Ohio’s huge public corruption case not likely to go to trial until next year
Federal prosecutors estimate that it'll take the government three to four weeks to present evidence against former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and his co-defendant Matt Borges in the largest public corruption case in state history.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Glatfelter in a conference call Tuesday told U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Black that was a conservative estimate.
Pretrial motions in the case are due Feb. 1 but a trial date has yet to be scheduled.
Glatfelter noted that prosecutors this week received another 50,000 pages of records from Akron-based Energy Harbor, a former affiliate of Firstenergy Corp. Those records, along with other documents yet to be received, will be turned over to defense attorneys.
Black has granted multiple delays to give defense attorneys more time to review more than 1.2 million pages of records turned over by federal prosecutors.
Political operative Jeff Longstreth and lobbyist Juan Cespedes agreed to plead guilty. Lobbyist Neil Clark died by suicide. Householder and Borges, a Republican consultant, have pleaded not guilty in the case.
They are accused of running a criminal enterprise that allegedly took $60 million in bribes from Firstenergy Corp. and affiliated companies through dark money groups to put Householder in power, pass a $1.3 billion bailout bill to help the utility, and defend the law against a referendum attempt.
In July 2021 Firstenergy Corp. signed a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Attorney's office and has provided prosecutors with text messages exchanged between Householder and others. It agreed to pay a $230 million fine and cooperate with prosecutors.
Householder, a Perry County Republican, was removed as House speaker in July 2020 following his arrest by FBI agents and he was expelled from the Legislature in June 2021.
Householder is accused of selling legislation in exchange for a political comeback and paying off personal expenses. If Householder is convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison and a permanent ban from serving in the Ohio House.
He has pleaded not guilty and has said: “I've never solicited a bribe. I've never been bribed, and I've never sold legislation.”
Borges has also said that he did nothing wrong or illegal.
Laura Bischoff is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch and other organizations across Ohio.