Jury begins deliberating on Householder and Borges case

Former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and former Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matt Borges have been charged with racketeering conspiracy.  The jury is considering the case.

Former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and former Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matt Borges have been charged with racketeering conspiracy. The jury is considering the case.

After seven weeks of trial, a dozen jurors in a massive public corruption case began deliberating on Wednesday morning.

“Keep as long as you want,” U.S. District Court Judge Timothy S. Black told them.

More:The prosecutor says Householder ran the pay-per-play scheme; the defense calls it “nothing burger”

He said he would fire them around 4:30 pm today if they didn’t come to a verdict.

The 12-member jury consists of eight white men, two white women, one black man and one black woman.

Federal prosecutors are charging former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder of orchestrating a pay-to-play scheme in which nearly $61 million in Akron-based FirstEnergy donations were sold for legislation: $1.3 billion in aid for two nuclear power plants called House Bill 6. A chunk of that money funded efforts to defend House Bill 6 from a referendum to block it.

Former Ohio Republican Party chairman Matt Borges is accused of engaging in criminal activity and paying a bribe to obtain insider information about the referendum campaign.

Podcast:Ohio corruption case: Winks, nods, messages and more can prove bribery

More:House Corruption Case #6: Who is John Kiani?

More:As a witness, Householder argues with a federal prosecutor.

This article originally appeared in The Columbus Dispatch: Jury deliberations begin in the case of Larry Householder and Matt Borges.

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