The State Of Ohio Show March 17, 2023

Support for the statewide broadcast of the state of Ohio comes from Medical mutual providing more than 1.4 million Ohioans peace of mind with a selection of health insurance plans online at med mutual dot com slash Ohio by the law offices of Porter Wright, Morris and Arthur LLP.

Now with eight locations across the country.

Porter Wright is a legal partner with a new perspective to the business community.

Maude Porter Wright dot com and from the Ohio Education Association representing 124,000 members who work to inspire their students to think creatively and experience the joy of learning online at OHEA.org.

More fallout from the conviction of two Republican officials in the largest corruption scandal in state history and a conversation with one of the key players in that case, a Republican strategist turned FBI informant this week in the state of Ohio.

Welcome to the state of ohio.

I'm Karen Kasler.

Last week, a jury delivered one of the most explosive moments in Ohio politics.

Guilty verdicts against Republican former Ohio House speaker Larry Householder and former Ohio Republican Party chair Matt Burgess.

They were each convicted of one count of racketeering in a federal court in Cincinnati for their roles in a $61 million bribery scheme to pass the nuclear power plant Bailout law.

House Bill six for First Energy in 2019, with the help of the dark money group Generation now and attempting to stop a referendum to repeal that bailout.

Sentencing has not been set.

They each face 20 years in prison.

Jurors were presented with thousands of documents and hundreds of hours of recordings.

An FBI informant is on some of them and testified for the prosecution.

And Tyler Foreman, a former Republican strategist, said he's happy to finally publicly tell his story.

I talked with him at length about his experience and about his decision to call the FBI after a meeting he had with his friend and mentor, Matt Burgess, in September 2019.

As Furman was working on the campaign to take a repeal of House Bill six to the ballot.

That conversation was different than any conversation we had ever had.

We talked a lot about politics.

We've been involved in a lot of campaigns together.

He'd given me lots of lots of advice.

This conversation just went a different route.

He wanted to know what I could help him out with.

And at first I thought, okay, you're just asking me questions about what we're up to, right?

It didn't seem nefarious at first, but as he continued, he wanted to know if I would provide him with the number of signatures we had gathered every day where the petitioners were located, where they were gathering.

And then he started asking me about personal stuff.

He said, How much do you have left on your car loan?

And let's talk about child support arrears that he knew that I owed because of a period of unemployment I had experienced, and then proceeded to tell me, pick a car, tell me what debts you have.

Like, we can wipe all of those out if you provide me with this information.

At one point later in our conversations, he told me, If you can get me this information, it would really make me a hero with my team.

But that initial conversation when he tied his ask to giving me something in return, I knew it was wrong when he was asking for information.

And I thought, you know what?

I'm not going to share this with him.

I'm just going to respectfully tell him no.

But then it transitioned into and if you do, I'll help you wipe out all of these debts or I'll make sure that you're very well taken care of like I have been.

And that's when it crossed into something completely different.

I knew it was wrong.

I felt sort of that pit in my stomach.

It felt like a punch in the gut because this was a person that I knew and trusted, someone I looked up to, someone who had invested time and energy into me as a young operative who was now using what he knew about me because of our personal relationship to try and get something that he wanted.

And it just felt horrible.

I left that meeting really worked up.

I was pretty shaken by it.

I was upset.

I was angry.

But I was also really scared.

And I am not saying this to sound like a tough guy.

I am not a person that gets scared by much, especially not words.

But the difference between the Matt Burgess that I had known for years and the Matt Burgess that I encountered at that meeting, and what he was asking me was startling.

And so I left and I knew something had to be done.

I just didn't know what.

And so that ended up leading to you wearing a wire.

You testifying?

The experience must have just escalated from that first meeting.

It did.

I left the meeting.

So at the end of the meeting, I told Matt, I said, You know what?

Give me give me overnight to process all of this.

And totally honest.

I never had any intention of taking him up on that deal.

I knew it was wrong, but I wasn't sure what to do about it.

And at the moment, I just didn't even know how to respond.

I was just so shaken.

And so I left.

And I called my best friend, who is a at the time was another political operative there in Columbus, Mike Dairy.

I've known him since I was nine years old.

And I was like, Man, I have no clue what to do.

This is what happened.

And he was like, You should feel bad about this.

You should be worried about this.

And are you okay?

He suggested that I reach out to law enforcement and provided me the phone number for who I now know as Special Agent Wetzel.

I called Agent Wetzel cold calling.

The FBI has a really bizarre experience.

You don't know what to expect.

I dialed the number.

I expected to get, you know, some person on the other end asking what I needed.

And, you know, be very like a process with it.

Well, let us get you to the right guy.

It was his cell phone number and he picked up.

I gave him a high level overview of what had taken place.

