Sen. Husted Testifies for Ex-FirstEnergy Execs in Bribery Trial

US Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) testified Wednesday on behalf of the defense in the state trial of two former FirstEnergy Corp. executives accused of bribing former Public Utilities Commission of Ohio chairman Sam Randazzo.

The senator’s testimony in the state court case, which lasted around 30 minutes and was conducted remotely from Washington, centered on his discussions with FirstEnergy executives around PUCO appointments in late 2018 and early 2019. He’d just been elected lieutenant governor when they started talking about the vacancy, he said.

As far as Husted knew, FirstEnergy was supporting Jason Rafeld—not Randazzo or anyone else—for the ...