Jury deliberating in corruption trial of ex-FirstEnergy executives accused of $4.3 million bribe

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Jurors in Akron began deliberating Tuesday in the corruption trial of two fired FirstEnergy Corp. executives charged for their alleged roles in a sweeping $60 million bribery scheme that resulted in a lucrative bailout of two affiliated nuclear plants.

Former CEO Chuck Jones and ex-senior vice president Michael Dowling face charges of corruption, bribery, conspiracy and aggravated theft for paying $4.3 million to a future top utility regulator in Ohio who helped draft the bailout legislation known as House Bill 6 and delivered the company other favors. Both have pleaded not guilty.

During closing arguments that spanned two days, prosecutors drove home their argument that Jones and Dowling purposely corrupted Public Utilities Commission of Ohio chair-to-be Sam Randazzo for their own benefit. They said securing Randazzo's help to land coveted legislative and regulatory favors bolstered the Akron-based utility giant's bottom line, which was tied directly to the financial compensation of Jones and Dowling.

“They rigged a process that was supposed to be fair for everyone. Their corruption here was using power, influence and money for personal and corporate greed,” Special Assistant Attorney General Matthew Meyer told jurors Monday. “By cleverly structuring the timing and labels of their payoff to Sam Randazzo, these two captains of industry behaved like they were untouchable.”

The defense called that argument ridiculous, reiterating their position that the payment to Randazzo — delivered in early January 2019, before he was a candidate for the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio — represented an aboveboard legal settlement.

“Chuck Jones did not bribe Sam Randazzo,” Jones' attorney Carole Rendon told jurors on Tuesday. “He made a legitimate business decision to terminate a settlement agreement that was for Sam Randazzo's clients, the members of IEU-Ohio.” Industrial Energy Users-Ohio was one of Randazzo's businesses.

Text messages between the ex-executives and advice they were parsing for speaking to then-Gov.-elect Mike DeWine and then-Lt. Gov.-elect Jon Husted, a current U.S. senator who testified at the trial — as well as evidence from various postelection meetings — were used as evidence that prosecutors said showed that the two men had a detailed plan for enriching themselves while taking advantage of Ohioans.

Dowling's attorney Steven Grimes told jurors Monday that the state failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. He said that almost everything prosecuting attorneys argued was based on the assumption that Dowling intended that $4.3 million go to Randazzo, a premise contradicted by the evidence.

Grimes said that the defense cherry-picked a series of events from years ago to paint a picture that Dowling conspired with Randazzo and Jones, but that the evidence presented did not show with certainty that is what happened.

“I’ve been fighting for Mike for a long time. And this is it. I’m done fighting. I get to turn it over to now,” he told jurors. “You guys are the safeguards. You’re the constitutional protection that Mike has. You’re what he’s got. And so when you go back there in your jury room, please demand the details. Don’t compromise. Listen. Respect your fellow jurors. Talk it out. But don’t accept these assumptions. Keep up the fight for Mike. Send him home.”

FirstEnergy admitted as part of a nonprosecution agreement in 2021 to underwriting the $60 million scheme in which former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder elected allies, secured power, passed the nuclear bailout bill and then defended it from a citizen referendum with the dirty-tricks campaign.

Householder was convicted of racketeering alongside lobbyist and former Ohio Republican Party chair Matt Borges in 2023. Jurors sentenced Householder to 20 years for orchestrating the scheme and Borges got five. Two other political operatives also pleaded guilty to their roles and a dark money group admitted in court to serving as a conduit for the cash. A fourth Householder associate charged in the scheme, powerful Statehouse lobbyist Neil Clark, died by suicide in 2021.

Randazzo took his own life in 2024 after pleading not guilty to a litany of state and federal charges. Some of the gritty details that have taken place in the case over the past five years were not shared with jurors in Akron, where Summit County Common Pleas Judge Susan Baker Ross has overseen the Jones and Dowling case for six weeks.