By Breitbart News Network | Created at 2026-10-05 18:37:03 | Updated at 2026-10-05 19:15:05
3 hours ago
Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-IL) has died, CBS News reported Monday. He was 84.
Illinois’ Kendal County Coroner Jacquie Purcell confirmed Hastert, who served in his state’s legislature, represented Illinois for 20 years in Congress, and later became the longest-serving Republican speaker in history, died at his home over the weekend of natural causes.
The outlet continued:
Both the longest-serving Republican House speaker and the highest-ranking elected U.S. official to serve a prison sentence, Hastert’s stunning fall from grace came in 2016, when he was sentenced to 15 months in prison on charges related to his concealment of hush money payments made to cover up his sexual abuse of teenage boys during his time as a high school wrestling coach.
In 2011, Politico reported that CBS’ 60 Minutes zeroed in on several government leaders that included Hastert in its story about alleged insider trading.
The report based the information on research by Peter Schweizer, who is a best-selling author and President of the Government Accountability Institute (GAI).
“Schweizer said he and his team of eight student researchers found ‘forms of honest graft’ by lawmakers. ‘So it’s not illegal, but I think it’s highly unethical, I think it’s highly offensive, and wrong,’ Schweizer told 60 Minutes of what he discovered,” the Politico article said.
Breitbart News reported in 2014 that in his New York Times bestseller Throw Them All Out, Schweizer revealed how Hastert entered Congress with modest means and became a millionaire by brokering crony deals to increase the value of his land in Illinois.
Per the recent CBS report, “Hastert pleaded guilty in 2015 to violating banking laws by making repeated large cash withdrawals, which were revealed to be going to one of his victims.
“During the hearing, Hastert admitted to sexually abusing boys during his time as their wrestling coach.
“At his sentencing, U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Durkin called Hastert a ‘serial child molester,’ and sentenced him to 15 months in prison, a $250,000 fine and ordered him to participate in a sex offender program. Hastert was not charged with sex-related crimes, as the statutes of limitations had expired.
“He served 13 months in a federal prison before his release in 2017,” the article read.
