Dennis Hastert, former US House speaker and admitted child molester, dies at 84 Dennis Hastert, the longest-serving Republican speaker of the U.S. House who admitted to sexually abusing boys as a high school wrestling coach and served federal prison time for banking crimes tied to hush-money payments, died of natural causes over the weekend. He was 84. Dennis Hastert, the longest-serving Republican speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives who later admitted to sexually abusing boys as a high school wrestling coach and pleaded guilty to federal banking charges, died over the weekend at his home in the Chicago area. He was 84. The Kendall County coroner, Jacquie Purcell, told CBS News that Hastert died of natural causes. The Kendall County, Illinois Coroner's Office confirmed the death. The former speaker had been in declining health and appeared in a wheelchair at his 2016 sentencing in Chicago.Dennis Hastert served as Speaker of the HouseHastert became the highest-ranking U.S. official to ever serve jail time. Known as Denny to his friends, he was one of the most powerful politicians in Washington while leading the House from January 1999 to January 2007. He presided over the chamber during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the October 2001 anthrax crisis, when envelopes of deadly powder were sent to Capitol Hill offices.The burly Midwestern conservative was seen as an amiable lawmaker, but his leadership tactics deepened partisan polarization in Congress. He championed the so-called Hastert Rule, under which only bills supported by a majority of the majority party were brought to a vote, allowing major legislation to die rather than pass with mostly Democratic support. Hastert served 20 years in the House and was elected in 1986 after six years in the Illinois legislature.He represented an Illinois district outside Chicago and became speaker when Republicans turned to him after Newt Gingrich stepped down and Bob Livingston abruptly resigned. He passed Joseph Cannon in 2006 as the longest-serving Republican speaker. He resigned from the House in November 2007 after Democrats regained control. Born John Dennis Hastert on January 2, 1942, in Aurora, Illinois, he grew up on a farm and was a self-described born-again Christian.Hastert accused of sexually abusing boysBefore entering politics he was a civics teacher and wrestling coach at Yorkville High School in the Chicago suburbs. His reputation was destroyed eight years after leaving the House when revelations emerged about his sexual abuse of boys at Yorkville from the 1960s to the early 1980s. In 2015, it emerged that Individual A had accused Hastert of sexually abusing him while he was a student there.Federal prosecutors ultimately alleged Hastert had molested at least four boys, and detailed actions toward five boys as young as 14. They said Hastert, exploiting his authority as wrestling coach, committed acts including intentional touching of minors groin area and genitals or oral sex with a minor. In one instance, prosecutors said, Hastert asked a boy during a wrestling camp to stay in his hotel room and then abused him.That boy, decades later, confronted Hastert, who made a secret deal to pay him $3.5 million to compensate him and buy his silence. Hastert did not face criminal charges for sexually abusing the boys because the statute of limitations had long expired. Prosecutors later detailed payments totaling $3.5 million. In 2014, a grand jury indicted Hastert on charges of making false statements to investigators and unlawfully structuring withdrawals to evade bank reporting requirements.Hastert pleaded guilty to banking chargesWhen authorities investigated suspicious withdrawals from his bank account tied to payments to his victim, Hastert initially said they were nothing unusual. Through his lawyer, he then lied that he was the victim of an extortion attempt by someone falsely accusing him of sexual abuse. He pleaded guilty to violating federal banking laws by structuring transactions to evade reporting rules and keep hush-money payments hidden. At his 2016 sentencing, U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin called Hastert a serial child molester.The judge said some actions can obliterate a lifetime of good works and sentenced the 74-year-old to 15 months in federal prison. Hastert was also ordered to undergo sex-offender treatment, serve two years of supervised release and pay a $250,000 fine to a victims fund. I want to apologize to the boys I mistreated when I was their coach, Hastert told the judge. The sister of one victim said in court: Dont be a coward, Mr. Hastert.Tell the truth. What you did wasnt misconduct. It was sexual abuse of a minor. After the scandal, Hasterts portrait was removed from the U.S. Capitol and his alma mater, Wheaton College, stripped his name from a public policy center.Hastert criticized over Foley scandalThe House ethics committee in 2006 had found Hastert and other Republican leaders negligent in failing to protect teenage boys from sexual advances by Republican congressman Mark Foley of Florida. The boys were congressional pages, and the panel said the inaction may have been intended to shield Foley from political harm. The Foley scandal contributed to Republicans losing control of the House that year.It was twenty years ago, almost to the date, when House Republicans were on the verge of losing their majority in the 2006 midterms. Word had just broken that then-Rep. Mark Foley had sent inappropriate messages to high school-age male teens serving as House pages. The Republican-led House was meeting on September 29, 2006, trying to escape town so the GOP could defend their majority.Reporters spotted the portly Hastert lumbering across Statuary Hall toward the Speakers office. Asked about Foley, Hastert mumbled we'll talk about that shortly under his breath, his wide glasses nearly tumbling over the bridge of his nose as he huffed into the Speakers suite. An hour later, Hastert, outgoing Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and other top Republicans convened a brief press conference to tout a national security bill they had just passed.When asked about Foley, Hastert muttered a non-answer, saying he was not very happy about the matter. A few days later, local reporters in Illinois pressed Hastert about how he handled the Foley matter. Back in Washington, one of the Speakers aides was asked why Hastert, as a former teacher and coach, was not more aggressive protecting the teen pages. The answer may have emerged years later.Hastert stumbled into the Speakership, rising thanks to the missteps of others. Yet despite his years in Congress, what was learned about Hastert nearly a decade after he left office revealed him to be one of the most grotesque persons to ever serve in Congress.