nuclear-news

The Trump link to Ohio nuke corruption

   By David DeWitt, Ohio Capital Journal https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2024/08/11/the-trump-link-to-ohio-nuke-corruption

Former president’s top campaign money bundler connected to Ohio’s largest public corruption scandal

FirstEnergy was the company behind the largest political bailout and bribery scandal in Ohio history, which funneled $61 million in dark money bribes to Ohio lawmakers in order to pass a $1.3 billion nuclear and coal bailout at the expense of every Ohio family that pays utility bills.

Now, Sludge has reported that Donald Trump’s top known campaign money bundler advised FirstEnergy on its contributions to a dark money group that pleaded guilty to racketeering charges in Ohio’s House Bill 6 bailout scandal.

FirstEnergy pleaded guilty in a deferred prosecution agreement. So did the aforementioned dark money group used to funnel the bribes, Generation Now. Former Republican Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder is serving 20 years in federal prison on racketeering charges, and former Ohio Republican Party chair and FirstEnergy lobbyist Matt Borges is serving five years for his role.

One former Ohio lobbyist charged in the scandal died by suicide, as did Ohio’s former top utility regulatorwhile he was under state and federal indictments. FirstEnergy admitted bribing him $4.3 million. Two other former FirstEnergy lobbyists cooperated and are awaiting sentencing. Two former FirstEnergy executives have been charged by the state of Ohio on charges alleging the spearheaded the bribery scheme. They’ve pleaded not guilty.

Trump’s top money bundler is named Geoff Verhoff. As Sludge reported, Verhoff is a “senior adviser at public affairs firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, has bundled more than $3.6 million this year for Trump 47 Committee, according to a new filing with the Federal Election Commission.”

Verhoff also pleaded the Fifth when called to testify at Householder’s trial last March on his role in FirstEnergy’s Ohio bribery scheme.

From Sludge: “Verhoff was one of four individuals who was present at an October 2018 meeting where a FirstEnergy lobbyist paid a bribe to former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder. According to the testimony of the government’s cooperating witness, former FirstEnergy lobbyist Juan Cespedes, during the meeting lobbyist Robert Klaffky slid an envelope containing a $400,000 check under the hand of former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder. In response to the check, Cespedes said, Householder, gave ‘very strong verbals and nonverbals that he would introduce’ the FirstEnergy bailout legislation. The check was written out to Generation Now, a dark money nonprofit controlled by Householder that later pleaded guilty to racketeering charges in the matter.”

The article is full of details and is worth getting a subscription to read in full. Sludge reports on money in politics — that dark toxin poisoning our body politic alongside gerrymandering, as we’ve discussed previously.

Verhoff is just one of two FirstEnergy-connected lobbyist bundlers working to gather money for Trump to be reelected, according to the article. Verhoff also served as vice-chair of the RNC finance committee from 2017-2021. The Akin group Verhoff is part of got $68 million for their FirstEnergy work, Sludge reported, and Verhoff got $675 an hour from FirstEnergy.

August 12, 2024 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized