Emergency Rooster: The Randazzler bites the big one!
The long-awaited charges against Ohio's former corrupt PUCO chairman dropped today.
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The criminal organization known as FirstEnergy admitted in 2020 that it paid a $4.3 million bribe to then-Public Utilities Commissioner Sam Randazzo to look the other way during the HB-6 scandal.
On Monday morning, over three years after that startling admission in federal court filings, Randazzo surrendered to the federal government on bribery and embezzlement charges.
You can read the full indictment over here. Trigger warning: It’s borderline erotic.
Public Official 1 and Public Official 2 listed in the indictment are none other than Governor Mike DeWine and Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted.
We know that thanks to the investigation by the Office of Ohio Consumers that obtained these text messages between former First Energy Executives Chuck Jones and Michael Dowling, who are no doubt shitting bricks wherever they may be on this glorious morning:
It’s worth noting that DeWine appointed Randazzo to the Public Utilities Commission despite a blatant warning about his obviously corrupt ties to the criminal syndicate that sells energy on the side.
From Jake Zuckerman of ohiocapitaljournal.com in April 2022:
More than two years before FirstEnergy Corp. admitted to paying Ohio’s top utility regulator a $4.3 million bribe, Mike DeWine’s former campaign treasurer warned senior aides to the new governor about the eventual nominee’s “opaque and undisclosed” financial ties to the company.
The warning came in a 198-page dossier alleging Sam Randazzo — a lawyer and lobbyist who represented gas companies and industrial scale electricity buyers — uses businesses registered in his name to “funnel” money from FirstEnergy to buy real estate.
Indeed, between January 2013 and May 2015, Randazzo and his companies purchased eight properties worth nearly $4.1 million, according to the dossier and an independent review of property records. They include six units in Columbus, one in Cuyahoga Falls, and two in Naples, Florida.
DeWine’s chief of staff, Laurel Dawson, received the packet Jan. 28, 2019. The nominating council of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, chaired by a former FirstEnergy lobbyist, had included Randazzo among four nominees given to the governor. DeWine got the final choice.
DeWine went ahead with the appointment over the protests of his employees and utility watchdogs who knew of Randazzo’s illustrious history of corruption.
His chief of staff, Laurel Dawson, is married to former First Energy lobbyist Michael Dawson.
Former First Energy executive Michael Dawson, who was basically the Vice President of Bribes for the company, credited Laurel Dawson for sending the state plane to Chicago to pick up key state legislators ahead of the infamous HB-6 vote:
Boom, indeed!
The Randazzo indictment comes at the wrong time for the DeWine-Husted administration. Last week, it was revealed that a civil lawsuit against FirstEnergy planned to depose Husted and had served papers to DeWine about his role in the scandal.
Husted, in particular, has a long and storied history with Randazzo and First Energy. Husted personally recruited Randazzo to fill the role of Public Utilities Commissioner before DeWine blessed the appointment.
If nothing else, it’s remarkably coincidental that out of all the people who could have filled the role, DeWine and Husted appointed the guy who days prior had accepted a $4.3 million bribe from their campaign benefactor, FirstEnergy.
One Patriots Caucus member who knows the ins and outs of the scandal almost as well as anybody told The Rooster that First Energy used dark money in the HB-6 scandal to avoid angering Husted.
“Jon Husted was FE's golden boy,” the source said. “The reason why they wanted Larry Householder to use dark money is that they didn't want to anger Jon.”
Husted is widely viewed as a gubernatorial favorite in 2026 unless the meddling FBI gets in the way of his lifetime ambition!
The corruption laid out by federal prosecutors against Randazzo is breathtaking. These guys behaved in a manner that shows they never entertained the idea of being held accountable for their crimes. A simple RICO scheme involving a $1 billion extortion of Ohio energy consumers was just another day at the office to them!
And you know what? They were almost right! Our state and federal government failed to stop the blatantly obvious scheme on every level. Larry Householder would still be in power today if not for the FBI already investigating corrupt superlobbyist Neil Clark for another matter.
Clark got indicted in the HB-6 scheme alongside Householder. Rather than take his punishment, Clark died by suicide next to a retention pond in Florida while wearing a “Mike DeWine for governor shirt.” Nobody that I’ve asked at the Statehouse believes that was coincidental. Clark was nothing if not methodical.
Statehouse sources have said that Randazzo’s friends have been adamant he won’t flip against his co-conspirators. I laugh at that notion. That stuff is easy to say until you’re in the hot seat staring down the fate of dying in a federal prison. And that’s precisely what the feds will have hanging over Randazzo’s head.
Reading the indictment, it doesn’t read as if Randazzo ratted out his friends. But, curiously, the feds allowed Randazzo to surrender in Cincinnati rather than arrest him publicly. That’s not a courtesy usually paid to defendants on this level!
But these guys behaved in such a manner that they might not even need Randazzo. Like Householder and Clark before him, maybe there isn’t anything he can offer the feds they don’t already know.
But that the feds waited over three years to arrest him lets you know that they have this man dead to rights. And while Randazzo and Husted have a long and storied history, that was a friendship of corrupt convenience. Nothing more and nothing less, and I doubt Randazzo is under the impression that Husted would fall on his sword for him if the roles were reversed.
But those are questions for another day. For now, here’s a list of people that are feeling sick to their stomachs right now:
Chuck Jones, former CEO of FirstEnergy
Michael Dowling, former VP of Bribes for FirstEnergy
Jon Husted, Lieutenant Governor of Ohio
Laurel Dawson, Chief of Staff to Governor Mike DeWine
Michael Dawson, former FirstEnergy lobbyist
Mike DeWine, Governor of Ohio
After that, you get to a list of people still in government today! But I’m not going to get that greedy just yet.
One thing is clear, however: HB-6 is far from settled business as far as the FBI is concerned.
Mind officially blown.
Thank you, Mr. Rooster.
I still want you on John Oliver's radar. I just know that he'd love you as much as I do!
SO GLAD I SUBSCRIBED!!!!
Can't wait to smoke that DeWine pack.