Husted 'can't testify' in corruption trial in person, but flew home for $1,000-a-plate fundraiser

COLUMBUS — Defense attorneys told a Summit County judge that U.S. Sen. Jon Husted couldn’t leave Washington to testify in person in Ohio’s largest public corruption trial because of the military campaign against Iran. Then he flew home for a fundraiser.

Video obtained by WEWS showed Husted in the security line at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Thursday. A separate video showed him walking through John Glenn Columbus International Airport the same evening. He was scheduled to serve as keynote speaker Friday at the Greene County Republican Party Lincoln Day Dinner, where tickets were priced as high as $1,000.

Judge Susan Baker Ross of Summit County Common Pleas confirmed Friday that Husted will instead testify via video Wednesday from 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. in the ongoing bribery trial of former FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones and former senior vice president Mike Dowling.

“Given the war, his availability is not great,” Dowling’s defense attorney Steve Grimes told the court, adding that Husted should not be required to leave his post in Washington.

Husted’s deputy chief of staff, Josh Eck, disputed that framing. “Our team never said that the senator needed to stay in Washington to monitor the war,” Eck told WEWS. “Those words came from the defense counsel.” Eck said Husted had offered multiple in-person dates but that none fit the trial’s shifting schedule, and that the senator did not want to risk missing a Senate vote.

Grimes, reached during a court break, stood behind his statements. “I only talked with his representatives, and what I said in court is based on my conversations,” he said.

Husted has not been accused of any wrongdoing. He was called as a defense witness, not a prosecution witness.

The schedule shift — moving Husted’s testimony from Friday to Wednesday — came several hours after WEWS contacted his office for comment. Eck denied the change was related to press inquiries.

The trial has now entered its sixth week. Prosecutors allege that Jones and Dowling paid former Public Utilities Commission of Ohio Chair Sam Randazzo $4.3 million in bribes, then used his regulatory position to benefit FirstEnergy — including advocating for House Bill 6, a 2019 law that provided a $1 billion bailout to nuclear plants owned by a FirstEnergy subsidiary and resulted in increased electricity costs for Ohio ratepayers. Randazzo died by suicide in April 2024 after being charged in the case.

Phone records introduced at trial showed Husted spoke with Dowling nine times for a total of 51 minutes in the weeks surrounding a December 18, 2018 dinner at which prosecutors say Jones and Dowling learned that incoming Gov. Mike DeWine and Husted — then lieutenant governor-elect — would appoint Randazzo to lead the PUCO.

Husted’s name has come up more than 100 times during the trial, which cited phone calls, text messages, and previously unreported meetings between Husted and the indicted FirstEnergy executives.

Ohio Democratic Party Senior Communications Advisor Tony Wen said in a statement: “Jon Husted has been mentioned more than 100 times in the largest bribery scandal in Ohio history — and now that he’s finally being called to testify, he is refusing to show up in person to answer for his role in the scandal. Ohioans deserve to know why Jon Husted sold them out to a big utility company and left families paying hundreds more each year on their energy bills.”

Case Western Reserve University business law professor Eric Chaffee said the optics of the fundraiser trip were difficult to defend. “It’s surprising that you would come to Ohio for purposes of a fundraiser, but not to do your public duty to be part of a trial,” Chaffee told WEWS. He added that for a candidate seeking his first full election to the Senate seat he was appointed to, the association with the case carried real political risk. “Being associated with what’s one of, if not the largest bribery scandal in the history of the state, it’s something that’s really kind of a bad look,” he said.

Former House Speaker Larry Householder was convicted by a federal jury in 2023 for his role in the racketeering scheme tied to H.B. 6 and is nearly three years into a 20-year prison sentence. Former GOP leader Matt Borges was also convicted and has since been released after serving half of his five-year sentence.