Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert Dies at 84
Dennis Hastert, who led the House as the longest-serving Republican speaker of his era, died over the weekend at his home in Yorkville, Illinois. He was 84. In 2016, he admitted in federal court that he sexually abused teenage boys as a high school wrestling coach.
Dennis Hastert, the Illinois Republican who served as the longest-running Republican House speaker of his era, died over the weekend. He was 84.
Kendall County Coroner Jacquie Purcell confirmed his death on Monday. She said Hastert died of natural causes at his home in Yorkville, Illinois. CBS News first reported the death.
Hastert represented Illinois's 14th congressional district from 1987 to 2007. He became the 51st speaker of the House in January 1999, after the resignation of Newt Gingrich, and held the gavel until Democrats won the chamber in the 2006 midterms.
He presided over the House through the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the anthrax attacks that followed. He backed the USA Patriot Act and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He was best known for the “Hastert Rule,” the practice of bringing no bill to the floor without the backing of most House Republicans.
His career ended in scandal. In 2016, Hastert pleaded guilty to banking violations tied to $3.5 million in hush-money payments to a former Yorkville High School wrestler, an effort to cover up sexual abuse from his years as the school's wrestling coach. “I want to apologize to the boys I mistreated when I was their coach,” he told a federal judge at sentencing. The judge sentenced him to 15 months in prison and called him a “serial child molester.”
Hastert was born in Aurora, Illinois, in 1942. He graduated from Wheaton College and earned a teaching degree from Northern Illinois University. He spent 16 years as a teacher and coach before entering politics, serving in the Illinois legislature before his election to Congress in 1986. He married Jean Kahl in 1973. The couple had two sons.
