Former U-S House Speaker Dennis Hastert died this weekend at age 84.
He was the longest-serving Republican in that post and one of the highest-ranking politicians to go to prison.
Hastert’s unassuming style helped him become and remain speaker of the House for eight years.
Former WBBM Political Editor Craig Dellimore says part of Hastert’s legacy was his ability to bring the two parties together.
Eight years after he retired, he was charged with lying to the FBI.
In 2015, Hastert pleaded guilty to banking violations designed to hide $3.5m he agreed to pay for his “prior misconduct”.
Federal prosecutors would later accuse him of sexually abusing at least four boys while he was a wrestling coach at Yorkville High School between 1965-1981.
Hastert eventually admitted to that in court in 2016, when he was sentenced to 15 months in prison by US District Judge Thomas Durkin, who called him a “serial child molester”.
His portrait was removed from the US Capitol and his name from a public policy center at his alma mater, Wheaton College.
The Kendall County Coroner says Hastert died at home from natural causes.