And he said, Can you meet me tomorrow?

And I said, Sure.

Agent Wetzel showed up.

Normal guy, not much older than me, very friendly, very calm.

And we talked in-depth about what had happened.

He had some questions related to some of Matt's requests.

I shared with him every detail that I could possibly remember from that conversation.

And at the end of it, he said, we we can't pressure you.

We can't force you to do this.

But if you are willing, there is an investigation underway into some of the things that have been taking place surrounding House Bill six.

We need more information and you have an opportunity to help us get the information that we need.

He asked if I would be willing to reconnect with Matt about that initial conversation and then record our conversations.

I said yes.

I said yes to him.

And part of the catalyst for me saying yes was the day prior.

In between those phone calls, I sent Matt a text message, one that's been shown in the papers and read in federal court where I told him my integrity wasn't for sale.

I wasn't interested.

I told him that if I took him up on his offer, I would not be the person that he had chosen to invest time and energy in.

And his response was, No matter what.

Don't tell anyone about our conversation.

And that was just more confirmation for me that he knew it was wrong, too.

That was him acknowledging it.

And so Agent Wetzel asked, had that request of me, and I agreed to it.

I said, I absolutely will.

At that point, it hit me really hard.

I was no longer dealing with a friend and a mentor.

I was dealing with someone who had tried to take advantage of me to try to get something that would have an adverse effect on the people of Ohio.

Right.

And it wasn't worth it.

And so I said I would cooperate with the federal government.

And that started what became just a surreal chain of events.

And different occurrences that I will never forget.

And then you ended up testifying.

And throughout this process, you haven't been able to really talk about some of the things that your friend and mentor, Matt Burgess, said in the media, including on this TV show.

What was that experience like?

That was difficult.

So because of my role, I wasn't able to tell anyone about it during the campaign, right?

So I was going from trying to run a statewide ballot initiative, the ground game for that, and managing other canvassers and petitioners all around the state, hiring people, letting some people go, interviewing people.

16, 17 hour days.

And in the middle of those would have to record a phone conversation or run off to a meeting with Matt.

That was really difficult.

Like it eight a lot of time, but and not being able to tell anybody.

So at a different points, I actually had the folks that I worked for saying, Where are you disappearing to?

And I couldn't tell them.

And but I was doing good work.

And that good work made up for those occurrences where I was absent.

I couldn't tell anybody during the investigation, which was like the biggest weight in the world.

It was honestly very suffocating, especially when your day starts with a phone call to the FBI saying, This is what I'm wearing, this is what I'm driving, this is the route that I'm going to take.

These are the appointments I have.

And their response often would be, don't drive that way.

You need to go this way or don't go to that location.

Move your meeting to somewhere else.

I didn't know it then, but we know now that it was because Larry Householder and Matt hired a private investigator to follow me around.

And they they wanted to make sure I was safe.

The FBI did, so I couldn't talk about it then.

And then once once the campaign wrapped up, I couldn't say a word.

And it was quiet for a while when from the end of October until the following July and the night before the arrests were made, Agent Wetzel came to my house and we actually sat in my garage, closed garage in what I refer to as soccer.

Mom chairs those folding fabric chairs.

And he said, I need to let you know there are going to be some arrests made tomorrow and you're not.

Your name is not listed in any of the charging documents.

You're referred to as C. H. S one, which is confidential human source one.

But you're the only person that worked for both Larry Householder and Matt Burgess.

And also on the repeal campaign.

So folks may be able to draw the lines pretty clearly.

I went to the dentist the next morning and while I was the dentist's office, my phone started exploding.

It was people saying, Oh my gosh, did you hear what just happened?

Did you hear who was arrested?

Did you know about this?

And then as the day progressed, it became we just read the documents.

Are you okay?

We had no idea.

Are you safe?

From July of 2020 until testimony just about two weeks ago?

I had to remain silent.

Again, I could refer back to the charging documents, but Matt just went on a public relations campaign for himself and against me.

He works to demean my character, to besmirch my name, and kind of drag me through the mud, which included publishing my old employment documents that included photos of my Social Security card, photos of my tax forms with confidential, protected information, publishing that online.

Luckily, with the help of a couple of friends in the legal community that was able to.

Those went away very quickly, but the damage was done.

And in politics, when someone makes claims about you, you are whether you're a candidate or an operative, no matter who you are, you always have the opportunity to respond.

It was hard to not be able to respond and defend my name or clear the story up or just tell the the true side of the events.

He was on this show for a half an hour talking about some of the issues that brought this whole thing together.

He said that the often quoted line about how he was nobody better hear about this or your house would be blown up.

He said that was a joke.

Yeah.

No, you took it.

I know it wasn't how I took it.

I was worried at that point.

I was worried for my safety because of those bizarre morning phone calls.

