Andy Richter talks about sex abuse allegations against Dennis Hastert
Comedian Andy Richter confirmed one of the allegations against former House speaker Dennis Hastert.
Hastert is at the center of a sex-abuse scandal. Prosecutors revealed in a court filing that he agreed to pay $3.5 million in hush money to a person that he sexually abused when the victim was a 14-year-old wrestler on a team coached by Hastert. The filing contains allegations by five former students.
The sex-abuse allegations date back to Hastert's time at Yorkville High School in the Chicago suburb of Yorkville from 1965 to 1981; Richter was a student at the same school from 1980 to 1984.
The comedian wrote on Twitter that one of the allegations in the filing rang a bell from his time at the school.
A Chicago Sun-Times article published a quote from the filing that said, "Individual D recalled Hastert pulling a La-Z-Boy style chair 'in direct view of the shower stalls in the locker room where he sat while the boys showered.' Individuals B and D claim Hastert performed sex acts on them when they were 14 and 17, respectively. Individual C claims Hastert 'brushed his hand against Individual C's genitals.'"
Richter said that he remembers seeing the chair from when he was a student.
He wrote on Twitter, "I went to Yorkville HS '80-'84 & I remember this chair. Purportedly 'to keep boys from fighting.'"
He continued, "I haven't thought of it in 30 yrs," and added, "I don't find it's upsetting me now. I'm just so struck by how easy it was to do that. Nobody questioned it."
The filing by prosecutors recommends that a federal judge sentence Hastert to up to six months in prison for violating banking laws as he sought to pay one of his victims, identified in court documents as "Individual A," to ensure the person kept quiet.
Hastert, who pleaded guilty in October to breaking banking laws, is scheduled to be sentenced April 27. In a court filing Wednesday, his defense team asked the judge to give Hastert probation and spare him prison time.
"Mr. Hastert acknowledges that as a young man he committed transgressions for which he is profoundly sorry," his attorney, Thomas Green, said in a statement Saturday. "He earnestly apologizes to his former students, family, friends, previous constituents and all others affected by the harm his actions have caused."