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

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Dennis Hastert, the nation’s longest-serving Republican House speaker, who helped turn much of President George W. Bush’s agenda into law before his legacy was forever fouled by allegations that he molested high school athletes when he was a wrestling coach, died over the weekend at the age of 84, a coroner said on Monday.

Hastert, who was speaker from 1999 until 2007, died of natural causes at his home, according to Kendall County, Illinois, 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 Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial.

After the GOP reclaimed the White House, Hastert took much of what Bush proposed and steered it to passage, including massive tax cuts and a measure that amounted to a huge expansion of prescription drug benefits — the biggest change in Medicare in decades.

In 2015, Hastert 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 misconduct involved the sexual abuse of teenage boys on his wrestling team in the small town of Yorkville, west of Chicago.

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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.

The person Hastert was paying, identified in court papers only as Individual A, said the abuse occurred in a motel room when he was 14 on the way home from wrestling camp. Hastert allegedly touched other wrestlers in a locker room after saying he would give them massages. Two wrestlers said Hastert performed sex acts on them.

Prosecutors also described a recliner where Hastert often sat in the locker room with a direct view of the stalls where the boys showered.

Hastert pleaded guilty to evading banking laws. In all, he paid more than $1.7 million out of $3.5 million that he had promised to Individual A, sometimes in lump sums of $100,000 cash.

At the sentencing hearing where he received 15 months behind bars, the visibly angry judge called Hastert a “serial child molester.” A former wrestler struggled with his emotions as he told the court about his “dark secret” from adolescence.

In his own statement, Hastert said he was “deeply ashamed” and admitted that he “mistreated” some of his athletes. But he never referred directly to sexual abuse.

The public knew nothing about Hastert’s past when Republicans lost seats in the 1998 midterm elections. Hastert confronted Gingrich about dissatisfaction in the GOP ranks, saying it was unlikely Gingrich could hold his post, Hastert wrote in “Speaker: Lessons from 40 Years in Coaching and Politics.”

“Well, I’ll make them support me,” he quoted Gingrich saying of the GOP rebels. Told that was unlikely, Gingrich asked Hastert what to do.

“Do what you have to do,” he replied. The next day, Gingrich stepped down as speaker and left the House.

Hastert’s path to the speaker’s office was cleared when Louisiana Rep. Bob Livingston, who was considered a lock to replace Gingrich as speaker, resigned after acknowledging several extramarital affairs.

In January 1999, Hastert broke with tradition by delivering his acceptance speech from the House floor and by allowing Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, a Missouri Democrat, to briefly preside over the day’s proceedings.

“Solutions to problems cannot be found in a pool of bitterness,” Hastert said in his speech. “They can be found in an environment in which we trust one another’s word, where we generate heat and passion, but where we recognize that each member is equally important to our overall mission of improving the life of the American people.”

Hastert was aware of the personal pitfalls of holding the powerful position.

“You know, in this business, especially in a job like this, you can get your head someplace where it shouldn’t be,” Hastert said in a 1999 interview with The Associated Press. “But you come back home, and you’re home. You’re back where you’ve always been, and your feet are back on the ground.”

He was generally viewed as a friendly, even-tempered lawmaker. His wrestling experience followed him to Washington, with GOP colleagues often calling him “coach.”

Hastert said he lacked the appetite for higher office.

As the recount of the 2000 presidential election dragged on, Hastert’s aides briefed him on the possibility that he might become acting president in the event of an Electoral College deadlock.

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“I really didn’t want to be president, temporary or otherwise,” he wrote in his book. But he decided that he would not pass the office to the constitutional officer next in line if an Electoral College deadlock extended beyond Inauguration Day. In the end, the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling ended the recount, and Bush moved into the White House.

Hastert’s journey to Congress from his boyhood farm appeared to be the result of fate and luck.

In 1980, he finished third in an Illinois House primary. But the incumbent became fatally ill, and GOP leaders chose Hastert to take his place on the November ballot, where he won in a traditional GOP stronghold.

Hastert became a congressional candidate in 1986, when local Republican leaders put him on the primary ballot, replacing freshman Rep. John Grotberg, who was battling cancer. Hastert went on to beat the Democrat with 52% of the vote, his smallest margin of victory in a congressional race.

In Washington, Hastert served quietly in House leadership, working closely with Gingrich and then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay after Republicans took control in 1995. Several years later, DeLay was the force driving Clinton’s impeachment and was simply too toxic to seek the speaker’s chair.

