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Ohio House Speaker, Pro-Biden Republican Arrested in $60 Million Bribery Investigation

Larry Householder / YouTube Screenshot
July 21, 2020

Ohio House speaker Larry Householder (R.) and pro-Biden Republican Matt Borges were arrested Tuesday morning in connection to a $60 million bribery case.

A spokeswoman for David DeVillers, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, described the case as a "public corruption racketeering conspiracy case involving $60 million." Borges, cofounder of Right Side PAC—a Republican group pushing disaffected GOP voters in battleground states to vote for Joe Biden in November—was formerly the chairman of the Ohio Republican Party. Householder's adviser Jeffrey Longstreth and others allegedly connected to the scheme were also arrested Tuesday.

The charges could be related to Ohio House Bill 6—legislation Householder pushed last year, which gave a $1 billion bailout to two nuclear power plants. DeVillers and the FBI will officially announce the charges in a press conference at 2:30 p.m.

Householder has led the Ohio House of Representatives since January 2019 and held the speakership once before, from 2001 to 2004.

On Monday, a separate federal investigation implicated Illinois House speaker Michael Madigan (D.) in a bribery scheme. Madigan has ties to ComEd, a utility company that faces a $200 million fine for giving kickbacks to "various associates of a high-level elected official for the state of Illinois."

Published under: Corruption