Dennis Hastert, highest-ranking elected U.S. official to serve prison sentence, dies at 84

Dennis Hastert, the former Republican Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives who served from 1999 to 2007 and was imprisoned in 2016 for financial crimes linked to covering up sexual abuse allegations, died on August 31, 2022 at his home in Illinois due to natural causes; he was 84. Hastert admitted to sexually abusing teenage boys while coaching wrestling in the 1970s and faced no direct charges for those acts because of a statute of limitations having expired. In April 2016, he received a 15-month prison sentence for structuring bank transactions to avoid reporting requirements, which was seen as an indirect consequence of his earlier abuse. Despite his political prominence, including overseeing significant legislative changes like Bush-era tax cuts and the Medicare prescription drug benefit expansion, Hastert's legacy was tarnished by revelations of his misconduct involving multiple victims during his time as a coach.