Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert died at the age of 84.
Kendall County Coroner Jacquie Purcell confirmed Hastert died at his home over the weekend from natural causes, CBS News reported.
He was the longest-serving Republican House Speaker, elected in 1999 after Rep. Newt Gingrich resigned, but his career was sullied when he was jailed for breaking banking laws.
Hastert was sentenced to 15 months behind bars on charges of concealing hush money payments to cover up his sexual abuse of teen boys from when he was a high school wrestling coach, CBS News reported. He was one of the highest-ranking U.S. elected officials to serve a prison sentence, The Associated Press reported.
According to Hastert’s official biography, he was born in Aurora, Illinois and graduated from Oswego High School in Oswego, Illinois.
He earned his bachelor’s degree from Wheaton College in 1964 and his master’s from Northern Illinois University in 1967, then became a teacher and coach.
He was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives, serving from 1980 to 1986, before becoming a member of the U.S. House and starting his career on the Hill in 1989.
When Democrats took control in January 2007, he handed the gavel to Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the first woman to serve as House Speaker. He resigned later that same year.
He pleaded guilty in 2015 to evading bank reporting laws in the case involving concealing payments to a former student he sexually abused, Bloomberg reported.
Prosecutors said Hastart allegedly abused at least four male students when they were 14 to 17 years old while a teacher and coach outside of Chicago.
Hastart said in court that some of the athletes he coached “looked up to me, and I took advantage of them,” Bloomberg reported.
US District Court Judge Thomas Durkin said during Hastart’s sentencing, “Nothing is more stunning than to have the words ‘serial child molester’ and ‘speaker of the House’ in the same sentence,” the AP reported at the time.
In addition to his 15 months in prison, Hastart was fined $250,000 and had to register as a sex offender when he was released. He served 13 months and was released to a halfway house in Chicago to complete his sentence.
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