Ex-House Speaker settles child sexual abuse payments suit

Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert and a man who accused him of child sexual abuse reached a tentative out-of-court settlement Wednesday over Hastert’s refusal to pay the man $1.8 million — the outstanding balance in hush money that the Illinois Republican agreed to pay the man in 2010.

Lawyers would not release details of the settlement, arrived at just days before a civil trial in the case that was set to start. It would have focused on a novel legal issue about whether Hastert’s verbal agreement to pay $3.5 million to buy the silence of a man he abused as a teenager amounted to a legally binding contract.

The man has been referred to only as James Doe in court papers since the breach of contract lawsuit was filed in 2016 in Illinois court in Yorkville, Hastert’s hometown just west of Chicago.