Dennis Hastert, longtime Republican House speaker who went to prison, dies at age 84

Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert departs the federal courthouse, in Chicago, June 2015. Christian K. Lee/AP hide caption

Dennis Hastert, whose political legacy as Congress' longest-serving Republican House speaker was later fouled by allegations that he had molested high school athletes during his prior career as a teacher and wrestling coach, has died, a coroner said Monday. He was 84.

Hastert, who was speaker from 1999 until 2007, died Saturday of natural causes at his home while receiving hospice care, according to Kendall County Coroner Jacquie Purcell.

When he was sentenced in 2016 to more than a year behind bars, the former history teacher became one of the highest-ranking American politicians ever ordered to prison.

In the late 1990s, Hastert was a little-known Illinois lawmaker with a reputation for congeniality that had helped him ascend the ranks of congressional leaders. When Newt Gingrich lost support because of ethics violations and the GOP's poor showing in an election, Republicans elected Hastert to succeed him. In his first weeks on the job, he presided over the House while the Senate conducted then-President Bill Clinton's impeachment trial.

After the GOP reclaimed the White House, Hastert helped pass then-President George W. Bush's legislative agenda, including massive tax cuts and a measure that amounted to a huge expansion of prescription drug benefits — the biggest change in Medicare in decades.

His legacy was suddenly thrown into doubt in 2015, when he was accused of evading banking regulations as part of a plan to pay hush money to conceal unspecified "prior misconduct." Nearly a year later, prosecutors filed papers that described what media reports had suggested for months: Hastert's alleged misconduct involved the sexual abuse of teenage boys on his wrestling team in the small town of Yorkville, west of Chicago.

During a 16-year coaching career, he led his team to a state championship and was named national coach of the year in 1976. But behind the accolades, prosecutors said, Hastert sexually abused at least four team members from 1965 to 1981.