Photo: AP

Former Republican Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, who was sentenced to 15 months in prison after being convicted on one count of violating banking laws related to hush-money he was paying to a man he sexually abused while working as a high school wrestling coach, will not appeal his sentence, his attorney told the AP this afternoon:

Asked whether his 74-year-old client would appeal his conviction or sentence — or any other aspect of the case — attorney Thomas Green responded in an email to The Associated Press: “No.” The deadline to file an appeal is the end of this week.

At his April 27 sentencing, Hastert admitted to being a serial abuser, saying that he “mistreated some of my athletes that I coached.” Hastert is known to have molested at least four boys at Yorkville High in Yorkville, Ill., one of which was the brother of a man who would go on to be one of Hastert’s political protegés. Hastert asked that ex-protegé, one-time state Rep. Tom Cross, to submit a letter urging leniency but Cross declined.

Hastert was not charged with sex crimes because the statute of limitations had expired, but Judge Thomas M. Durkin cited Hastert’s serial abusing as a factor when handing him 15 months on the financial charges, a sentence that was more than double the federal guideline for that crime.