Where are you going?

Don't go this route.

Whatever.

Because of the fact that I had someone at different points sitting outside my office watching me or following me to and from.

I was already on edge.

But when we sat down and Matt said that there's a lot of dark humor in politics, I get that.

There's a lot of dark humor everywhere, especially around Cap Square, right?

It's how we cope with the crazy.

But we were passed humor at that point because on numerous occasions Matt had said, Am I going to get a phone call from Randy Ludlow?

The phone call that we all dread?

Am I am I going to.

The now retired Columbus Dispatch reporter?

Yes, but he finished that meeting, which was a high stakes meeting with if you're messing with us, will blow up your house.

I didn't take it as a joke for a second.

I left that meeting, and protocol was I'd leave the meeting and get into my vehicle and go to a predetermined meeting location to debrief with the agents.

I remember driving in complete silence.

No radio, no phone, nothing, and just trying to breathe deep.

And I pulled into the place.

I was meeting them.

I got into their cruiser, turned all of the recording devices off, and the first thing they said was, Are you okay?

And I said, I don't know.

Later, that that freaked me out.

They took it very seriously.

I took it very seriously.

At that point.

I didn't know who this person was I was dealing with anymore.

And I knew that there were you know, I had been told by one of the people I work for if you could take one box of these signatures at the end of the day into Larry Householders office and walk away with enough money to retire on, that is how important these are.

So important, so sought after.

We hired not just security guards, we hired armed security to guard the premises of our processing facility 24 hours a day.

We did not talk about the location of the processing facility.

We kept it a secret from most people because it was high stakes.

And as things ramped up, as canvassers were harassed, as they were physically assaulted, we all feared for our safety.

My canvasing team feared for their safety, and they didn't even know what was going on behind the scenes with me.

So when he said that things had already gotten sticky and it absolutely terrified me, I never thought it was a joke.

I tried to laugh it off in in the recording in that meeting because I didn't know what else to do.

Had to be like an Oscar worthy performance every single time we talked.

But it really it really scared me.

So the jury, you testified, you told your story.

You closed out the prosecution's case.

Essentially, when the jury came back, did you feel vindicated?

The jury believed you when?

Yeah, when the jury came back with that verdict, it was vindicating on a number of levels.

Vindicating in the sense that I've known this entire time, that everything I've said was based off of recorded conversations over text in person and over the phone.

So it was vindicating in that I knew my story was true.

And they saw, based on the evidence that it was in fact true.

It was vindicating in the sense that all of those things that Matt Moore just spent a year and a half plus saying about me, you know, he went from, oh, he was really never good at anything that he did.

I was just trying to help him out to towards the end, he changed his story to he was a really good friend.

He just got cornered by the government.

He kept changing his story, all of that.

It was vindicating and that that went away.

That was folks could see now that what he was saying was just absolute nonsense, but more so, it was vindicating in the sense that I think it sends a message to people like Matt Burgess and people like Larry Householder who get so caught up in the power that they have either as an elected official, the guy that holds the gavel or a lobbyist.

They get so caught up in that power, they think that they're above the law.

And I think that this verdict sends a message to anyone and everyone thinking about doing similar things, that the rule of law is what rules the day.

And I'll be honest with you, there are still a lot of folks, quite a few of them in the state house in Ohio, whether they're staffers in the legislature or their elected officials at every level of government that that are still defending House Bill six or who are still defending Larry Householder or almost worse, are remaining completely silent after the verdict and refusing to speak up and acknowledge that what took place was wrong.

I hope that the verdict sends a message to all of them, every single one of them, that this just absolutely will not stand, that no one is above the law, and that at the end of the day, the truth comes out.

Just like Matt said in our recordings, the truth shall set you free.

The truth always comes out and you have to.

There are consequences for actions.

Berman says he was relieved that the verdicts, which he calls a closure to a really regrettable chapter in Ohio political history.

He praises the Department of Justice and the FBI and Attorney General Dave Yost, who this week got the go ahead from a Franklin County judge to resume a civil case filed by the states, Columbus and Cincinnati.

It seeks damages from FirstEnergy and some of its former executives.

The subsidiary that owns the nuclear plants Energy Harbor, former Public Utilities Commission chair Sam Randazzo Householder and others, the former first energy executives and Randazzo have never been charged firm and now lives in Minnesota with his family and says he is now, quote, focusing on normal life.

No fewer than 13 bills that have sought to repeal all or part of House Bill six have been introduced in September 2020.

Less than two months after the case was filed.

Some of these were brought by Republicans, several by Democrats.

Only one passed the repeal of the heart of the law, the billion dollars in subsidies for the two nuclear plants that all Ohio electric utility ratepayers would have paid over ten years.

