Former Rep. Dennis Hastert, who served as House speaker for eight years — longer than any Republican in U.S. history — then spent more than a year in prison after leaving Congress for trying to cover up sexual abuse allegations, died over the weekend, according to the Kendall County Coroner’s Office in Illinois.
He was 84 years old.
“Kendall County Coroner Jacquie Purcell confirmed that over the weekend, former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives John Dennis Hastert died at his home of natural causes,” the coroner’s office said in a statement Monday. “No further information is available for publication.”
Hastert, of Illinois, served in the House from 1987 to 2007 and became speaker in 1999. He gave up 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 was accused of molesting four teenagers ages 14 to 17 in the 1970s while he was the wrestling coach at Yorkville High School in Illinois.
Hastert was never charged with sexual abuse because the statute of limitations had expired. But in 2015, he pleaded guilty to structuring cash withdrawals to hide cash payments to one of his sexual abuse accusers. The following year, he was sentenced to 15 months in prison. He was released from the prison hospital in 2017, several weeks ahead of schedule.
At his 2016 sentencing hearing, Hastert said he was “deeply ashamed” of his actions, adding, “I am the one responsible,” NBC Chicago reported.
“I know I’m here because I mistreated some of the athletes I coached,” he said. “What 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, testified in court that Hastert sexually assaulted him during his senior year of high school.
“I always thought what Coach Hastert did to me was my darkest secret,” Cross said.
Upon his release from prison, he was forbidden from being alone with children or viewing 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 spoken about his coaching experience, saying it was related to politics.
“Throughout his legislative career, Speaker Hastert leveraged his experience as a former wrestling coach by emphasizing team building and setting clear, achievable goals,” states a 2004 web archive of Hastert’s biographical web page.
During Hastert’s tenure 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 states that the speaker should only introduce a bill if it is supported by “a majority of the majority.” In other words, a speaker should only bring a bill to a vote if most of his or her caucus supports its passage.
Hastert was preceded as House speaker by Rep. Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., and replaced by Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Born in Aurora, Illinois, in 1942, Hastert attended Wheaton College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree 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 the honors it had given to Hastert, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2003.
In 2015, then-House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., had Hastert’s portrait removed from a Capitol hallway. The removal of the portrait — one of Ryan’s first acts as a speaker — came shortly after Hastert pleaded guilty.
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