CHICAGO (AP) — Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert is citing a technicality in a bid to restore his tax-covered public school pensions as he serves a 15-month prison sentence in a hush-money case that stemmed from his sexual abuse of high school students.

Hastert’s lawyers contend his conviction was for violating banking law between 2010 and 2015 as he sought to pay one victim $3.5 million in hush money — not specifically for the sexual abuse. On those grounds, they say his $17,000-a-year teacher’s pension can’t be revoked.

The bid to restore his school pension was in a letter from a Hastert lawyer to the Teachers’ Retirement System. It was released through an open-records request.

State legislators are also vying to permanently strip the 74-year-old of his Illinois House pension.
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