CLEVELAND — Newly released documents from a lawsuit filed by FirstEnergy investors are shedding more light on the flow of money from the utility to Ohio's politically powerful.
Former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, already sentenced to 20 years in prison on federal bribery charges, is set to answer to state charges for accepting $60 million in kickbacks from FirstEnergy for the passage of the massive nuclear bailout known as House Bill 6. Householder's state case will be heard in Cuyahoga County, since the alleged financial transactions happened in Cleveland.
At the center of the bribery scheme is the dark money group Partners for Progress, which FirstEnergy admits was created and funded to conceal the bribes. IRS filings show the group operated at the same address as Cleveland law firm Calfee, Halter & Griswold on East 6th Street downtown, and according to internal First Energy documents, Partners for Progress was run by current Calfee partner Mike VanBuren.
More internal documents show FirstEnergy paid $1 million to Freedom Frontier in 2017, calling it "Husted campaign," as in then gubernatorial candidate and current Lt. Gov. Jon Husted. FEC filings indicate that group then donated more than $1 million to Ohio Conservatives for a Change, a pro-Husted super PAC.
"The Husted campaign never received this donation and is not affiliated with any of these groups," a spokesperson for the lieutenant governor said Monday.
In partnership with 3News, Cleveland.com reporter Jake Zuckerman shared more FirstEnergy documents, which showed millions more going to another dark money group for the benefit of Husted's eventual running mate: Gov. Mike DeWine.
"These are the kinds of private records of things you really don't get often as a reporter," Zuckerman told 3News Investigates. "The made a series of contributions that totaled about $2.5 million to an organization called State Solutions, which was supporting the governor. And actually, one of those payments, there was an internal notation that explicitly referred to it as "for DeWine."
Husted and DeWine have not been charged with or formally accused of criminal wrongdoing. Householder's next court date is in three weeks, while trial is pending for two former FirstEnergy executives charged in Summit County.