Ex-Rep. Hansen Granted Parole After 6 Months

Former Rep. George Hansen (R-Ida.), serving a 15-month prison term for fraud and making false statements on his federal financial disclosure forms, will be paroled Dec. 20 after serving six months, the U.S. Parole Commission said Wednesday.

The commission said Hansen, winning parole on his first request, will be free to leave the federal correctional institution in Petersburg, Va., in 17 days.

Hansen, 56, was the first person prosecuted under the 1973 Ethics in Government Act, which requires all high-level officials in the three branches of government to file annual financial disclosure forms.

Maverick Republican

The prison term for Hansen, a maverick Republican while a House member, already had been reduced to 11 months for good behavior, a commission spokesman said. Four of the nine commission members--the number required by law--voted to set aside the balance of his sentence.

In announcing its decision, however, the commission noted that Hansen had “breached the public’s trust and deprived the electorate of important information relative to his financial activities.”

Hansen, convicted in April, 1984, on a four-count felony indictment, was sentenced in June, 1984.