Householder Of Cards, Con't

The saga of former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder continues as the FBI raided the home of the chairman of the state's public utilities commission, Sam Randazzo, this morning, carting off various boxes of evidence in the case against multiple Ohio Republicans accused in a $60 billion slush fund scheme allegedly involving Ohio power company FirstEnergy.

FBI agents were seen outside the home of Public Utilities Commission of Ohio Chairman Sam Randazzo Monday morning.

Agents were going in and out of 645 S. Grant Ave. in German Village, which is owned by Randazzo, according to Franklin County auditor records.

"FBI agents are conducting court-authorized law enforcement activity in that area in relation to a sealed federal search warrant," FBI spokesman Todd Lindgren told The Enquirer, adding no arrests have been made and none are planned at this time.

Randazzo was appointed to the PUCO, which regulates Ohio utilities, and designated chairman by Gov. Mike DeWine in 2019.

“We are aware of the search warrant," DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney said. "We are monitoring this as it progresses."

Before leading the commission, Randazzo was a lobbyist and an attorney for energy companies and the Industrial Energy Users-Ohio, which represents some of the state’s largest industries.

Randazzo’s company Sustainability Funding Alliance of Ohio, Inc. was listed as a company used by FirstEnergy subsidiary FirstEnergy Solutions on the company’s December 2018 bankruptcy report.

PUCO is currently auditing FirstEnergy Corp., the company allegedly at the center of a nearly $61 million bribery scheme to pass a nearly $1 billion bailout for two nuclear plants then-owned by FirstEnergy Solutions.

I can't imagine Randazzo won't be charged at some point and pressured to flip. Householder is almost certainly toast too. But that brings us to the big target here, Ohio GOP Gov. Mike DeWine himself. With so many of the state's most powerful Republicans involved in the FirstEnergy scandal, DeWine is eventually going to have to have a little chat with the FBI, and the sooner the better for DeWine, who faces re-election in 2022.

Of course, Republicans gained seats in 2020 in Ohio's House and Senate, and all the lawmakers who voted for the corrupt pay-for-play bill that cost Ohio ratepayers a billion bucks kept their jobs thanks to voters.

Every single one of them.

So who knows?