Former House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert Dies at 84
Former U.S. House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert died of natural causes at his home in Illinois over the weekend.
J. Dennis Hastert, the longest-serving Republican Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, died of natural causes over the weekend at his home in Illinois at age 84. Serving as speaker from 1999 to 2007, Hastert collaborated with the presidency to enact tax cuts, expand Medicare prescription drug coverage, and support wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
He is credited with the Hastert Rule, an informal policy that required a majority of the majority party to support legislation before it reached the floor. However, his political achievements were overshadowed by a scandal involving the sexual abuse of teenage wrestlers he coached at Yorkville High School between 1965 and 1981.
Although the statute of limitations prevented sex crime charges, Hastert pleaded guilty in 2015 to financial crimes for structuring bank withdrawals to pay $3.5 million in hush money to a former student. U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin sentenced him to 15 months in prison in 2016, labeling him a "serial child molester." Hastert served 13 months in a federal medical prison, and his portrait was subsequently removed from the U.S. Capitol.
