Former Rep. Dennis Hastert, who served eight years as speaker of the House — longer than any other Republican in U.S. history — and then spent more than a year in prison after he left Congress for scheming to cover up sexual abuse allegations, died over the weekend, according to the Kendall County Coroner’s Office in Illinois.
He was 84.
“Kendall County Coroner Jacquie Purcell confirmed that over the weekend, former US House Speaker John Dennis Hastert passed away at his home due to natural causes,” the coroner’s office said in a Monday statement. “No further information is available for release.”
Hastert, of Illinois, served in the House from 1987 to 2007 and became speaker in 1999. He relinquished the speaker's gavel in 2007 after Democrats took control of the chamber, then announced his resignation from Congress before the end of his 11th term.
Nearly a decade later, Hastert faced allegations that he molested four teenagers, ages 14 to 17, in the 1970s, when he was a wrestling coach at Yorkville High School in Illinois.
Hastert never faced sexual abuse charges because the statute of limitations had expired. But in 2015, he pleaded guilty to structuring cash withdrawals to hide hush money payments to one of his sexual abuse accusers. The following year, he was sentenced to 15 months in prison. He was released from a prison hospital in 2017, several weeks ahead of schedule.
At his sentencing hearing in 2016, Hastert said he was “deeply ashamed” of his actions, adding, “I’m the only one responsible,” NBC Chicago reported.
“I know I am here because I mistreated some of the athletes I coached,” he said. “The thing I want to do is say I’m sorry.”
U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin called Hastert a “serial child molester.”
One of the accusers, Scott Cross, said in court that Hastert sexually abused him during his senior year in high school.
“I’ve always felt that what Coach Hastert had done to me was my darkest secret,” Cross said.
When he was released from prison, he was banned from being alone with children or having pornography. His sentence also included two years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine.
It was a stunning fall for a veteran politician who was once one of the most powerful people in Washington.
During his political career, Hastert had talked up his time as a coach, saying it meshed with politics.
“Throughout his legislative career, Speaker Hastert has drawn from his experience as a former wrestling coach by emphasizing teambuilding and setting clear-cut, achievable goals,” said a 2004 web archive of Hastert’s biographical webpage.
During Hastert’s time in Congress, he strongly supported the Iraq War and was a champion of then-President George W. Bush’s tax cuts and a Medicare prescription drug bill. The measure, passed in 2003, was sponsored by Hastert. It established an optional prescription drug benefit program that took effect in 2006.
Hastert also became the namesake of the unofficial "Hastert Rule," which says the speaker should bring legislation to the floor only if it is supported by “the majority of the majority.” That is, a speaker should call a bill up for a vote only if most of their caucus is in favor of passing it.
Hastert was preceded as House speaker by Rep. Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., and succeeded by Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Born in Aurora, Illinois, in 1942, Hastert attended Wheaton College, where he earned a B.A. in economics, and then Northern Illinois University for a master’s degree in education.
Before being elected to Congress in 1986, he was a member of the Illinois state House of Representatives. He was also a teacher, coach and business owner.
Hastert was named Coach of the Year in 1976 by the Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association. The same year, he served as president of the National Wrestling Conference, according to the IWCOA website. In 2016, the National Wrestling Hall of Fame revoked honors it had given to Hastert, who had been inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2003.
In 2015, then-House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., had Hastert's portrait removed from a hallway in the Capitol. The removal of the portrait — one of Ryan's first acts as speaker — came shortly after Hastert pleaded guilty.
