CINCINNATI — FirstEnergy, the company that already confessed to bribing former Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives Larry Householder for a billion-dollar bailout to help its failing corporation, testified Tuesday in the trial against said lawmaker who is accused of accepting the bribe.
“The company was just bleeding cash,” Staub said about the abysmal benefits to the then-sinking utility entity. The company would work with Ohio Legislature to see if there was a “financial solution to help.” An attempt was made in 2017 with the Zero Emission Nuclear Resource bill, which would help keep FE nuclear power plants afloat. It failed, leading to bankruptcy.Despite all of this, Staub said he had no idea any of the money laundering was going on. However, his signature would be on the checks given to Householder.
"This agent's testimony will be pretty significant to the outcome of the trial," Entin said."If the agent's testimony persuades the jury that what was going on here was that FirstEnergy was buying the defendants, then that will not bode well for the defense." Business records include: Paychex; Red Maverick Media; Allen, Stovall, Neuman, Fisher & Ashton LLP; Crossroads Media; Storytellers; CGI Investigation; Hardworking Ohioans; Nordic Construction; Partners for Progress; Apple and Gmail.