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At Least Four Men Make "Credible Accusations" Of Sex Abuse Against Ex-GOP Speaker Dennis Hastert

Court papers recount Hastert pulling a La-Z-Boy chair up to the locker-room showers and watched the boy bathe.

At least four men have come forward and made "credible accusations" that former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert sexually abused them as teens, according to court papers.

Last year federal prosecutors indicted the 74-year-old Republican for attempting to hide payments to a man who claimed he was a victim, and then lying about the purpose of the money.

But as his April 27 sentencing date nears, a 26-page sentencing memo filed on Friday paints an even grimmer picture.

The document offers account from more victims, one of whom was only 14 when Hastert—then a high-school wrestling coach—allegedly performed a sex act on him.

Another recalled the future congressman 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."

Steve Reinboldt, who died of AIDS-related complications in 1995, told his sister that he and Hastert had an ongoing sexual relationship, while Reinboldt was a student manager on the wrestling team in the early 1970s.

All the accusers knew Hastert when he was a teacher and coach in Yorkville, Illinois, from 1965 to 1981. He also worked with the Boy Scouts, taking high school-age boys on trips to the Bahamas and the Grand Canyon. ("I saw those kids develop and meet challenges and change," he once remarked.)

Hastert took a seat in the Illinois House of Representatives shortly after leaving Yorkville and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1987, staying for two decades.

He served as Speaker of the House from 1999 to 2007, making him the longest-serving Republican Speaker in history. In that time, Hastert helped further the GOP's anti LGBT agenda, including blocking the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act and bringing to the House floor a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman.

In 2006, Hastert was reprimanded by the House Ethics Committee for being "willfully ignorant" about Rep. Mark Foley having sent sexually explicit messages to male pages.

Last fall Hastert pleaded guilty to evading federal reporting requirements involving bank transactions, but the statute of limitations has long run out on any sex-abuse charges.

"While [Hastert] achieved great success, reaping all the benefits that went with it," prosecutors wrote, "these boys struggled, and all are still struggling now with what defendant did to them."

Hastert's attorneys are asking for probation instead of jail time, insisting he is "profoundly sorry" for any harm he caused and has otherwise led a life of public service.

But prosecutors say his "legacy of sexual abuse and its real consequences are as much a part of defendant's history and characteristics as those he has presented to the court."

"The incidents of sexual abuse occurred at a time in [these men'] lives when they stood on the beginning edge of sexual maturity. It is profoundly sad that one of their earliest sexual experiences was in the form of abuse by a man whom they trusted and whom they revered as a mentor and coach."

They're asking for up to six months in prison and for Hastert to be registered as a sex offender.

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