Dennis Hastert, Longest-Serving Republican House Speaker and Convicted Child Molester, Dies at 84
Hastert, who served as Speaker from 1999 to 2007, was later revealed to be a serial child predator and became the highest-ranking U.S. official to serve jail time.
J. Dennis Hastert, the longest-serving Republican Speaker of the House and a figure whose political career ended in disgrace, has died at the age of 84. Hastert's death was confirmed over the weekend.
Once a prominent figure in Washington, Hastert became the highest-ranking U.S. official to ever serve jail time. In 2015, federal investigators uncovered that Hastert had been paying hush money to conceal decades of sexual abuse against minors while he was a high school teacher and coach in Illinois. He pleaded guilty to bank crimes related to evading laws by making large cash withdrawals, which prosecutors linked to his efforts to conceal the abuse.
Federal Judge Thomas Durkin described Hastert as a "serial child molester" during sentencing, and Hastert admitted in court to having "mistreated athletes" and "taken advantage" of those he mentored. Prosecutors did not charge him with sex crimes, and he served 13 months of a 15-month sentence at a federal facility.
Hastert served as Speaker of the House from 1999 to 2007, a tenure that made him the longest-serving Republican to hold the position. He was seen as an "accidental speaker," rising to the leadership role amid political turmoil in the late 1990s. Republicans were scrambling to find a new leader after then-Speaker-designate Bob Livingston (R-LA) withdrew his candidacy in December 1998 following revelations of an extramarital affair.
On December 19, 1998, the same day the House voted to impeach President Bill Clinton, Livingston announced he would not seek the Speakership and would resign from the House. That evening, Republicans tapped Hastert, then the Chief Deputy Whip, for the role. Many in the press corps were unfamiliar with Hastert at the time.
During his Speakership, Hastert was known for his low profile. He often shunned interviews, describing himself as a "listener." His political career took a significant downturn in 2006 amidst the Mark Foley scandal, in which a Republican congressman had sent inappropriate messages to teenage pages. While Hastert was not implicated in the Foley scandal, his handling of the matter drew scrutiny, and it foreshadowed the darker revelations that would emerge years later.
Following the Republican loss of the House majority in the 2006 midterm elections, Hastert did not seek leadership positions and resigned from Congress in late 2007. He largely remained out of public view until the banking irregularities surfaced in 2015, exposing his history of sexual abuse and leading to his conviction.