Former Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert died at 84 over the weekend from natural causes, closing a career that ran from the House gavel to a federal prison term.

Just the News reported that Hastert died at his home, and the Kendall County Coroner’s Office in Illinois said the death was due to natural causes. The office issued that finding in a Monday statement after the weekend death.

Hastert was 84. He had once stood at the top of the House as its speaker, the chamber’s highest post, before a criminal case tied to hush-money payments and sexual-abuse allegations ended his public life in disgrace and lockup.

The Washington Examiner likewise reported that the former Republican speaker died over the weekend at 84 at his home from natural causes, with the Kendall County coroner confirming the basic facts of the death.

From Illinois coach to House power

Long before Washington, Hastert worked as a wrestling coach at Yorkville High School in Illinois in the 1970s. That period later became the focus of allegations that he sexually abused teenage boys.

He rose in Congress and held the speaker’s chair for eight years. Coverage cited by Just the News, drawing on NBC News, said that tenure lasted longer than that of any other Republican speaker in U.S. history. Fox News reported the same mark, calling him the longest-serving Republican House speaker.

That record once defined his legacy. The criminal case that followed redefined it.

Hush money, a guilty plea, and prison

After leaving Congress, Hastert faced a federal case built around large cash withdrawals and payments meant to keep sexual-abuse claims quiet. Just the News reported he pleaded guilty in 2015 to orchestrating those withdrawals to hide hush-money payments to one of his accusers.

Fox News reported he was sentenced to 15 months in prison in 2016 for bank fraud linked to covering up alleged sexual abuse of students from his coaching years. He was also ordered into sex-offender treatment and faced a fine. The same account said he became the highest-ranking U.S. official to serve jail time.

The New York Post reported he died at his Chicago-area home and that he had admitted to molesting at least four boys while a high school wrestling coach. It reported he had been paying hush money totaling $3.5 million, pleaded guilty, drew a 15-month federal sentence, served 13 months, and was released in July 2017, along with sex-offender treatment and a $250,000 fine.

Political scandals built on abuse claims still surface in Congress, including when the House Ethics Committee opened a sexual misconduct probe into another sitting member in a separate case.

Just the News reported the underlying allegations involved four teenagers, ages 14 to 17, and conduct said to have occurred in the 1970s. It also reported he served more than a year in prison and was released from a prison hospital in 2017.

"Nothing is more stunning than to have the words ‘serial child molester’ and ‘speaker of the House’ in the same sentence," federal judge Thomas Durkin said at the time.

Fox News reported that Judge Thomas M. Durkin described the then-74-year-old Illinois Republican as a "serial child molester." Breitbart reported the same label from Durkin, and said the court imposed 15 months in prison, a $250,000 fine, and an order to take part in a sex-offender program after Hastert pleaded guilty to banking-law violations tied to concealed payments.

Breitbart also reported he served 13 months in federal prison before his 2017 release and was the highest-ranking elected U.S. official to serve a prison sentence. Fox News reported he had pleaded guilty in the case to attempting to pay $3.5 million to an unnamed individual to keep the alleged sexual abuse a secret.

Coroner closes the final chapter

The Kendall County Coroner’s Office stated the former Illinois lawmaker died at his home due to natural causes. That official finding is the final public record of how his life ended, years after the sentencing that stripped away the last of his standing.

"The former Illinois lawmaker died at his home due to natural causes," the Kendall County Coroner’s Office said in its Monday statement.

Separate abuse allegations against officeholders continue to drive calls for removal elsewhere in politics, as when Sen. Rick Scott said a House member should not remain in office after serious abuse claims became public in another matter.

Hastert’s path ran from a high school gym in Illinois to the speaker’s chair, then to a guilty plea, a federal sentence, and a prison hospital release in 2017. The coroner has now placed a simple cause of death on the end of that record: natural causes, at home, at 84.

Power can delay accountability. It does not erase what a court record, a guilty plea, and a judge’s words already put in plain view.