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Hastert suffered a stroke in Nov.

CHICAGO - 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 Thursday in a statement.

CHICAGO - 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 Thursday 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 said.

"We are very hopeful that Mr. Hastert will be released from the hospital in the early part of the new year," Green said.

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 have reported that Hastert wanted to hide claims that he sexually molested someone decades earlier.

Hastert, 73, pleaded guilty Oct. 28 to a felony count of evading bank reporting laws in a hush-money scheme.

Hastert had allegedly paid more than $1.7 million to the person, sometimes in lump sums of $100,000 cash, by the time the scheme was discovered.