Nine years ago the longest-serving Republican speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, was being blackmailed.
A federal judge labelled Hastert a “serial child molester” during his sentencing hearing in 2015. In April 2016, Hastert admitted in court to sexually abusing several boys while he worked as a high school wrestling coach in the 1960s and 1970s. Hastert, who served as speaker of the House from 1999 to 2007, paid $1.7 million to one of his victims, and violated federal law while doing so, in order to keep his dirty little secret.
Hastert eventually served time in federal prison for illegally structuring bank withdrawals to avoid reporting requirements and lying to federal investigators.