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WASHINGTON — Dennis Hastert, the longest-serving Republican speaker of the US House of Representatives whose career ended in disgrace after he admitted sexually abusing teenage boys he had coached, has died aged 84, officials said Monday.
The Kendall County Coroner’s Office in Illinois said Hastert died at his home Saturday night while under hospice care.
Hastert was one of Washington’s most powerful politicians during eight years as House speaker from 1999 to 2007, a position that placed him second in the line of succession to the presidency.
But his reputation collapsed years after he left Congress when a federal investigation into suspicious bank withdrawals exposed payments intended to conceal sexual abuse dating back to his years as a high school wrestling coach.
Hastert pleaded guilty in 2015 to illegally structuring cash withdrawals to avoid bank reporting requirements as part of a US$3.5 million agreement with one of his victims.
At his sentencing the following year, Hastert admitted for the first time that he had sexually abused boys while teaching and coaching wrestling at Yorkville High School in Illinois from the 1960s to the early 1980s.
“They looked to me and I took advantage of them,” Hastert said in court.
Prosecutors detailed abuse involving at least five boys, some as young as 14.
He could not be prosecuted for the sexual offenses because the statutes of limitations had expired, and was instead sentenced to 15 months in federal prison for violating banking laws.
US District Judge Thomas Durkin described Hastert at sentencing as a “serial child molester.”
Hastert served in the House from 1987 until 2007 and became speaker after the turbulent departure of fellow Republican Newt Gingrich and the withdrawal of Gingrich’s intended successor, Bob Livingston.
He remained speaker until Democrats regained control of the House in the 2006 midterm elections.
Hastert was released from federal prison in 2017 after serving most of his sentence.
