Former Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who rose to one of the most powerful positions in Washington before a criminal case exposed his sexual abuse of teenage boys, died Saturday at his Illinois home. He was 84.

Hastert died of natural causes while receiving hospice care at his home in Kendall County, Illinois, according to Kendall County Coroner Jacquie Purcell.

The Illinois Republican represented the state's 14th Congressional District from 1987 until his resignation in 2007. He became speaker in 1999 after Newt Gingrich stepped down and went on to become the longest-serving Republican speaker in U.S. history at the time.

Hastert presided over the House during some of the most consequential events of the early 2000s, including the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the anthrax attacks that followed. He also worked closely with President George W. Bush as Republicans pursued the administration's legislative agenda, including major tax cuts and other significant legislation.

Before entering national politics, Hastert spent 16 years as a teacher and wrestling coach at Yorkville High School in Illinois. He later served in the Illinois legislature before winning his congressional seat.

His political career collapsed years after he left Congress.

In 2015, federal prosecutors charged Hastert with violating banking laws after investigators discovered that he had made large cash withdrawals as part of an agreement to pay $3.5 million to an individual to conceal past misconduct. Because the alleged sexual abuse occurred decades earlier and was outside the statute of limitations, Hastert was prosecuted for the financial offenses rather than the abuse itself.

Prosecutors later disclosed that the payments were connected to allegations that Hastert had sexually abused teenage boys while he was a wrestling coach. Investigators said he had abused at least four students between the 1960s and 1980s.

Hastert pleaded guilty to the banking offense and was sentenced in 2016 to 15 months in federal prison, two years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine. He ultimately served about 13 months.

During the sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin described Hastert as a “serial child molester.” Hastert also acknowledged in court that he had sexually abused boys while working as a coach, although the conduct itself was not the criminal charge for which he was sentenced.

His conviction made Hastert the highest-ranking elected U.S. official to serve a federal prison sentence at the time. The scandal also fundamentally changed how his long congressional career was remembered.

Hastert's death closes the life of a politician who spent two decades in Congress and eight years leading the House, but whose later criminal case permanently overshadowed the political legacy he built in Washington.