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(WJW) — Imprisoned former Republican Ohio House speaker Larry Householder plans to seek executive clemency from President-elect Donald Trump.
Householder, 65, is now in the second year of his 20-year federal prison sentence for orchestrating the largest corruption scandal in Ohio history in House Bill 6.
Householder’s attorney Scott Pullins on Monday told FOX 8 News via email his firm is “aggressively pursuing all avenues” to bring the former lawmaker “home to his family,” though he noted it is “very early in the process.”
Householder has appealed his federal conviction to Ohio’s Sixth Circuit appellate court, which is now preparing to hear oral arguments in the case, Pullins said Monday.
Attorneys are also planning to ask incoming president Trump for clemency, including pardons for Householder’s crimes and commutation of his sentence, closer to when Trump takes office on Jan. 20, 2025.
House Bill 6 was a billion-dollar bailout for FirstEnergy-affiliated nuclear plants that funneled $60 million in “dark money” from the Ohio utility to the election campaigns of politicians in Householder’s camp between 2017 and 2020.
Also charged in the scheme was former Public Utilities Commission of Ohio Chairman Sam Randazzo, who died by suicide in April. FirstEnergy agreed to pay $20 million to avoid prosecution.
Householder was also indicted in Cuyahoga County in March on 10 more felony charges including aggravated theft, money laundering, telecommunications fraud and tampering with records, for allegedly using campaign funds to pay his defense attorneys in the federal case.
A conviction in the state case would permanently bar him from running for public office. The case is due for a pretrial conference on Wednesday, Nov. 13, court records show.
Householder remains incarcerated at Federal Correction Institution Elkton in Lisbon and is currently set for release in 2040.
