--- title: Dennis Hastert Hush Money: Former Speaker Pleads Guilty description: To making illegal cash withdrawals in alleged hush money scheme canonical: https://time.com/4090516/dennis-hastert-plea-deal-2/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-28T15:21:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T12:08:31.744Z article:section: Politics og:title: Dennis Hastert Pleads Guilty in Hush Money Case og:description: The former House Speaker will likely face six months in prison og:url: https://time.com/4090516/dennis-hastert-plea-deal-2/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde04422e3c45a22e/69886e7f0b72e32a7d6e6884/dennis-hastert1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Dennis Hastert og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Dennis Hastert Pleads Guilty in Hush Money Case twitter:description: The former House Speaker will likely face six months in prison twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde04422e3c45a22e/69886e7f0b72e32a7d6e6884/dennis-hastert1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert Pleads Guilty in Hush Money Case > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Oct 28, 2015 3:21 PM UTC  Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert leaves after a guilty plea at Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago on Oct. 28, 2015. Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert leaves after a guilty plea at Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago on Oct. 28, 2015. Zbigniew Bzdak—Chicago Tribune/Getty Images by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Oct 28, 2015 3:21 PM UTC Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert pleaded guilty to illegal bank transactions in an alleged hush-money scheme that linked back to his days as a high school teacher. Hastert entered the guilty plea in an Illinois federal court on Wednesday just weeks after prosecutors in the case announced they had reached a deal with the embattled Republican leader. In May, Hastert was charged with improper transactions and lying to federal authorities about his banking transactions, which were said to have been conducted in an effort to hide the alleged sexual abuse of a former student. According to the indictment, Hastert was set to pay a person known simply as “Individual A” a total of $3.5 million. Hastert is charged with withdrawing the money in amounts under $10,000, in violation of banking law. Little is known about “Individual A” other than the fact that Hastert knew him or her for his or her entire life. Under his plea, Hastert did not plea guilty to lying to federal authorities but the lone count carries a maximum penalty of 5 years in prison. According to [_NBC News_](http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/dennis-hastert-court-expected-plea-hush-money-case-n452836), prosecutors recommended 6 months imprisonment for the 73-year-old. At Wednesday’s hearing, Hastert admitted to the judge that he knew what he did was wrong. > [](https://twitter.com/nbcphilrogers/status/659367397590216704) The U.S. District Judge on the case, Thomas M. Durkin, scheduled sentencing for Feb. 29\. According to _Politico_, the judge has some ties to the Hastert, who was the longest-serving Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives. Durkin reportedly donated to the Speakers’ congressional campaigns [at least twice](http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/denny-hastert-indictment-thomas-durkin-118501). Read the full plea [here](http://www.justice.gov/usao-ndil/file/788561/download). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4090516/dennis-hastert-plea-deal-2/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4090516/dennis-hastert-plea-deal-2/"},"headline":"Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert Pleads Guilty in Hush Money Case","datePublished":"2015-10-28T15:21:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T12:08:31.744Z","description":"The longest-serving Republican Speaker admitted to making illegal cash withdrawals in the alleged hush money scheme","url":"https://time.com/4090516/dennis-hastert-plea-deal-2/","keywords":["republicans","Crime","Scandal","justice"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde04422e3c45a22e/69886e7f0b72e32a7d6e6884/dennis-hastert1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde04422e3c45a22e/69886e7f0b72e32a7d6e6884/dennis-hastert1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Dennis Hastert","caption":"Dennis Hastert","creditText":"Zbigniew Bzdak—Chicago Tribune/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4090516/dennis-hastert-plea-deal-2/","name":"Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert Pleads Guilty in Hush Money Case"}}]}] ```