Highest-ranking US official to ever serve jail time, former House Speaker Dennis Hastert dead at 84

Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., “passed away at his home due to natural causes,” according to Kendall County, Illinois, Coroner Jacquie Purcell.

The brief statement was posted on the coroner’s website early Monday morning.

Hastert was 84 and one of the most ignominious figures to serve in American politics.

He was the longest-serving Republican speaker in history, wielding the gavel from 1999 to 2007. But Hastert’s career featured one of the most disgraceful falls from grace, becoming the highest-ranking U.S. official to ever do jail time.

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The scandal involving Hastert emerged years after he left Congress — but dates back to the 1960s and 1970s when he served as high school history teacher and wrestling coach in Illinois. Hastert admitted in 2015 that he sexually abused teenage students and athletes as young as 14 — long before he entered Congress in the mid-1980s.

Hastert was an accidental speaker.

He served as chief deputy whip in the Republican hierarchy in late 1998 when House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., decided to step aside. Gingrich was controversial. Some GOP members had knives out for him and believed Gingrich overplayed his hand pushing for impeachment of President Clinton. This, coupled with Republicans nearly losing control of the House in the 1998 midterms, set the table for Gingrich to step aside.

Republicans tapped then-Rep. Bob Livingston, R-La., Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, to become Speaker in 1999.

But in late 1998, as the House voted to impeach Clinton, it came to light that Livingston had an inappropriate relationship with a lobbyist. Hours before the House voted to approve two articles of impeachment for Clinton linked to his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, Livingston stepped aside and said he would not stand for speaker in the new year.

By nightfall, Republicans picked Hastert, a backbencher, to serve as speaker in 1999.

Hastert was criticized in late 2006 for not moving more aggressively to protect teenage House pages after it was discovered that then-Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., sent inappropriate text messages to the pages. The scandal led to the end of the House page program, which dates back to the beginning of the republic.

Hastert lost the speakership when Democrats seized control of the House in the 2006 midterms. Hastert did not serve in the GOP leadership in early 2007 and resigned from office later that year.

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Hastert was often quiet and shunned interviews and the press.

Known as “Coach” to fellow lawmakers because of his wrestling background, Hastert often proclaimed that he was more of a “listener” than a “speaker.”

But Hastert’s career took a dark turn in 2015.

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Federal banking regulators flagged Hastert’s curious withdrawals of staggering amounts of cash at peculiar intervals. Banking regulators suspected the transactions signaled that someone may be blackmailing the former Speaker.

But that’s how it came to light that Hastert was actually paying millions of dollars in hush money to the family of a student he abused in the 1970s.

Hastert admitted to sexually abusing students decades before at his trial for illegal bank transactions, saying he “mistreated athletes” and “took advantage of him.” The judge in the case called the former speaker “a serial child molester.”

Hastert served 13 of 15 months of his federal sentence for banking crimes at a facility in Rochester, Minn. However, Hastert never faced legal ramifications for sexual conduct.

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Hastert is also known for the “Hastert Rule.” When Hastert served as speaker, he would not bring a piece of legislation to the floor unless it had the support of a majority of House Republicans. House GOPers continued to use that standard for bills for many years after Hastert left office.

But that terminology fell out of favor after Hastert was convicted and information about his past became public.