Hastert’s tenure was marked by a shift of power from committee chairmen to GOP leaders, fealty to the Bush administration and an explosion of congressional pet projects known as earmarks. Democrats fumed that he weakened the ethics process that ensnared DeLay, who left Congress under a cloud of criminal charges in 2006.

Hastert became wealthy largely through a complex web of transactions that coincided with one of his own highway earmarks increasing the value of land he had purchased in his district.

He was forced to step down as speaker in 2007, when Democrats gained control of the House, and he resigned his seat later that year. In 2008, he joined the Washington lobbying firm of Dickstein Shapiro as a senior adviser, specializing in government law and strategy.

Born in Aurora, Illinois, Hastert earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Wheaton College in 1964 and a master’s in education from Northern Illinois University in 1967.

In 2007, Wheaton named its newly created public policy center the J. Dennis Hastert Center for Economics, Government and Public Policy. After Hastert’s indictment, the school removed his name in 2015. Other organizations abandoned associations with Hastert, and his portrait was removed from a hallway outside the House chamber.

Hastert lived his entire life in Chicago’s suburbs, primarily in the Yorkville area. While growing up, he helped his father with the family feed business.

Survivors include his wife, Jean, and two adult sons.

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美国任期最长的共和党众议院议长丹尼斯·哈斯特特于上周末去世，享年 84 岁。周一，验尸官表示，哈斯特特曾帮助乔治·W·布什总统将许多议程转化为法律，但后来由于被指控在他担任摔跤教练期间猥亵高中运动员，他的政治遗产永远蒙上了污点。

哈斯特特于 1999 年至 2007 年担任议长，据伊利诺伊州肯德尔县验尸官杰奎·珀塞尔称，他因自然原因在家中去世。

2016 年，这位前历史教师被判处一年多监禁，成为美国历史上被判入狱的最高级别政治人物之一。

上世纪90年代末，哈斯特特还是一位名不见经传的伊利诺伊州议员，他以和蔼可亲著称，这帮助他一步步晋升为国会领袖。纽特·金里奇因违反道德规范和共和党在选举中表现不佳而失去支持后，共和党人选举哈斯特特接替他的位置。上任后的最初几周，他主持了众议院的会议，而参议院则对比尔·克林顿进行了弹劾审判。

共和党重新夺回白宫后，哈斯特尔特采纳了布什提出的许多方案，并推动这些方案获得通过，其中包括大规模减税和大幅扩大处方药福利的措施——这是几十年来医疗保险的最大变革。

2015年，哈斯特被指控违反银行监管规定，企图通过支付封口费来掩盖其未指明的“先前不当行为”。近一年后，检方提交的文件证实了媒体数月以来的报道：哈斯特的不当行为涉及性侵其在芝加哥西部小镇约克维尔的摔跤队中的十几岁男孩。

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法官裁定，前众议院议长丹尼斯·哈斯特不能单独与儿童相处。

在他16年的执教生涯中，他带领球队获得了州冠军，并在1976年被评为全国年度最佳教练。但检察官表示，在这些荣誉的背后，哈斯特在1965年至1981年间性侵了至少四名球队成员。

哈斯特特的受雇人，在法庭文件中仅以“A先生”指代，称其14岁时在一家汽车旅馆的房间里遭到性侵，当时他正从摔跤训练营回家。据称，哈斯特特在更衣室里声称要给其他摔跤运动员按摩，并对他们进行性骚扰。两名摔跤运动员称哈斯特特对他们实施了性行为。

检察官还描述了哈斯特经常坐在更衣室里的一张躺椅上，可以直接看到男生们淋浴的隔间。

哈斯特承认违反银行法。他总共支付了超过170万美元，而他承诺支付给A先生的350万美元中，有时是以10万美元现金一次性支付的。

在量刑听证会上，法官判处哈斯特15个月监禁，语气十分愤怒，称他为“连环恋童癖”。这位前摔跤手在法庭上讲述了他青少年时期的“黑暗秘密”，情绪激动，难以自持。

哈斯特特在自己的声明中表示“深感羞愧”，并承认他“虐待”了一些运动员。但他从未直接提及性虐待。

1998年中期选举共和党失去席位时，公众对哈斯特的过去一无所知。哈斯特在《议长：40年执教和政治经验》一书中写道，他曾就共和党内部的不满情绪质问金里奇，并表示金里奇不太可能保住他的职位。

