CINCINNATI — Long before P.G. Sittenfeld was a federal inmate or a convicted felon, he was a political superstar.
The youngest person elected to Cincinnati City Council and the top vote-getter in two elections, he was the hands-down favorite to be the next mayor. His political career ended after the FBI arrested him on public corruption charges.
Now that President Donald Trump has pardoned Sittenfeld, erasing his convictions for bribery and attempted extortion, his future is wide open.
“I think Cincinnati loves a comeback,” said attorney Steve Goodin, who is a former city council member.
Goodin didn’t see an immediate path for Sittenfeld in city politics right now, noting that current mayor Aftab Pureval is already the Democratic candidate for a second term, with a full slate of other city council candidates.
But he acknowledged that Sittenfeld theoretically could run for the city council this year if he desired.
Sittenfeld has a combined $926,230 in his mayoral campaign account and his federal PAC to donate to other candidates, or spend on his future run for office.
“With a full pardon he could announce tomorrow, I think you’ve got until August 21 to turn your petitions in,” Goodin said. “So, if he wants to run, he could run.”
Sittenfeld did not return a request for comment.
Watch the video below for a full breakdown of what Sittenfeld could do next:
Sittenfeld has said he did nothing illegal by accepting $20,000 in campaign donations from undercover FBI agents who were posing as developers and championing their project to redevelop a blighted downtown property into a boutique hotel because he was a pro-development politician.
Sittenfeld was the third council member the FBI arrested in 2020 on public corruption charges stemming from a massive sting at Cincinnati City Hall involving at least three undercover FBI agents and multiple informants who secretly recorded numerous elected leaders over two years.
A jury convicted Sittenfeld, and a judge sentenced him to 16 months in prison. He served 4 and a half months before being released while he pursued his appeal.
In February, a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Sittenfeld, ultimately agreeing that the evidence presented at trial was enough for a jury to reasonably convict him.
His appeal was widely believed to be heard next in the U.S. Supreme Court.
But Trump signed a full and unconditional pardon of Sittenfeld on Wednesday, which was posted online Thursday by the U.S. Justice Department.
Watch in the video player below more reactions to Sittenfeld's pardon:
“A pardon is an act of mercy; it’s not an act of justice,” said Northern Kentucky University law professor Ken Katkin, who closely followed the Sittenfeld case and believed he could have won a full exoneration at the U.S. Supreme Court.
“The U.S. Supreme Court ... could have reversed the conviction, and that would mean that he was never guilty,” Katkin said. “An acceptance of a pardon does not erase the idea that the person was found guilty … he has been fully forgiven for it.”
Katkin doesn’t think the pardon will bring him back into Cincinnati politics, “although he’s young, so never say never.”
Without a felony conviction on his record, Katkin said Sittenfeld will have an easier time finding a job, perhaps in the technology industry, as a political consultant, or he could write a book about his experience.
“I don’t think the pardon is going to change a lot of people’s minds one way or another. There were always a fair number of people who supported Sittenfeld through all this and who thought this was an unjust conviction,” Katkin said. “So, of course, they will feel vindicated.”
“But there was always a segment of the city who thought he was corrupt, and he deserved this. I really doubt that the pardon is going to change their minds much about that,” Katkin said.
Goodin suggested that Sittenfeld could become a major player in the nonprofit sector, or become a “kingmaker.” That is someone who doesn’t run for office but donates money to help candidates that he favors, thus quietly shaping the politics of the city, he said.
“If he’s going to be involved in politics, my strong guess is that he would become more of a kingmaker because he would have money to pass around,” Goodin said. “That’s a lot of money in local politics.”
Sittenfeld’s pardon raised the question of whether Trump might also pardon two other Ohio public figures behind bars for corruption: former House Speaker Larry Householder and former state Republican Party Chair Matt Borges.
Borges and Householder should be feeling “a bit hopeful,” after Sittenfeld’s pardon, Goodin said. That’s because their defense arguments are all similar – that their actions were protected by their First Amendment rights.
“The bottom line of both cases was an allegation of quid pro quo corruption. The defense was always one of general First Amendment arguments that this is political speech, that we’re allowed to take these positions, and if we’re taking positions that just so happen to be attractive to big donors, so be it,” Goodin said. “I would not be surprised, particularly to see the Householder case overturned.”
Householder was a strong Trump supporter, and in fact, one of the corruption allegations mentioned during his March 2023 trial occurred at an expensive steak restaurant during Trump’s first inauguration.
A jury convicted Borges and Householder in the largest public corruption case in state history.
"If Trump gets around to pardoning Householder, which could happen, that’s going to be one of his last public corruption pardons. He’s going for the more controversial cases first,” Katkin said. “I think the (Householder) case was maybe unusually strong there … And Householder’s arguments on appeal were not particularly persuasive.”
Householder attorney Scott Pullins said Sittenfeld’s pardon gave them a lot of hope.
“It's called selective prosecution, it's called politicized prosecution,” Pullins said, noting similarities between the Householder and Sittenfeld cases.
“I think there were people who thought that Larry Householder was going to run for governor in 2022, and they needed to take him off the playing field, and they did,” Pullins said. “Voters like PG Sittenfeld, he would probably be mayor now if, if not for that … I think there were some powerful individuals in Cincinnati that did not want him to be mayor.”
As for Borges, Katkin thinks he also has a chance at a pardon, despite being a past Trump critic.
“I would say that certainly if Mr. Householder is given a pardon, that Mr. Borges should, should stand in the same position as far as meriting such consideration,” said Borges’ appellate attorney Dennis Belli, who said the Sittenfeld pardon brought them hope.
Note: Reporter Morgan Trau from Scripps sister station, WEWS-TV in Cleveland, contributed to this report.
