Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican who held the gavel longer than any GOP speaker in history before a child sexual abuse scandal brought him down, has died. He was 84.
Kendall County Coroner Jacquie Purcell confirmed Monday that Hastert died at his home over the weekend of natural causes, according to CBS News, which first reported his death. Hastert had served in the Illinois state legislature before spending 20 years in Congress representing his home state.
His death closes the book on one of the most dramatic arcs in modern American political history — a journey from small-town high school wrestling coach to second in line to the presidency, followed by a federal prison sentence that stripped him of the distinction of being the only top U.S. official never to face criminal consequence in office.
From Coach to Speaker
Hastert arrived in Washington in 1987 with what allies described as modest personal means. Over the next two decades, he climbed steadily through the House Republican ranks, eventually becoming speaker in 1999 after Newt Gingrich’s tumultuous departure. He held the position until Democrats retook the chamber in 2007, making him the longest-serving Republican speaker.
His tenure was not without controversy even before the criminal case that defined his later years. In 2011, Politico reported that CBS’s 60 Minutes had examined Hastert alongside other government leaders in a segment on alleged insider trading. That report drew on research by Peter Schweizer, the bestselling author and president of the Government Accountability Institute. Schweizer told 60 Minutes his team had identified what he called “forms of honest graft” by lawmakers — conduct he described as legal but “highly unethical” and “highly offensive.”
Breitbart News reported in 2014 that Schweizer’s New York Times bestseller Throw Them All Out had detailed how Hastert entered Congress with limited wealth and left as a millionaire, partly through brokering crony deals that drove up the value of his Illinois land holdings.
The Fall
The collapse of Hastert’s reputation came in 2015, when he pleaded guilty to violating banking laws. Federal prosecutors had flagged repeated large cash withdrawals from his accounts — transactions that, once uncovered, were revealed to be hush money payments directed to one of his victims.
During the court proceedings, Hastert admitted to sexually abusing boys during his years as a high school wrestling coach, before his political career began. At sentencing, U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Durkin branded him a “serial child molester” and imposed a 15-month prison term, a $250,000 fine, and an order to participate in a sex offender treatment program. Because the statutes of limitations on the underlying sex crimes had expired, Hastert was never charged with those offenses. He ended up serving 13 months in federal prison before his release in 2017.
That conviction made Hastert the highest-ranking elected U.S. official ever to serve time behind bars — a distinction noted in nearly every subsequent account of his life.
Monday’s confirmation from the coroner brought a quiet end to a story that had once dominated national headlines. Hastert is survived by his wife, Jean, and two sons. Details on funeral arrangements were not immediately available.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/10/05/illinois-coroner-disgraced-former-speaker-of-the-house-dennis-hastert-dead-at-84/