Ohio Senator Jon Husted’s calendar from 2019 reveals multiple meetings with individuals tied to the FirstEnergy bribery scandal, a scheme linked to one lawmaker’s imprisonment.
Federal prosecutors in 2020 accused FirstEnergy, an Akron-based electric utility, of channeling $60 million through dark-money entities to support five Republican members. These officials backed House Bill 6 (HB 6), a contentious law raising utility rates to facilitate a $1.3 billion bailout for two nuclear facilities under a FirstEnergy subsidiary’s ownership.
During his tenure as lieutenant governor, Husted participated in several meetings, allegedly related to HB 6, while maintaining strenuous denials of any corruption awareness. Despite this, messages, calls, and meetings document his close engagement with central scandal figures.
Among these figures was Sam Randazzo, the former Public Utilities Commission of Ohio chair, alleged to have received bribe money. Husted’s schedule lists a phone meeting with Randazzo on April 10, 2019, two days before HB 6 was introduced. They also met on June 7, shortly after the legislation reached the Senate.
During his confirmation, Randazzo declared that Husted personally recruited him for the Commission role. Randazzo faced a federal indictment in 2023 related to the FirstEnergy scandal. After his death by suicide in 2024, the charges were vacated.
Husted’s calendar notes a May 10, 2019 meeting with Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Dan McCarthy, the governor’s legislative affairs director and former FirstEnergy lobbyist. McCarthy played a role in establishing one of the dark-money groups implicated in the bribe funneling.
This gathering was marked as a “legal meeting” in Husted’s records.
Governor DeWine enacted HB 6 in July 2019, sparking public backlash and a movement for a referendum to overturn it. Husted met Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder on August 29, 2019, as the referendum’s ballot language gained official certification.
Prosecutors identify Householder as the scheme’s mastermind and a bribe recipient. Currently serving a 20-year sentence for federal racketeering, Householder faces additional state charges.
Less than a month after Householder, Husted met FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones amid the company’s efforts to have the state Supreme Court block the referendum. Jones, the CEO during the bribery plot’s development, is also under trial.
Both Jones and Householder contest any allegations of misconduct.
Husted’s agenda includes three unspecified “nuclear subsidies” meetings from April to June 2019.
Democratic state Sen. Kent Smith expressed to News 5 Cleveland that Husted’s meetings indicate he “always supported FirstEnergy.”
The attempt to repeal HB 6 via referendum failed due to insufficient signatures. Legislators are now pursuing legislative repeal amid the bribery revelations.
Husted, appointed to the Senate last year to succeed Vice President J.D. Vance, seeks his first full term this election cycle.
FirstEnergy has paid $330 million in federal penalties related to the scheme, and last year the company was mandated to reimburse $186 million to customers impacted by the rate increases.
