Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost brought criminal charges this year against four people involved in the largest bribery scandal in state history.
Many felt that a long time had passed. This is especially true in cases brought against men accused of financing the conspiracy but who have not yet been charged by federal prosecutors four years after the last of the alleged offenses took place – i almost a year after two others began long prison sentences.
But Yost’s name has come up several times in the federal lawsuit, and last week his office again ignored detailed questions about the case.
The attorney general played an essential role in thwarting the attempt to repeal the corrupt aid package. There were also claims that he thought the bailout was bad law, but kept his mouth shut out of loyalty to one of the conspirators – and the main beneficiary of the law.
The case is politically fraught for Yost because state indictments earlier this year have raised recent questions about Lt. Gov. Jon Husted’s involvement in the scandal. Yost and Husted are widely expected to face each other in the 2026 race for the Republican nomination for Ohio governor.
New fees
Former House Speaker Larry Householder, R-Glenford, was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison last June for his role in a program that paid Akron-based FirstEnergy more than $60 million to allow him to appear as a speaker in 2018 and to pass and secure a $1.3 billion taxpayer rescue package the following year. It is one of the largest scandals in Ohio history, as a result of which former Republican Party chairman Matt Borges was also sentenced to five years in prison, two more cases pleaded guilty, and two defendants committed suicide.
But U.S. Attorney Kenneth Parker missed a rather essential point last June when he stood outside the federal courthouse in Cincinnati and bragged to the press about the convictions and sentences his assistants had just won. He was asked what about people who gave bribes? Would they be charged? If yes then when?
Parker only said the investigation was ongoing.
In December, his team accused Sam Randazzo, nominated by Gov. Mike DeWine to be Ohio’s top regulator. In a deferred prosecution agreement, FirstEnergy said it paid Randazzo a $4.3 million bribe just before taking over as regulator. From this position, he provided the company with a number of lucrative favors related to financing, and – according to the indictment – he provided undue assistance in other matters.
But the feds still haven’t charged former FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones and Vice President Michael Dowling, who allegedly funneled truckloads of corporate cash to 501(c)(4) obscure money groups that financed the scandal.
In February, a team of state prosecutors led by Yost stepped into the void, securing, among other things, grand jury indictment v. Jones, Dowling and Randazzo. The charges cover the bailout scandal as well as a decade of shady transactions in which Randazzo allegedly paid more than $10 million and defrauded both industrial energy users and residential customers.
In April, Randazzo died by suicide.
Other questions
The state indictment also raised recent questions about the cozy relationship between the DeWine/Husted administration, FirstEnergy and Randazzo.
In the weeks before the inauguration, DeWine and Husted had dinner in downtown Columbus with Jones and Dowling — FirstEnergy’s top executives — and talked about whether Randazzo would be able to regulate the company. Jones and Dowling then drove about a mile to Randazzo’s German Village residence and negotiated a $4.3 million payout, according to text messages used in multiple court proceedings.
The state indictment alleges that DeWine’s chief of staff, Laurel Dawson, knew about the payment before the governor appointed Randazzo to chair the Ohio Public Service Commission. But Dawson — whose husband was a lobbyist for FirstEnergy and allegedly received a $10,000 loan from Randazzo — isn’t speaking publicly about what she knew or what she told her boss.
DeWine continues to support his former government affairs director, Dan McCarthy, who lobbied the Legislature on DeWine’s behalf to pass the relief bill.
Just before taking the job, McCarthy was also a lobbyist for FirstEnergy – during which time he founded a obscure money group that became a conduit for tens of millions of dollars in scandal financing. In last year’s trial, prosecutors presented evidence that FirstEnergy Vice President Dowling in 2019 ordered a subordinate not to reveal the name of then-aide DeWine in connection with an infusion of $10 million into a corrupt bailout, even after he was told it would violate it’s IRS rules.
DeWine and his staff did not explain what McCarthy and Dawson knew about the corrupt machinations while the relief bill was being drafted or when DeWine signed it just hours after it passed.
DeWine, Husted and their administration also failed to explain what they knew about the long, suspicious relationship between Randazzo and FirstEnergy described in the state indictment. The governor’s spokesman tried to suggest that this was common knowledge, but ample evidence points to this Randazzo and FirstEnergy went to great lengths to conceal this.
