CINCINNATI, Ohio — Federal prosecutors laid out dozens of phone calls, texts, emails and documents on Wednesday in their case against former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, who is accused in a multi-million dollar bribery scheme.
What You Need To Know
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FBI Special Agent Blane Wetzel was the witness on the stand Wednesday
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Wetzel shared details from secretly-recorded phone calls and bank records
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The next witness on the stand will be Former FirstEnergy lobbyist Juan Cespedes
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Cespedes was arrested for his involvement in the bribery scheme and plead guilty
FBI Special Agent Blane Wetzel took the stand again and walked jurors through a paper trail of bank statements and correspondence among Householder, his former aide, Jeffrey Longstreth, former Ohio GOP chair Matt Borges, and then-FirstEnergy executives to show how money was shuffled from FirstEnergy into Generation Now through a second dark money group, and how the money was meant to help Householder achieve his political goals, supporting candidates who backed his bid to become speaker, and fend off political foes standing in his way.
Court will begin Thursday with Wetzel on the stand. Former FirstEnergy lobbyist Juan Cespedes, who pleaded guilty, is scheduled to testify after Wetzel.