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FBI asked for AG’s internal communications – Yost must appoint special prosecutor

New documents received show that Attorney General Dave Yost and his office received a federal subpoena as a part of the HB6 investigation. The court order asks for both external and internal communications related to the petition campaign to repeal HB 6. This is not simply about gathering information about the HB6 repeal campaign: the FBI is also seeking information about how Yost’s office dealt with it. 

The subpoena is available here. 

Yost rejected the initial HB 6 repeal petition language. This cost the repeal campaign valuable time and ultimately helped to prevent them from gathering enough signatures. This delay with the language was a part of the lawsuit filed by the repeal campaign asking the Ohio Supreme Court for more time. 

In addition to taking more than $78,000 from HB6-related interests, many of Yost’s former staffers, including Matt Borges and Carlo LoParo, played key roles in the shady campaign against the repeal. Was Yost coordinating with them? 

“Attorney General Yost owes Ohioans answers. Did his office work with FirstEnergy, Republican Speaker Larry Householder, and Yost’s own former staffers to slow down the HB 6 repeal campaign?” asked ProgressOhio Managing Director Michael McGovern. “If federal investigators are scrutinizing Yost’s office, he cannot lead his own investigation of HB 6. Yost must appoint a special prosecutor to investigate this massive bribery scandal, as we have previously called for.” 

The period covered by the FBI subpoena also includes the Fall of 2019 when Yost claimed to be investigating the illegal tactics of the anti-repeal campaign led by his former staffers. Is Yost’s failed investigation also a part of the FBI’s probe? Will it be part of Yost’s “investigation”?

This new development also raises the question of which other statewide officeholders received subpoenas. Who else was working behind the scenes with the individuals behind the largest scandal in Ohio history?

Federal criminal complaint makes clear they new about scheme – we deserve answers

Today, ProgressOhio filed a public records request for all communications between members of disgraced former Speaker Larry Householder leadership team and individuals implicated in the HB6 bribery scandal. We also demand that Rep. Jay Edwards, Rep. Jim Butler, Rep. Laura Lanese, Rep. Bill Sietz, and Rep. Tony DeVitis publicly release any additional communications with these individuals not covered by public records law.

In a rare interview last week, Rep. Edwards made the laughable claim that neither he nor any of the other members of Householder’s leadership team knew about the massive corruption scheme they were a part of. We know that is a lie. 

“The FBI complaint clearly states members of Householder’s team knew about his scheme,” said ProgressOhio Managing Director Michael McGovern. “What did they know and when? Ohio voters deserve answers about their involvement in this massive bribery scandal.” 

A text from Householder to Jeff Longstreth in June 2019 in the federal criminal complaint (page 65) reads: “Gen Now has had issues as well. I’ve had several members – including members of House leadership come in privately and discuss their concern over next years House campaigns based on HB 6 messaging, mail, TV and radio.”

It is clear that some House members knew that Householder controlled Generation Now and that it was being used both to promote HB 6 and support GOP candidates. Who knew and what did they know? 

Only Rep. Lanese respected Speaker Bob Cupp’s request to step down from leadership. The others have held on, keeping Householder’s team and power intact. Reps. Seitz, Edwards, and Lanese are all running for re-election – voters in their districts deserve to know what they knew, and when. Seitz, whose previous attempts to bailout FirstEnergy have been subpoenaed, is also allegedly running for Speaker. 

ProgressOhio has requested they turn over any communications they or their staff have had with the following individuals implicated or indicted in the HB6 scandal: Larry Householder, Robert Klaffky, Douglas Preisse, Robert (BJ) Schuerger, Juan Cespedes, Ben Kaiser, Geoff Verhoff, Dave Griffing, Jason Mauk, Alexander Thomas, Adam Hewit, Neil Clark, Eric Lycan, Matthew Borges, Matthew Davis, Jo Ann Davison, Jeff Longstreth, Curt Steiner, Carlo LoParo, Kevin Servick, Patrick Pickett, Mark Weaver, or Donald Brey.  

We are also demanding they turn over any additional personal communications they have had that are not covered by Ohio public record rules. If they were truly not involved in this scandal, why do they have to hide?

Ohioans recently learned that the now-former Speaker of the Ohio House, in league with a team of GOP lobbyists and operatives, hatched a scheme to take more than $60 million in corporate bribes in exchange for enacting a billion dollar consumer-funded bailout of failing coal and nuclear power plants. 

This pay-to-play scheme was years in the making. FirstEnergy Corporation and its subsidiaries and allies in the coal industry have been funding campaigns of candidates at the local and state level for years in hopes of laying the groundwork for a reversal of Ohio’s groundbreaking renewable energy and efficiency mandates and a bailout for their aging power plants.