DeWine also said he was unaware of the multimillion-dollar contributions FirstEnergy made in 2018 to support his gubernatorial bid. But a University of Cincinnati political scientist said it’s just unbelievable that the company would incur this expense and NO make sure the beneficiary knows about it. This seems especially true for a company that later admitted it had paid millions more in straight bribes.
For my part Husted won’t comment on $1 million in obscure money FirstEnergy spent supporting his 2018 gubernatorial bid or whether it promoted Randazzo to the regulatory position when he dropped his offer and joined DeWine’s ticket.
They both had a history. As Speaker of the House of Representatives in 2007. Husted appointed Randazzo to the PUCO Nominating Council — a position he held until DeWine appointed him chairman of the agency.
Questions for the Prosecutor General
Husted and Yost, the attorney general, are widely regarded as leaders for the 2026 GOP nomination for governor in a state that hasn’t elected a Democrat to the position since 2006.
There has been no suggestion that Yost brought charges as part of the bailout scandal to embarrass his likely opponent. At the same time, Yost’s office dodged questions about his own involvement in the rescue package controversy.
Text messages presented during last year’s federal court trial show Yost was drawn into the fight at a critical moment. The aid package passed the House of Representatives in delayed May 2019, but a month later opposition was growing in the state Senate.
Borges, a former Republican Party chairman who managed some of Yost’s political campaigns, had a text conversation on June 26, 2019, with Juan Cespedes, who was also paid to push the corrupt bailout bill. Borges made it clear that Yost believed the law was wrong.
AG “would be in the lead (in opposition) if it weren’t for (FirstEnergy’s) support and your commitment,” Borges quoted Yost as saying.
Yost’s spokesman declined to comment at the time, citing the fact that he had been subpoenaed on the matter.
Regardless of the AG’s view, so many people agreed that bailout was a terrible law that efforts to undertake the onerous process of repealing the law began even before it was passed. Borges noted to Cespedes that Yost would have to agree before the repeal could be on the ballot. Borges said the AG would also try to facilitate them there.
“If the law allows him to reject the language in any way, he will do soBorges texted.
Whatever the reason, Yost did just that.
Crucial wasted time
DeWine signed relief bill 6 the day it passed the Senate, July 23, 2019. Six days later, repeal supporters collected 1,000 signatures from registered voters and submitted a repeal summary to Yost for his approval.
Time was of the essence because Ohio law required repeal supporters to collect another 265,000 voter signatures within 90 days of the law’s passage to place it on the ballot. But first they had to wait for Yost to approve the vote tally.
The attorney general waited the full 10 days he was allotted and then issued a denial letter that seems to contradict any concept of “summary.”
It was a six-page document containing 1,535 words which broke down the summary into excruciating detail.
“He listed a lot of different things,” said Rachael Belz, CEO of Ohio Citizen Action, which strongly opposed the funding. “It seemed like a lot to overcome. It didn’t seem very neutral.”
The repeal was a referendum — the only one on which Yost has considered formulating a summary since he has been attorney general. Of the 26 other summaries he rejected, the huge majority concerned proposed constitutional amendments, with the rest relating to initiated bills.
His rejection of the summary of the repeal of the aid package is notable for its length. According to information available on the attorney general’s website, this is more than twice as long as the average for other denials.
In this case, Yost’s initial refusal did stern damage to repeal efforts.
Supporters submitted a recent summary on August 16, 2019, which Yost certified on August 29, 2019. By then, however, the repeal team had just 54 days of the original 90 days left to collect and submit over a quarter of a million valid signatures. In other words, their time to complete the mammoth task was cut almost in half.
What followed was a misleading, xenophobic and at times violent campaign to thwart repeal into which FirstEnergy pumped $36 million in obscure money. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the repeal of the decision did not attract enough signatures, and parts of the bailout bill for the corrupt still in the books.
Yost’s office did not respond to questions about his role in repealing the law or to statements Borge made during the former political boss’s criminal trial. But for Citizen Action’s Belz, Ohio’s leaders have plenty of blame to blame.
“I don’t think Yost’s hands were clean,” she said. “I don’t think Husted’s hands are pristine. I don’t think DeWine’s hands are pristine. I don’t know whose hands are pristine. Honestly, that would be a shorter list.
