The aide knew about the payment, but didn’t tell DeWine until the FBI searched the regulator’s home nearly two years later, the governor’s office says.
The following article was originally published in the Ohio Capital Journal and published on News5Cleveland.com under a content-sharing agreement.
“It is ridiculous and patently false to assert the Governor had a role in bribery schemes, either those alleged or already adjudicated in criminal court, that enriched other persons, and no such court case makes any such allegation,” Tierney said in an email. From that perch, Randazzo helped draft and lobbied for the corrupt bailout, while also doing any number of other valuable favors for the Akron-based utility, the indictments allege.
DeWine staunchly defended McCarthy long after the indictments. But evidence presented at last year’s criminal trial indicated that at least some players thought his role in financing the bailout should be kept hidden. Prosecutors presented text messages showing that Dowling, the now-indicted FirstEnergy executive, ordered that McCarthy’s name be kept off a $10 million dark money infusion even after an aide told Dowling that it would violate IRS rules to do so.
Actually, the financial relationship between Randazzo and FirstEnergy was far from well known. The state indictment says that Randazzo hid the fact that he was being paid by FirstEnergy from a group of industrial energy users he was serving as general counsel — a clear conflict of interest. On the first date, Gov.-elect DeWine and Lt. Gov.-elect Husted met for dinner at the Columbus Athletic Club with FirstEnergy CEO Jones and Vice President Dowling. They discussed appointing Randazzo as PUCO chair, the state indictment says.
Randazzo was paid the money — which FirstEnergy later called a bribe — and on Feb. 4, 2019, DeWine nominated Randazzo to chair the PUCO. In other words, the governor-elect had dinner with the executives the same night they worked out a massive payment to Randazzo, they then made the payment, and then DeWine made Randazzo the chief regulator of their industry seven weeks after the dinner.
Tierney was asked what the governor-elect discussed with the FirstEnergy executives in late 2018 and whether it was proper to even have such a discussion just as he was deciding who would regulate their business. DeWine’s press secretary said such meetings are par for the course.