Rep. Marcy Kaptur comments on arrests of Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, former Ohio GOP chair Matt Borges on charges involving a $60 million bribery and money laundering scheme...."There is much to be learned in the coming days about the latest apparent pay-to-play scheme in the Ohio statehouse," said Rep. Kaptur, the longest serving woman in Congress and whose 9th congressional district extends from Toledo to Cleveland....By Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest
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| Ohio Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), a Toledo Democrat whose 9th congressional district extends from Toledo to Cleveland and the longest serving woman in Congress |
By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor in chief. Coleman trained for 17 years as a reporter with the Call and Post Newspaper and is an investigative and political reporter with a background in legal and scientific reporting. She is also a former 15-year public school biology teacher.
Washington, D.C. – Ohio Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), a Toledo Democrat whose 9th congressional district extends to Cleveland, says the arrests on federal charges on Tuesday of two of the state's highly influential Republicans, House of Representatives speaker Larry Householder and former Ohio Republican Party chair Matt Borges "undermines public confidence and underscores the corrosive impact money has on our politics."
Borges, 48, is among a group of prominent fellow Republicans lobbying against President Trump's reelection bid, activity spurred by the Lincoln Project, a political action committee aimed specifically at getting the president out of office.
A Republican political consultant and ally to former Ohio GOP governor John Kasich who managed the 2014 campaign of auditor Dave Yost, Borges was chair of the state GOP party from 2013 until Trump assumed office in January of 2017, the party now led by Jane Timken, the first woman elected to the powerful post.
Kaptur said the situation for Householder and Borges, and a host of other prominent Republicans charged as accomplices, three of them arrested Tuesday in connection with Householder and Borges, is serious, and sad.
Also arrested Tuesday were Neil Clark of Grant Street Consultants, Oxley Group co-founder Juan Cespedes, and Jeffrey Longstreth, an adviser to Householder.
“Sadly, this situation appears to be very serious,” said Rep. Kaptur, the longest serving woman in Congress. “It bodes poorly for Ohio."
Described in a damning FBI complaint as a $60 million pay-to-play scheme of widespread public corruption and conspiracy involving FirstEnergy Corp with bribery at the helm, news of the charges and arrest of the leader of Ohio's Republican-dominated House of Representatives has rocked political circles in Ohio, a pivotal state that awaits a Nov. 3 presidential election between the incumbent Trump and former vice president Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee.
The congresswoman said that "there is much to be learned in the coming days about the latest apparent pay-to-play scheme in the Ohio statehouse."
And the federal lawmaker demanded campaign finance reform.
"Ohioans deserve honest and visionary leadership," Kaptur said. "While these matters are adjudicated, Ohioans should demand a top to bottom reform of Ohio’s ethics and campaign finance system to put an end to pay-to-play in the Buckeye State.”
News of Householder's arrest was a top story published Tuesday in the New York Times.
At the center of the bribery investigation is Householder's relationship with FirstEnergy Corp officials and a $1 billion financial rescue, legislation dubbed House Bill 6 that added an additional fee to every electricity bill in the state, and that generated some $150 million to the energy company.
FirstEnergy helped finance Householder's election in 2018, the scorching FBI complaint says, coupled with bankrolling a successful effort led by the House speaker to get the Republican-dominated general assembly to pass a bill that allocates $1.3 million for the troubled energy company.
A failed 2019 referendum seeking to repeal the legislation was also financed in part by the energy corporation.
Householder is also accused of using some $100,000 in bribery money, part of $500,000 in illegal monies the FBI confiscated from his personal accounts, for costs on his home in Florida.
His four conspirators, the four also arrested on Tuesday, including Borges, got millions too, the complaint says.
David DeVillers, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, has called it one of the worst misuses of Ohio tax-payer money in American history, and public corruption and money laundering of mass proportions.
The FBI and Perry County sheriff's office both confirmed through wire reports that Householder, Borges, and the three other alleged accomplices were arrested Tuesday regarding the $60 million public corruption scheme, Householder at his farm in Glenford in Perry County, home to the Perry Nuclear Power Plant, which, along the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Plant in Oak Harbor and a coal plant, is at the center of an affiliated investigation regarding Householder and kickbacks regarding $1.5 billion corporate bailout.
That bailout came via the statewide electricity bill surcharge under HB 6, which was supported by only 10 House Democrats.
That bailout came via the statewide electricity bill surcharge under HB 6, which was supported by only 10 House Democrats.
Nearly a half dozen others, practically all of them Republican operatives, have been arrested in connection with the now infamous bailout fiasco.
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.
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