That investment finally paid off with the ascent of Larry Householder as Speaker of the House.

Progress Ohio has identified nearly $6 million in campaign contributions connected to the FirstEnergy bailout scheme. This includes donations from the individuals named in the FBI complaint: Larry Householder and co-conspirators Matt Borges, Neil Clark, Juan Cespedes and Jeff Longstreth. We have also included political action committees and executives of FirstEnergy and allied coal interests Murray Energy and the Boich Companies — the three identified as Companies A, B and C in the FBI filings.

The vast majority of that $6 million in dirty campaign cash went to officials who currently hold or are seeking office in November. While some have donated the ill-gotten gains to charity, many have not. With elections around the corner, it’s important to know who is compromised by this dirty money, so with that in mind, here is the data, compiled from reports filed with the Ohio Secretary of State:

• Total contribution from scandal-linked individuals and organizations, by candidate and party committee
• Detailed accounting of individual and organizational contributions, by date

New reporting from Cleveland.com has found that the Ohio Business Roundtable, a group of some of the largest companies in Ohio, has encouraged CEO’s to send letters to their employees pressuring them to vote for Republicans in the Ohio Supreme Court election. The letters go so far as to tie the employees’ “job security” to the outcome of the races. As Cleveland.com reports:

The Ohio Business Roundtable’s suggested email campaign ties people’s employment to the results of the Supreme Court election.

“You value stability in your job, just as we value stability in our business,” says email No. 3, which the business roundtable suggested CEOs send to their employees on Sept. 28.

“When our justices do that job well, our economy is stronger and our job security is greater,” says email No. 7, which is supposed to be sent out Oct. 28. “It’s just that simple.”

This communication may violate Ohio law. Ohio Revised Code 3599.05, which states:

No employer or his agent or a corporation shall print or authorize to be printed upon any pay envelopes any statements intended or calculated to influence the political action of his or its employees; or post or exhibit in the establishment or anywhere in or about the establishment any posters, placards, or hand bills containing any threat, notice, or information that if any particular candidate is elected or defeated work in the establishment will cease in whole or in part, or other threats expressed or implied, intended to influence the political opinions or votes of his or its employees.

“It is difficult to see this as anything else other than an attempt to pressure employees to support Justices French and Kennedy, who have a long track record of looking out for corporate special interests over everyday Ohioans,” said ProgressOhio Managing Director Michael McGovern. “We deserve to know whether Justices French and Kennedy support these threats.” 

The Ohio Business Roundtable’s full membership can be found here. Which of these companies have pressured their workers? Do they support OBTR’s campaign to pressure Ohio workers to support Republican candidates?

TO: Ohio Press

FROM: Michael McGovern, ProgressOhio

DATE: September 29, 2020

RE: Questions for Ohio GOP Leaders Following the Debate 

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As the presidential candidates meet tonight in Cleveland for the first debate, we can all safely assume that President Trump, when asked about voting or the peaceful transition of power, will surely say something false, offensive, or even dangerous. 

We hope that when he does, you will press Ohio Republican leaders to truly explain whether they stand with Trump or our core democratic values. Wishy washy officials like Gov. Mike DeWine, Sen. Rob Portman, and Secretary of State Frank LaRose have happily enabled Trump when it suits them, while declining any opportunity to show real independence and courage. If they refuse to denounce his attacks on our democracy, they need to be held to account by the media. 

When Trump does say something about voting or the transition of power, we have a few ideas of the questions Ohio Republicans need to answer:

Will they follow Trump’s orders, or Ohio law? If Trump again argues that votes should not be counted after election day, will LaRose and DeWine commit to uphold Ohio law and count any ballot postmarked by November 2?

What’s more important, LaRose’s role as our top elections official, or the R next to his name? If Trump attacks mail-in absentee voting or makes unfounded charges of voter fraud, will LaRose – who keeps making voting harder during a pandemic – forcefully denounce him? 

Will they promise not to steal this election? Will LaRose, DeWine, and other Ohio Republicans fight attempts to appoint electors who do not represent the outcome of the popular vote? Will Portman refuse to recognize electors who do not represent the outcome of a state’s popular vote in the Senate? 

Ohio Republican leaders owe us real answers about whether they stand with us, or Donald Trump. There is no better time to ask them than when the president is here in Ohio. 

One of the core pillars of Ohio GOP corruption of the last twenty years has been a willingness to bypass accepted norms to advance their power. Will tonight be any different?