A former Republican leader of the Ohio state house who was convicted by federal prosecutors in the largest public corruption scandal in state history now faces additional charges including one that would specifically forbid him from holding office again–brought by the state’s Republican Attorney General, so you know it’s bad, the Columbus Dispatch reports.
Stemming from an investigation by the Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission, Larry Householder now faces ten state felony counts relating to a scheme to get a $1 billion bailout for two nuclear energy plants run by FirstEnergy Solutions. Adding salt to the wound: the state charge target Householder’s use of $750,000 from his reelection campaign fund for the defense in his federal criminal case.
One of the charges brought by Republican Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is a count of first-degree theft in public office, which upon conviction would bar Householder from electing for public office or even holding a government job. Why he needs to be convicted on state charges to be excluded from office after a conviction on federal RICO charges seems to be an unnecessary redundancy to have to do over again.