAGO (AP) — Imprisoned former House speaker Dennis Hastert wants one of his sexual abuse victims to return the $1.7 million in hush money the Illinois Republican paid him over several years, according to a court filing this week in an ongoing civil case.

The document is a counter claim to the victim’s breach-of-contract lawsuit that he filed last year, arguing that Hastert owed him $1.8 million — what he said was the unpaid balance of an unwritten $3.5 million hush-money deal.

Hastert, 75, is serving a 15-month sentence in a federal prison for violating banking laws as he withdrew thousands of dollars, starting in 2010, to pay the victim, abruptly halting the payments after the FBI interviewed Hastert in late 2014.

Documents in Hastert’s federal criminal case say he abused the victim — referred to in filings only as “Individual A” — when he was 14 in the late 1970s when Hastert coached wrestling at suburban Chicago’s Yorkville High School.

The Wednesday filing on Hastert’s behalf in Kendall County Circuit Court asserts the victim was obliged to keep quiet about their deal “for the remainder of his life.”

“Since Plaintiff breached his obligations … any nonperformance on the part of Defendant (Hastert) is excused,” the filing said.

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