Dennis Hastert, Longest-Serving Republican House Speaker and Convicted Sex Abuse Cover-Up Felon, Dies at 84

Dennis Hastert, who served eight years as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, longer than any Republican in history, died over the weekend at his home in Illinois from natural causes. He was 84. The Kendall County Coroner's Office in Illinois confirmed the death, with Coroner Jacquie Purcell stating he passed away due to natural causes.

Hastert, an Illinois Republican, served in the House from 1987 to 2007 and became speaker in 1999. He relinquished the gavel in 2007 when Democrats retook the chamber and retired before completing his 11th term. His post-congressional reputation was later destroyed by revelations that he had molested four teenage boys, aged 14 to 17, in the 1970s while working as a wrestling coach at Yorkville High School in Illinois.

In 2015, Hastert pleaded guilty to illegally structuring cash withdrawals to conceal hush-money payments made to one of his sexual-abuse accusers. He was sentenced in 2016 to 15 months in prison and was released from a prison hospital in 2017, several weeks ahead of schedule. He admitted in the course of those proceedings to abusing teenage boys decades earlier.