CINCINNATI — Six months after federal prosecutors won a public corruption conviction against a former Cincinnati city councilman, they will be back in the same courtroom seeking another guilty verdict. This time against a much bigger target: Former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder.
Jury selection is set to begin Friday morning in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati in the largest bribery case in Ohio history.
This is a more complex and separate alleged scheme than the one that rocked City Hall and led to former Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld’s conviction for bribery in July.
“We’re talking about it on a scale that is much, much greater than anything that came out of Cincinnati City Hall,” said attorney and former city councilman Steve Goodin. “These are big, big dollars, we’re talking. If these allegations are true, it is one of the largest public corruption cases that the country has ever seen.”
A grand jury indicted Householder and four associates with racketeering conspiracy for being part of a criminal enterprise. They allegedly took $60 million from Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. and funneled the dark money through a nonprofit, Generation Now, to build a power base for Householder and pass a $1 billion bailout for two nuclear plants.
“Make no mistake. These allegations are bribery, pure and simple. This was quid pro quo. This was pay to play,” then U.S. Attorney David DeVillers said in a July 2020 news conference announcing the arrests as, “likely the largest bribery, money laundering scheme ever perpetrated against the people of the state of Ohio.”
Householder and former Ohio GOP chair Matt Borges have maintained their innocence and will face a jury trial together. The trial is expected to take four to six weeks.
‘This is how politics works’
“The defense is going to be – 'this is how politics works,'” said University of Cincinnati political science professor David Niven. “Part of what (Householder is) going to argue is – ‘Yes, I accepted millions of dollars. Yes, I produced exactly the policy that the donors wanted but that’s just how Ohio politics works.’ Which is a pretty damning assessment of how Ohio politics works.”
Two defendants have pleaded guilty to conspiracy and agreed to testify at trial: lobbyist Juan Cespedes and political advisor Jeffrey Longstreth. A third, Columbus lobbyist Neil Clark, took his own life a year after his arrest. Clark died from a gunshot wound to the head in March 2021, while wearing a blue “DeWine for Governor” T-shirt, according to his Florida autopsy report which was reported by numerous media outlets.
FirstEnergy representatives signed a deferred prosecution agreement with prosecutors in July 2021. The public utility holding company admitted it conspired with public officials and others to pay millions in exchange for financially beneficial legislation.
U.S. District Court Judge Tim Black also granted immunity to two unidentified witnesses, at the government’s request, who will testify at trial, according to court filings.
“In some sense, the entire statehouse is on trial,” Niven said. “It’s hard to see a scenario in which you don’t view this case as defining the way Ohio politics works.”
Attorneys have agreed not to bring up Clark’s death or suicide during the trial, according to court filings.
But jurors could still hear from Clark through his recorded meetings, telephone calls and statements to undercover FBI agents, Householder and others, the judge ruled.
“Defendant Neil Clark was meeting with undercover agents, describing Householder’s control of Generation Now and how the (FBI) could pay money to defendant Householder to advance sports betting legislation in Ohio … and that Householder’s staff was working on legislation discussed at the meeting,” according to the government’s trial brief.
Ties to the Sittenfeld case
While Clark was meeting with an undercover FBI agent in Columbus in 2019 to discuss sports betting in Ohio, coincidentally so was former Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld.
It is unknown if Clark and Sittenfeld met with the same undercover FBI agent in Columbus. But that question could be answered at the upcoming trial if the agent testifies.
A retired undercover FBI agent known as “Vinny” testified under his alias at the Sittenfeld trial last summer. The government played an undercover video recording of his meeting with Sittenfeld inside a Columbus Hilton hotel room in September 2019.
Vinny pretended to be a high-rolling real estate investor who grew up in New Jersey, lived in Providence and liked to spend time on his yacht in Miami.
Vinny made a cameo appearance at the Reds Opening Day party hosted by FBI agents who were posing as developers on March 28, 2019, in which many local and state elected leaders attended. That party was hosted at the 580 Building penthouse apartment in Downtown Cincinnati, which the FBI rented for its City Hall corruption probe.
Although the government played numerous undercover videos during the Sittenfeld trial, it notably did not play the one from that Reds Opening Day Party. At the time, many reporters wondered why.
