Hastert, Dennis, 1942-

Dennis Hastert, in full John Dennis Hastert, byname Denny, (born January 2, 1942, Aurora, Illinois, U.S.), American Republican politician who served (1987–2007) in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he was speaker of the House from 1999 to 2007. In 2016 he pled guilty to violating banking laws and publicly admitted to having sexually abused teenaged boys several decades earlier.

After studying economics at Wheaton College (B.A., 1964), Hastert earned an M.S. from Northern Illinois University in 1967. During this time he joined the faculty at Yorkville (Illinois) High School (1964–80), working as a teacher and as a wrestling and football coach. He had particular success with the wrestling team, which won the state championship in 1976.

Although Hastert knew little about politics, in 1980 he ran for a seat in the Illinois House of Representatives. He lost in the primary, but, when the Republican nominee bowed out because of illness, Hastert took his place and won the election; he was sworn into office in 1981. Five years later he was tapped to run for the U.S. House of Representatives after the Republican candidate dropped out. Hastert narrowly won the election. After taking office in 1987, he established himself as a party loyalist, especially supportive of socially conservative issues, and rarely sought national attention. His low profile made him a somewhat surprising choice to replace Newt Gingrich as speaker of the House in 1999. However, Hastert proved adept in the position. He popularized the “majority-of-the-majority” rule—commonly called the Hastert rule—which only allowed a floor vote on a bill if a majority within the majority party approved it. He also became known for his ability to secure passage of Republican-backed legislation, notably the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act (2003), a significant overhaul of Medicare that added coverage of some prescription drug costs and increased the role of private health plans.

In 2006 Hastert became the then-longest-serving Republican speaker. That year he faced criticism for his handling of the scandal involving Mark Foley, a Republican from Florida who resigned after it was revealed that he had sent sexually graphic messages to teenaged pages. A subsequent House investigation found that Hastert and others had ignored repeated warnings about Foley. However, no sanctions were proposed. The scandal contributed to the Republicans’ poor showing in the 2006 midterm elections. In 2007 Hastert lost the speakership as the Democrats took control of the House, and later that year he resigned from Congress. He subsequently became a lobbyist and joined several corporate boards.

In 2015 Hastert was indicted for allegedly structuring bank withdrawals in such a way as to circumvent a federal law that required any transaction of more than $10,000 to be reported. He was also indicted for lying to the FBI about the reasons for the withdrawals. According to prosecutors, Hastert began withdrawing large sums of money in 2010. After bank officials asked him about the transactions, Hastert started making withdrawals in increments of less than $10,000. The FBI subsequently questioned Hastert, who claimed that he withdrew some $1.7 million because he was distrustful of the banking system. Prosecutors, however, alleged that the funds were actually “hush money,” used to cover up Hastert’s sexual abuse of teenaged boys while he was at Yorkville High School. In 2015 Hastert admitted, through his attorney, that “as a young man, he committed transgressions” but failed to elaborate. The following year he pled guilty to the banking violations; the charge of lying to the FBI was dropped. At his sentencing in April 2016, Hastert publicly admitted to having sexually abused students. He was then sentenced to 15 months in prison, ordered to enroll in a sex-offender treatment program, and fined $250,000. Because of the statute of limitiations, Hastert faced no criminal charges for the abuse allegations. In July 2017, after serving 13 months, he was released from federal prison.