The federal corruption probe into HB 6 & the surrounding saga highlights the numerous weak spots in Ohio’s ethics & transparency laws for politicians. A glaring one was on display Wednesday during ex-Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder’s corruption trial:
and The Plain Dealer previously have reported, although he did describe receiving an unspecified gift from Longstreth.Householder at best may have been operating in a grey area in state law. Under Ohio law, lawmakers must disclose all gifts they receive worth $75 or more, as well as those from lobbyists worth more than $25. But they don’t have to declare their specific value, and they don’t have to describe what the gift was.
In addition, state lawmakers in Georgia and South Carolina must disclose all gifts given to them or their family members, with South Carolina setting a minimum amount of $20 and Georgia $75. Longstreth said that after HB6 passed, Householder asked if Longstreth was “made whole” after Longstreth got $2.5 million out of their effort to pass the bill and protect it against a repeal attempt. FirstEnergy funded the campaign with tens of millions of dollars, part of the $60 million in what prosecutors say were bribes the company paid to Householder and others in exchange for the law’s passage.that took place after Householder’s 2020 arrest over whether to kick him out of the legislature.
“Isn’t it true that all that … under current law, however much we might not like it, it is legal for a non-lobbyist to give a gift in limitless amount without disclosing either what the gift was or what it costs, so long as you list the name of the giver of the gift?”The FBI “conveniently” omitted references to the disclosure in its nearly 150-page court filings laying out the allegations against Householder at the time, Seitz said.
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