“好吧，我会让他们支持我，”他引用金里奇的话说，指的是共和党内的反对派。得知这不太可能后，金里奇问哈斯特该怎么办。

“做你该做的，”他回答道。第二天，金里奇辞去了议长职务，离开了众议院。

路易斯安那州众议员鲍勃·利文斯顿（Bob Livingston）被认为是接替金里奇担任议长的不二人选，但他在承认有多起婚外情后辞职，哈斯特尔特通往议长办公室的道路就此畅通无阻。

1999 年 1 月，哈斯特打破传统，在众议院发表了就职演说，并允许密苏里州民主党少数党领袖迪克·格普哈特短暂主持当天的会议。

“解决问题的办法并非藏在怨恨之中，”哈斯特在演讲中说道，“而是在一个彼此信任、充满激情、但同时又认识到每个成员对于我们改善美国人民生活这一整体使命都同样重要的环境中。”

哈斯特特很清楚身居要职所带来的个人风险。

“你知道，在这个行业，尤其​​是像这样的工作，你的思绪很容易飘到不该飘的地方，”哈斯特在1999年接受美联社采访时说。“但你回到家，你就回到了家。你回到了你一直都在的地方，你的脚又重新踏实了。”

他普遍被认为是一位友善、性情温和的议员。他的摔跤经历也伴随他来到华盛顿，共和党同僚们经常称他为“教练”。

哈斯特特表示，他对更高的职位没有兴趣。

2000 年总统选举的重新计票工作持续进行，哈斯特的助手们向他简要介绍了如果选举人团陷入僵局，他有可能成为代理总统的情况。

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“我其实并不想当总统，不管是临时的还是正式的，”他在书中写道。但他决定，如果选举人团的僵局持续到就职日之后，他不会将总统职位移交给下一位宪法规定的继任者。最终，最高法院以5比4的裁决终止了重新计票，布什入主白宫。

哈斯特从儿时的农场一路走到国会，似乎是命运和运气的结果。

1980年，他在伊利诺伊州众议院初选中排名第三。但当时的议员身患重病，共和党领导人选择哈斯特特代替他参加11月的选举，并在共和党传统票仓中获胜。

1986年，哈斯特特成为国会候选人，当时当地共和党领导人推举他参加初选，接替正在与癌症作斗争的新任众议员约翰·格罗特伯格。哈斯特特最终以52%的得票率击败了民主党候选人，这是他在国会竞选中赢得的最小优势。

在华盛顿，哈斯特特在众议院领导层中默默耕耘，在共和党于 1995 年掌控众议院后，他与金里奇和当时的众议院多数党党鞭汤姆·迪莱密切合作。几年后，迪莱成为推动克林顿弹劾案的主要力量，而且由于其影响力太大，根本无法竞选议长一职。

哈斯特任期内，权力从委员会主席转移到共和党领导人手中，对布什政府忠心耿耿，国会大量涌现出被称为“专项拨款”的私人项目。民主党人愤怒地指责他削弱了导致迪莱身陷囹圄的道德审查程序，迪莱于2006年在刑事指控的阴影下离开了国会。

哈斯特尔的财富主要来源于一系列复杂的交易，这些交易恰逢他自己划拨的一条公路，从而提高了他在自己选区购买的土地的价值。

2007年，民主党掌控众议院后，他被迫辞去议长职务，并于同年晚些时候辞去众议员职务。2008年，他加入华盛顿游说公司迪克斯坦·夏皮罗律师事务所，担任高级顾问，专门从事政府法律和战略方面的工作。

哈斯特特出生于伊利诺伊州奥罗拉，1964 年获得惠顿学院经济学学士学位，1967 年获得北伊利诺伊大学教育学硕士学位。

2007年，惠顿学院将其新成立的公共政策中心命名为J·丹尼斯·哈斯特经济、政府与公共政策中心。哈斯特被起诉后，该校于2015年撤销了对他的命名。其他机构也纷纷与哈斯特断绝关系，他的画像也被从众议院议事厅外的走廊移除。

哈斯特特一生都生活在芝加哥郊区，主要居住在约克维尔地区。在他成长的过程中，他帮助父亲打理家里的饲料生意。

他的遗属包括妻子琼和两个成年儿子。