Former Ohio Republican Party chair Matt Borges (right) and his attorneys Todd Long and Karl Schneider arrive Tuesday morning, January 24, 2023, at the Potter Stewart U.S. Courthouse in Cincinnati for the second day of the corruption trial of former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder.
David Petkiewicz, cleveland.com
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The judge presiding over a trial related to the corrupt passing of House Bill 6 made a series of errors in decisions, according to arguments submitted Monday by a lobbyist seeking to terminate his five-year sentence.
Matt Borges was convicted of engaging in a racketeering conspiracy in March 2023 at a trial alongside ex-Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder. Borges wrote a $15,000 check to the opposition – a political operative working on the campaign to repeal the bailout legislation. He was seeking inside information about the progress of the campaign in gathering tens of thousands of voters’ signatures to place a possible repeal on a statewide ballot, trial evidence including texts and surreptitious recordings showed.
Borges, in a conversation recorded by political operative-turned-FBI-informant Tyler Fehrman, told Fehrman that if he told people about their arrangement, Borges would “blow your house up.” While Fehrman shrugged it off in the recording, he told jurors he understood the comment as a threat.
FirstEnergy Solutions lobbyist Juan Cespedes, who facilitated the company’s bribes to engineer passage of a ratepayer funded $1 billion bailout of its nuclear plants, said Borges helped him engage in other “black ops” like hiring private investigators to trail campaign staffers.
In his arguments to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday, Borges argued prosecutors failed to produce evidence to satisfy his constitutional right of due process under the law. He also argued the trial judge erred in his instructions to jurors, evidentiary rulings, and other decisions.
“This flimsy theory of guilt exposed Borges to the kind of uncertainty in our laws that the Constitution does not tolerate,” his attorney, Dennis Belli, wrote. “He is serving a lengthy prison term as a consequence of the government’s abuse of its charging and prosecuting authority.”
Borges asked the judges to either issue a finding that the evidence against him was “legally insufficient” to support a racketeering conviction, or to reverse the conviction due to procedural errors and remand his case for a new trial.
Attorneys for the federal government have the opportunity to respond to Borges’ request before a panel of judges rules on the appeal.
Law enforcement arrested Borges, Householder and three other men in 2020 in connection with their roles orchestrating the passage of House Bill 6. Prosecutors alleged they all helped facilitate payment of about $60 million from FirstEnergy into a nonprofit secretly controlled by Householder. That nonprofit supported pro-Householder candidates financially, took out ads, hired consultants, ran polls and more, all in the service of passing HB6. The nonprofit also paid those insiders, including Householder, hundreds of thousands.
At Borges’ sentencing, U.S. District Judge Timothy Black tore into Borges, saying that while he only joined the operation in its later stages, he did so with his “eyes wide open.”
“Larry Householder was a crook, and you knew it,” Black said. “You didn’t care that you were helping the Ohio Speaker of the House undermine the very foundation of democracy … You saw everyone getting rich and thought, why not me?”
Black sentenced Borges to five years. A Board of Prisons database shows he’s currently incarcerated at FCI Milan, a federal prison in Southeast Michigan.
At trial, he confirmed that he rejected a plea offer from the government that would have called for six months in prison in exchange for a guilty plea and substantial assistance.
Householder is serving a 20-year sentence as well. He is scheduled to file his own appeal this month. Cespedes and Jeff Longstreth, a political operative who pleaded guilty in connection to the scheme, have not yet been sentenced. Neil Clark, a lobbyist indicted alongside them, died by suicide before his trial.
Late last year, officials also indicted Sam Randazzo, the state’s former top utility regulator, for accepting a $4.3 million bribe from FirstEnergy partly in connection with the passage of HB6. He has pleaded not guilty. A trial date has not been set.
