Ex-US House Speaker Dennis Hastert recovering from stroke

CHICAGO (AP) — Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, awaiting sentencing in a hush-money case, has suffered a stroke and was admitted to a hospital the first week of November, his attorney said today in a statement.

Hastert also has been treated for sepsis, a potentially life-threatening complication of infection, and had two back surgeries while in the hospital, attorney Tom Green's statement said.

"We are very hopeful that Mr. Hastert will be released from the hospital in the early part of the new year," Green said. "The family very much desires that during Mr. Hastert's continued hospitalization his privacy will be respected."

Hastert was accused in May of evading banking regulations as part of a plan to pay hush money to conceal "prior misconduct." The Associated Press and other media outlets, citing anonymous sources, have reported that Hastert wanted to hide claims that he sexually molested someone decades earlier.

The 73-year-old pleaded guilty Oct. 28 to a felony count of evading bank reporting laws in a hush-money scheme. In the written plea agreement, the Illinois Republican directly acknowledged for the first time that he sought to pay someone $3.5 million to hide misconduct by Hastert against that person dating back several decades — about the time the longtime GOP leader was a high-school wrestling coach.