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Something that strikes me about today's news: So much of what prosecutors call a corrupt scheme played out in public. Not that it was easy to connect the dots, but Ohio reporters (including my co-workers) did the dogged work of connecting them. Some examples:
Householder's slate of candidates was bankrolled by FirstEnergy. via @jpelzer https://www.cleveland.com/open/2018/04/firstenergy_pac_writes_big_che.html
Shortly after he was elected again to the legislature, Householder flew the FirstEnergy plane to Trump's inauguration. Then he launched his bid to become speaker. via @lbischoff https://www.daytondailynews.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/former-ohio-house-speaker-householder-looking-return-power/7WQrEqoM0OWAoOuBvDZqdI/
Dark money groups spent millions backing Householder's slate of candidates — as did a competing one backing the other speaker candidate. That included Generation Now, which was named in today's charges. https://www.cleveland.com/open/2018/07/dark_money_groups_spend_millio.html
Generation Now, designed to be intentionally secretive, was incorporated by Longstreth, a top Householder aide. via @lbischoff https://www.daytondailynews.com/news/local/big-money-pushes-for-energy-bill-consumer-groups-oppose/ciWTL5gLpNVxpt3b03dxLP/
FirstEnergy spent millions on PR and lobbying to try to get the bailout bill passed. https://www.cleveland.com/open/2019/04/firstenergy-and-its-allies-seeking-nuclear-plant-bailout-have-spent-millions-on-influence-campaign.html
I laid out the big picture in this story. https://www.cleveland.com/news/g66l-2019/05/ce7f1b02ee6954/nuclear-bailout-bill-shows-how-big-money-can-be-put-to-work-in-the-ohio-statehouse.html
Then, HB6 spent million to thwart petition gathering efforts. I had never heard of petition blockers until reporting this story. https://www.cleveland.com/open/2019/09/ohio-nuclear-bailout-defenders-deploy-ground-troops-to-thwart-repeal-efforts-signature-collection.html
The impact of dark money on the Ohio campaign process, as pertaining to the House Bill 6 fight, even was the focus of a specific set of stories. Including this one: https://www.wksu.org/post/dark-money-fueling-campaigns-both-sides-energy-bill#stream/0
So without commenting on whether this all rose to the level of criminality, reading today's charges was like reading reporting from Ohio media over the past few years, plus wiretaps. Despite efforts to conceal it, it wasn't a secret who was behind this and why.
By the way there was a ton of coverage of this. I didn't mean to exclude anyone. If someone reminds me of a specific story I'm more than happy to add it.
PS: I forgot — the FirstEnergy spinoff leveraged the Ohio ratepayer financed bailout to spend $300 million to buy back shares of their own stock. https://www.cleveland.com/open/2020/05/with-ohio-bailout-law-secured-firstenergy-solutions-successor-moves-to-increase-share-buybacks-by-300-million.html
