The powerful Republican speaker for the Ohio House and four associates were arrested Tuesday in a $ 60 million federal bribery case related to a taxpayer-funded bailout of Ohio’s two nuclear power plants. Hours after FBI agents raided President Larry Householder’s farm, US Attorney David DeVillers described the ploy as “probably the largest bribery scheme ever perpetrated against the state of Ohio.”
The head of the family was one of the driving forces behind the financial rescue of nuclear plants, which added a new rate to every electricity bill in the state and directed more than $ 150 million a year until 2026 to plants near Cleveland and Toledo. . After the head of the family was arrested, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine asked him to resign.
House of Representatives counselor Jeffrey Longstreth, longtime House of Representatives lobbyist Neil Clark, former Ohio Republican Party chair Matthew Borges, and Juan Cespedes, co-founder of The Oxley Group, a consulting firm, were also arrested. based in Columbus.
John Minchillo / AP
Previous attempts to rescue nuclear plants had stalled in the Legislature before the Head of the House became a spokesperson. Months after taking over, he launched a new plan to subsidize the plants and remove incentives for renewable energy. The proposal was approved a year ago despite opposition from many business and manufacturing leaders.
Generation Now, a group that successfully fought in an effort to overturn the bailout law on Ohio’s ballot, was charged as a corporation in the case.
A criminal complaint filed by the FBI says Generation Now received $ 60 million from an unidentified company in the past three years. In return, Householder and the other defendants worked to approve the rescue of the nuclear plant and block attempts to cancel it.
The head of the family and the others used the money to preserve and expand their political power in Ohio, according to the complaint.
FirstEnergy Corp., whose former subsidiaries owned the plants, made large donations to Householder and its sponsors campaigns in the Ohio Chamber. The utility’s political action committee contributed $ 25,000 to the Householder campaign in 2018, according to an analysis by Common Cause Ohio, a government watchdog.
The head of the family flew to the inauguration of President Donald Trump on the company plane in 2016.
FirstEnergy Solutions, the subsidiary that has since changed its name to Energy Harbor and now operates nuclear plants as an independent company, spent millions on lobbying and campaign contributions while trying to persuade federal and state officials to support livelihoods. nuclear plants.
FBI agents were at Householder’s farm in Glenford Tuesday morning in rural Perry County. FBI spokesman Todd Lindgren said they were only carrying out “law enforcement activities.” The Perry County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that he was helping.
The AP’s attempts to reach Householder, Borges, and Clark were unsuccessful. A message seeking comment was also left with the Chamber’s communications office.
The defendants appeared in court and were not required to testify. The judge ordered Householder’s release on his own accord and ordered him not to obtain a passport, to restrict his travel to the southern half of Ohio, and not to contact any other defendants. The judge also ordered him to remove the weapons from his home.
Similar restrictions were imposed on Longstreth. The next hearing was tentatively set for August 6.
Borges has been increasingly remote from the establishment of the Ohio Republican Party since he was returned by the devotees of President Donald Trump. He was recently censored by the party’s central committee, including for helping launch a PAC in June to get Republican voters for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. The PAC is backed by a group of prominent Republican agents including a former White House director of communications, Anthony Scaramucci.
Clark is one of Ohio’s best connected lobbyists, representing a group of high-powered clients in the pharmaceutical, gaming and alcoholic beverage industries, among others.
Cespedes is a former investment officer in the Ohio Treasurer’s Office who was appointed by the then-governor. John Kasich as commissioner of the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, where he oversees a team’s effort to stop discrimination in the state. His term ends on July 29.
The head of the family is a veteran state legislator who is in his second stage as a speaker. He held the same position from 2001 to 2004. He left state politics more than a decade ago due to term limits and returned in 2016 and waged a contentious fight to get back the most important camera job.
The homeowner released a famous campaign ad that showed him shooting at a television broadcasting what he called a commercial produced by “anti-Trump gun hijackers.” In the ad, it boasted of having the “highest NRA rating in Ohio history.”
When he left office, he and several top aides were under federal investigation for alleged money laundering and irregular campaign practices. The government closed the case without filing charges.
Householder is the second Ohio House speaker to be investigated in just over two years.
Former Republican President Cliff Rosenberger was investigated in 2018 amid an FBI investigation into his trip, luxurious lifestyle, and a condo that he rented from a wealthy Republican donor. Rosenberger, who has claimed he did not violate any law, has not been charged, but the investigation remains open.
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