Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert dies at 84 in Illinois

J. Dennis Hastert, the longest-serving Republican speaker of the House, has died at 84, Kendall County Coroner Jacquie Purcell confirmed in a Monday statement. The coroner's office said Hastert passed away at his home over the weekend due to natural causes. "No further information is available for release," the statement said. Hastert, of Plano, Illinois, died on 3 October while in hospice care, the Kendall County coroner's office said.wvik.org

Hastert's death closes the life of a man once second in line to the presidency whose legacy was overtaken by his 2016 conviction for hiding hush money payments to a man who said Hastert had abused him years earlier. Prosecutors alleged Hastert abused at least four underage boys when he was a high school wrestling coach in the 1970s and 1980s. At a time when tributes would ordinarily pour in for a former House leader, politicians and public figures had little to say.nbcnews.com

Coroner confirms natural causes

Hastert entered politics in 1981 with a seat in the Illinois General Assembly. He was first elected to the House in 1986 and served in the chamber from 1987 to 2007. He was a relative unknown when he won the speakership in 1999, taking over from Newt Gingrich. Hastert served as speaker for eight years, longer than any Republican in U.S. history, until Republicans lost the majority in the 2006 midterms. He relinquished the gavel in 2007 and resigned before the end of his 11th term.

During his time in Congress, Hastert strongly supported the Iraq War and championed President George W. Bush's tax cuts and a Medicare prescription drug bill. The measure, passed in 2003, was sponsored by Hastert and established an optional prescription drug benefit programme that took effect in 2006. Hastert also became the namesake of the unofficial "Hastert Rule," which says a speaker should bring legislation to the floor only if it is supported by "the majority of the majority."

Eight years as House speaker

Less than a decade after leaving Congress, Hastert faced allegations that he molested four teenagers, ages 14 to 17, in the 1970s when he was a wrestling coach at Yorkville High School. He never faced sexual abuse charges because the statute of limitations had expired. In 2015, he pleaded guilty to structuring cash withdrawals to hide hush money payments to one of his accusers. In 2016, he was sentenced to 15 months in prison, plus two years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine.

At his 2016 sentencing hearing, Hastert said he was "deeply ashamed" and told the judge, "I know I am here because I mistreated some of the athletes I coached." U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin called Hastert a "serial child molester." One accuser, Scott Cross, told the court, "I've always felt that what Coach Hastert had done to me was my darkest secret." Durkin asked Hastert point-blank whether he had committed the abuse, and Hastert admitted it.

Statute of limitations blocked charges

The mechanism that brought Hastert down was financial: a bank first questioned him about suspicious withdrawals, and he lied, claiming he was buying stocks and antique cars. He later told authorities he was the victim of an extortion plot and helped federal authorities secretly record two phone conversations in March 2015. Authorities doubted the claim, confronted the accuser, and Hastert's secrets began to emerge. He was incarcerated at the Rochester Federal Medical Center in Minnesota after suffering a stroke.

Hastert left federal prison in Minnesota in June 2017 after 13 months, several weeks ahead of schedule, and was ordered to participate in a sex offender treatment programme. Upon release, he was banned from being alone with children or having pornography. Illinois in 2017 passed a measure eliminating statutes of limitations for all child sex abuse crimes, citing Hastert as a reason for the change; the bill was pushed by then-Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

The fall reached into Hastert's honours. In 2016, the National Wrestling Hall of Fame revoked honours it had given him after inducting him in 2003. In 2015, then-House Speaker Paul Ryan had Hastert's portrait removed from a hallway in the Capitol, one of Ryan's first acts as speaker, shortly after Hastert pleaded guilty. Hastert had been named Coach of the Year in 1976 by the Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association.