Dennis Hastert, the longest-serving Republican speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, has died at age 84, years after his political legacy was shattered by revelations that he sexually abused teenage boys while working as a high school wrestling coach.
Kendall County Coroner Jacquie Purcell said Hastert died of natural causes at his Illinois home over the weekend.
He served as House speaker from January 1999 to January 2007 and was later sentenced to 15 months in prison in a case involving payments intended to conceal past abuse.
Hastert pleaded guilty to violating federal banking laws after structuring financial transactions to evade reporting requirements while making payments to a former student.
Prosecutors said Hastert had agreed to pay the man $3.5 million as compensation and to secure his silence about abuse that occurred decades earlier.
Authorities described Hastert's sexual abuse of teenage boys during his years as a teacher and wrestling coach at Yorkville High School, west of Chicago.
He was not criminally charged over the abuse because the statute of limitations had expired.
At his 2016 sentencing, U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin called Hastert a "serial child molester."
The judge also ordered him to undergo sex offender treatment and pay $250,000 to a victims' fund.
His portrait was subsequently removed from the U.S. Capitol, while Wheaton College removed his name from a public policy center.
Born in Aurora, Illinois, in 1942, Hastert entered the U.S. House in 1986 after serving six years in the Illinois legislature.
Republicans elevated him to speaker after Newt Gingrich stepped down and intended successor Bob Livingston resigned.
Hastert led the House through the final years of Bill Clinton's presidency and much of George W. Bush's administration, helping advance major elements of the Republican legislative agenda.
His leadership also became associated with the "Hastert Rule," under which legislation generally required support from a majority of House Republicans before reaching the floor.
Hastert left Congress in 2007 and later worked as a lobbyist.
He is survived by his wife, Jean, and their two sons.