COLUMBUS — In a historic moment, a former speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives challenged the authority of his colleagues to expel him from the chamber as he fights allegations that he sold a $1 billion bailout of nuclear power plants for personal and political gain.
“I have not, nor have I ever, taken a bribe, or solicited or been solicited for taking a bribe. Never...,” Rep. Larry Householder (R., Glenford) told the House Rules and Reference Committee on Tuesday. “This resolution seeks to shortcut the legal system. It denies due process. It subverts the will of the people.
“It subverts the principle that you are innocent until proven guilty and is an unprecedented action by this House,” he said.
Mr. Householder has been charged in what has been characterized by prosecutors as a $61 million bribery scheme, the biggest such scandal in state history. He has pleaded not guilty and is at least several months away from trial in federal court on a felony racketeering charge that could carry up to 20 years in prison.
He has rejected calls from his successor, Ohio House Speaker Bob Cupp (R., Lima), and other Republicans to voluntarily resign even as the issue has divided the caucus he once led.
Mr. Householder is accused of engineering a scheme to hide cash from Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. and related entities by funneling it through a nonprofit corporation.
Federal prosecutors allege the money was used to help elect legislators loyal to him in 2018, get him elected speaker with the help of minority Democrats in 2019, and then pass House Bill 6, a bailout of two Lake Erie nuclear power plants then owned by a FirstEnergy subsidiary.
The scheme continued to kill a subsequent petition effort to subject the controversial House Bill 6 to voter referendum.
Two individuals and the corporation have already pleaded guilty.
Like Mr. Householder, lobbyist and former Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matt Borges has pleaded not guilty for his alleged role. A fourth person, powerful Columbus lobbyist Neil Clark, committed suicide in Florida in March.
Mr. Householder is accused of using about $400,000 for his personal benefit.
He pointed to his re-election in November, accusing those behind resolutions to remove him from office to be thwarting the will of the people of the largely rural 72nd District east of Columbus who re-elected him in November after the indictment came down.
There was no Democrat on the ballot at the time, and no write-in challengers gained traction.
Ohio Rep. Paula Hicks-Hudson (D., Toledo), one of the Democrats who helped elect Mr. Householder as speaker, questioned how the House was to react to such allegations against one of its own when members of Toledo City Council accused of but not convicted of bribery have been replaced.
“What about the institution and the ability for the institution to move forward and have the integrity?” she said. “I think about the local council members who are charged in Toledo, Ohio with not as much as the allegations that you're being charged with. They're not representing the people that they were elected (by).”
After conferring quickly with his Cleveland attorney, Mark Marein, Mr. Householder said, “The people of Ohio have been very clear what authorities they've given the General Assembly, and the authorities they've given to the General Assembly is to expel a member in the event of a disorderly conduct.
“It isn't about accusations, and when you look at other subdivisions in the state of Ohio, a city that sets their own rules, it may differ from what the people of the state of Ohio have granted us the authority to be able to do,” he said.
Mr. Householder and his supporters in the General Assembly have cited the criminal definition of “disorderly conduct,” essentially conduct considered threatening or violent, as the bar to surpass in making the case to remove him from office.
He contends that efforts to widen the definition to include allegations of criminal conduct that don’t include punches thrown and have not yet been proven would set a dangerous precedent for the chamber. The Ohio Constitution does not define the term.
At times, he attempted to compare the efforts to remove him from office to the impeachments of President Trump by Congress, both of which ended without convictions in the Senate.
“If you've ever been through what I'm going through right now, and that is a pretty daily butt-kicking by the media..., I don't know how you could say that I haven't been held accountable,” Mr. Householder said in response to one Democrat.
“I've gone through hell and back, and I've still got a lot of hell to go,” he said.
On the advice of his attorney, he declined to answer specific questions about the allegations against him.
While the chamber removed him from the speaker’s podium shortly after the charges were filed last year, Mr. Householder remains a sitting member casting votes on the floor and drawing a nearly $66,000 salary afforded to all rank-and-file members.
He holds no committee or leadership position that would draw an additional stipend.
The committee did not vote out either of the resolutions — one sponsored by fellow Republicans and the other by Democrats - seeking Mr. Householder's removal from office.
But there could be an attempt on the House floor as soon Wednesday to try to force the issue. Democrats and some majority Republicans may try to work together to get the super-majority votes needed to bring an expulsion resolution to the floor.
First Published June 15, 2021, 11:17 p.m.
