Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert dies at 84

Dennis Hastert, the longest-serving Republican speaker of the U.S. House and the highest-ranking elected U.S. official to serve a prison sentence, has died at 84, the Kendall County Coroner’s Office in Illinois said Monday.

Hastert died at his home over the weekend of natural causes, Coroner Jacquie Purcell said. Her office released no further details.

An Illinois Republican who represented his state in Congress for two decades, Hastert led the House from 1999 until Democrats took control in 2007. Years after leaving office, he pleaded guilty to a banking violation connected to payments intended to conceal allegations that he had sexually abused boys while coaching high school wrestling.

Hastert was born in Aurora, Illinois, in 1942. He studied economics at Wheaton College and education at Northern Illinois University, then taught and coached wrestling in Illinois. He was named Illinois Coach of the Year in 1976. He later served in the Illinois legislature before winning election to Congress in 1986; his House service began in 1987.

After rising through Republican leadership, Hastert became speaker following Newt Gingrich’s departure and Rep. Bob Livingston’s decision to withdraw from consideration amid a scandal over extramarital affairs. Hastert went on to hold the post for eight years, longer than any other Republican.

He worked closely with President George W. Bush, supported the Iraq War and Bush’s tax cuts, and sponsored a Medicare prescription drug measure passed in 2003. The optional drug benefit it established took effect in 2006.

His name also became attached to the informal “Hastert Rule,” under which a speaker brings legislation to a House vote only if it has support from a majority of the speaker’s party. After Republicans lost their House majority in the 2006 elections, Hastert left leadership and resigned from Congress in 2007.

In 2015, Hastert pleaded guilty to structuring cash withdrawals to evade bank reporting requirements. The money was going to one of his sexual-abuse accusers. He faced allegations that he had molested four teenagers, ages 14 to 17, while coaching at Yorkville High School in Illinois in the 1970s. He was not charged with sex crimes because the statutes of limitations had expired, CBS News reported.

At his 2016 sentencing, Hastert acknowledged mistreating athletes he had coached. “I’m the only one responsible,” he said, according to NBC Chicago. “The thing I want to do is say I’m sorry.” One accuser, Scott Cross, told the court that Hastert had sexually abused him during his senior year of high school. “I’ve always felt that what Coach Hastert had done to me was my darkest secret,” Cross said.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin called Hastert a “serial child molester” and sentenced him to 15 months in prison and a $250,000 fine. Hastert served more than a year before his release in 2017. His sentence also included supervised release and participation in a sex offender program.