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Ohio Democratic Party sues DeWine over redacted records in connection to FirstEnergy scandal

Democrats say they want "answers to who knew what and when about the FirstEnergy scandal – which Ohioans continue to pay $287,000 every single day for."

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Frustrated by what it calls 'stonewalling' tactics from Gov. Mike DeWine, the Ohio Democratic Party announced that it has filed a lawsuit seeking redacted records from the governor's office regarding the FirstEnergy House Bill 6 bribery scandal.

According to a statement by the party, Democrats in Ohio have been working since October to get "answers to who knew what and when about the FirstEnergy scandal – which Ohioans continue to pay $287,000 every single day for." 

Details of the $60 million bribery scheme created to give a $1 billion bailout for the state's two FirstEnergy nuclear plants came to light in July 2020 when then-Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, four associates and a dark money group were indicted on racketeering charges. Householder has pleaded not guilty and awaits trial in federal court.

In January of this year, the Ohio Democratic Party submitted an extensive public records request to the governor's office for documents ranging from communications between DeWine and FirstEnergy executives, to DeWine's daily calendar. Many of the dates and events that DeWine sent back were redacted.   

“We know DeWine met with Mike Dowling and Chuck Jones, the two men named as ordering the FirstEnergy bribes. Now, he’s trying to hide behind illegal redactions so we can’t see who else he’s been meeting with. But that’s not all. We believe the other record requests rejected by DeWine were done so illegally. So today, we’re re-submitting those requests. If his administration continues to reject these requests, we’re prepared to sue on those, too,” said Ohio Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters in a statement. 

Dan Tierney, the press secretary, for DeWine's office said the Democrat's lawsuit is "nothing more than a fishing expedition in a lake that has no fish."

In a 2021 agreement with the Justice Department, FirstEnergy agreed to pay a $230 million penalty after admitting it funneled $60 million into a nonprofit secretly controlled by Householder to pass House Bill 6. HB6 bailed out the Perry and Davis Besse nuclear power plants and was worth an estimated $1.3 billion to FirstEnergy. 

FirstEnergy also said it paid a $4.3 million bribe to Sam Randazzo, who served as Ohio's PUCO chairman. He resigned in November 2020, shortly after FBI agents raided his condominium and left with boxes of material. Randazzo has denied wrongdoing and has not been charged with a crime.

The Ohio Capital Journal and the Associated Press contributed to this story.

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