Vinny testified that he briefly met Sittenfeld at that Opening Day party but didn’t spend much time with him because, “I was at the party to engage a different subject of the investigation,” without naming the subject.
The evidence
The Sittenfeld case and the upcoming Householder and Borges trial involve unrelated alleged schemes. But legal experts believe defense attorneys and prosecutors may have learned some lessons from what jurors in the Sittenfeld case seemed to like, and not like.
“I do think there are lessons from the Sittenfeld case that should frighten Householder’s defense team because Sittenfeld was never accused of putting even a penny in his pocket,” said UC’s Niven.
Householder, on the other hand, is accused of spending more than $100,000 in alleged bribe money to pay for costs associated with his Florida home, in addition to money he used to settle a personal lawsuit and pay off $20,000 in credit card debit, according to an affidavit filed by FBI agent Blane Wetzel in July 2020.
Conversely, Sittenfeld was accused of accepting $40,000 in campaign donations in exchange for helping a blighted downtown development project, Convention Place Mall. A jury found Sittenfeld guilty on one charge of bribery and one charge of attempted extortion, related to his recorded calls with developer Chinedum Ndukwe, who was a cooperating government witness.
“The jurors had a clear aversion to the whole FBI sting aspect of operation and ended up acquitting him of everything that was related to the FBI sting operation,” said attorney Goodin, who attended the Sittenfeld trial regularly as a spectator.
As a result, Goodin doesn’t believe that prosecutors will rely on as much FBI undercover agent testimony in the upcoming Householder case, instead using other evidence, such as text messages, emails, and voicemails.
Prosecutors also plan to introduce a slew of documents - business and financial records, campaign finance reports, and incorporation documents, according to their trial brief.
Both Goodin and Niven believe that Householder and Borges will rely on a similar defense as to what Sittenfeld used.
“You wouldn’t take this to trial if you weren’t going to make the case that this was business as usual, absolutely ordinary,” Niven said. “We didn’t engage in any kind of scheme; this is just how politics works.”
Niven believes that Householder will likely testify because, “you need him to tell that story.”
But Goodin isn’t so sure, especially since Sittenfeld did testify at his trial and the jury still convicted him.
“Larry Householder’s attorneys are probably thinking long and hard about whether to put him on the stand,” Goodin said. “But the pressure when … you’re sitting there staring at the 12 jurors, their desire to hear from the defendant is sometimes palpable, particularly when the defendant is a public figure and a well-known person.”
Court filings do not reveal whether Householder or Borges will testify, and legal experts say that defense teams usually don’t make a final decision until the end of the government’s case.
Borges has been outspoken that the prosecution is a political attack. On his website, borgesldf.com he refutes the charges and claims he is being retaliated against for his work to defeat then-President Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
“If all the facts are presented at trial – something the government will work hard to prevent - there is almost no chance of a guilty verdict,” according to Borges’ website, which also states that he rejected plea deal offers.
But Niven isn’t so sure, given what happened in the Sittenfeld case.
“The position of the defense in the Sittenfeld case was much stronger than the position of the defense in Householder,” Niven said. “And keep in mind, Householder has co-defendants who have already pled guilty, and a codefendant who committed suicide.”
Borges and Householder both are asking the judge to exclude the plea agreements of Cespedes and Longstreth when they testify.
“In exchange for the government’s promise to recommend a custodial sentence measured in months, not years, to defendants Jeffrey Longstreth and Juan Cespedes, those defendants agreed to cooperate and are expected to testify at the upcoming jury trial,” according to defense court filings.
If convicted, Householder and Borges could face up to 20 years in prison. Opening statements in their trial are set to begin on Monday.
Meanwhile, Sittenfeld is still waiting for U.S. District Court Judge Douglas Cole to rule on his motions for acquittal and a new trial. No sentencing date has been set.
“Actually (Cincinnatians) should care about this case more than they cared about the Sittenfeld trial,” Goodin said. “We’re talking about the corrupt influence of money in politics and quid pro quos and special interest groups … but we’re talking about it on a scale that is much, much greater than anything that came out of Cincinnati City Hall.”
