Ohio AFL-CIO President Pulled Into Historic Corruption Trial

The longtime president of the Ohio AFL-CIO has been summoned as a witness in a $60 million public corruption trial as lawyers work to help the former state House speaker beat charges that he was bribed in exchange for passing a nuclear plant bailout bill.

Timothy Burga, the leader of Ohio’s wing of the largest federation of unions in the US, initially fought his subpoena to testify in the six-week criminal trial. He had argued that he didn’t have insights into whether the bill at the heart of the trial—a roughly $1 billion bailout for FirstEnergy’s two Ohio nuclear plants—was good policy or part of an alleged scheme where the company cut a deal to buy state legislators’ support.

Burga reversed that stance Wednesday, after the defense lawyers said they needed his testimony about the AFL-CIO’s finances and contributions entered into trial evidence. Burga’s attorney said he’d be open to giving testimony about how the AFL-CIO contributed $175,000 to a dark money political nonprofit at the center of the alleged corruption scheme. He said he’d also answer relevant questions about how the AFL-CIO also later received $1.4 million from that same nonprofit.

This testimony could bolster arguments from the defendants—former speaker Larry Householder (R) and former state GOP Chairman Matthew Borges—that what prosecutors are calling Ohio’s largest political corruption scheme is more like normal politics. Householder’s attorneys subpoenaed Burga on Jan. 23, the first day of trial.

“In Ohio we have a system that leaves us in the dark, so what jurors are going to have to do is tease out what is legal behavior in a system that avoids public scrutiny,” said Catherine Turcer, executive director of Common Cause Ohio and a longtime Ohio advocate of campaign finance and government reform.

“It’s really important that Ohioans hear what happened behind the scenes,” she said.

The case is United States v. Householder, S.D. Ohio, No. 1:20-cr-00077-TSB, Burga reply brief 2/8/23.