WASHINGTON: Dennis Hastert, the longest-serving Republican speaker of the US House of Representatives whose career ended in disgrace after he admitted sexually abusing teenage boys he had coached, has died aged 84, officials said on Monday.

The Kendall County Coroner’s Office in Illinois said Hastert died at his home Saturday night while under hospice care. Hastert was one of Washington’s most powerful politicians during eight years as House speaker from 1999 to 2007, a position that placed him second in the line of succession to the presidency.

But his reputation collapsed years after he left Congress when a federal investigation into suspicious bank withdrawals exposed payments intended to conceal sexual abuse dating back to his years as a high school wrestling coach.

Hastert pleaded guilty in 2015 to illegally structuring cash withdrawals to avoid bank reporting requirements as part of a $3.5 million agreement with one of his victims.

At his sentencing the following year, Hastert admitted for the first time that he had sexually abused boys while teaching and coaching wrestling at Yorkville High School in Illinois from the 1960s to the early 1980s.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2026