But the rest of the law remains, including the gutting of energy efficiency programs by utilities and the state's requirement for renewable energy standards for those utilities and the subsidies for two coal fired power plants, the Kiger Creek plant in Gallia County and the Cliff Creek plant in Indiana.

The most recent bill would repeal those subsidies for those facilities operated by the Ohio Valley Electric Corporation, which one study suggested could total $1.8 billion by 2030.

Ovac is owned by more than a dozen utility companies, including two subsidiaries of First Energy.

It sponsored by two Democrats, Representative Casey Weinstein of Hudson and Representative Sean Brennan, a freshman from Parma.

I'm not convinced that they were needed.

I know that our utilities are making record profits again.

I know that many of our residents are struggling out there right now, and any help we can provide them with is helpful.

So, again, if the utility companies can make a case that these subsidies are absolutely needed, then we can look at it after we undo this piece of of HB six.

Other bills have come forward since the arrest of Larry Householder that it tried to repeal all or part of House Bill six.

We haven't gotten very far.

Democrats are in the super minority.

What is your hope for this bill?

Well, I would say this.

First of all, I'm very encouraged by Governor DeWine coming out in favor of eliminating the subsidies.

I'm very happy to hear that.

And I think it's good timing.

You know, last year when I was campaigning, I can literally count on one hand how many people brought up HB six.

I was very surprised by that and kind of concerned as well, because I know the Ohio Channel did a great job of trying to educate folks as did Cleveland.com and other news sources around the state, but it just didn't seem to catch hold for some reason.

But since the trial outcome, you know, back in Parma, Parma Heights and West Park and Cleveland, I'm hearing it a lot.

And people are very concerned.

They're very angry.

And we've got to answer the call of our constituent once and again, undo this corrupt bargain.

What about the other parts of the bill that deal with energy efficiency programs run by utilities and the renewable energy standards?

House Bill six gutted those.

Right?

Yeah, I was I was very surprised.

You know, as I was following the HB six discussions that this bill was was termed a clean energy bill.

You know, I don't I don't particularly agree with that.

Not to mention the nuclear bailout portion of the bill was already undone, which made me question before I joined the legislature in January.

You know why they just didn't undo the subsidies to the coal plant in Indiana and the one in Ohio.

And that that's part of the problem, is that you were paying to keep 1950s coal fired power plants.

I was born in 1970, and from what I understand, these things are well beyond their years.

And one of the things I think I'd like to hear from from the utilities is, you know, it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when the these plants are closed.

Right.

So what are they doing?

What's their plan for the workers in those in those plants to help them transition to what's to come with cleaner energy and so forth?

So my heart goes out to the workers who who probably are a feel that they're in a very precarious position right now.

Why did you focus just on the coal fired power plants and not the rest of House Bill six?

Why not introduce legislation that would just repeal the entire thing?

Yeah, So I think we have the support for this.

You know, I'm talking to colleagues on both sides of the aisle.

I think, again, the time is ripe for it.

There was a bill introduced in 134th Congress, as you well know, by a couple of my Republican colleagues.

And and again, I think I think Ohioans are just really angry right now.

It's because of the because it's been so well covered.

I know the media has spent a lot of money covering the trial and done a good job to educate Ohioans on this issue.

And because the for my residents and residents around the state are so well-educated on it, they're speaking to their both Republican and Democratic representatives and they want something done about it.

So I, I think it's good timing with the governor's support, the fact that the bill last General Assembly was was Republican sponsored.

The fact that, you know, I'm hearing from from folks on both sides of the aisle, my my caucus is is very much in favor of this.

In fact, on top of this bill, Representative Sweeney and Representative Miranda have also introduced.

And Jessica miranda.

Right.

They've introduced an anti-corruption bill.

We've got to get to the bottom of this dark money.

One of the things that concerns me even more than ever now that I'm in the legislature, it's it's at the top of my radar that, you know, residents have a right to know where the money is coming from that is supporting their elected officials.

That's only fair.

It's only right.

House Bill 120 has just been introduced and has not yet been assigned to a committee.

And that's it for this week for my colleagues at the Statehouse News Bureau of Ohio Public Radio and Television.

Thanks for watching.

Please check out our Web site at state News dot org and follow us and the show on Facebook and Twitter.

And please join us again next time for the state of Ohio.

Support for the statewide broadcast of the state of Ohio comes from Medical mutual, providing more than 1.4 million Ohioans peace of mind with a selection of health insurance plans online at med mutual dot com slash Ohio by the law offices of Porter Wright Morris and Arthur LLP.

Now with eight locations across the country, Porter Wright is a legal partner with a new perspective to the business community more at Porter Wright dot com and from the Ohio Education Association representing 124,000 members who work to inspire their students to think creatively and experience the joy of learning online at OHEA.org.