Justice Department documents reveal Larry Householder involvement in pay-to-play for sports betting

Explosive new details from the United States Department of Justice suggest former Ohio Speaker of the House Larry Householder was heavily involved in a pay-to-play scandal to try to bring sports betting to Ohio.

Householder, who is facing federal charges of conspiracy in a $60 million bribery scheme involving FirstEnergy and House Bill 6, filed a motion for information to be withheld in court in his upcoming trial.

The information relates to Neil Clark, an Ohio lobbyist who had also been charged in the scheme, who died by suicide in 2021.

According to the DOJ response to Householder's motion, Clark interacted with undercover FBI agents posing as businessmen to extradite the process for sports betting in Ohio in 2019. The DOJ says Clark instructed the undercover agents to pay $50,000 to $100,000, which would eventually end up going to Householder.

"Nobody knows the money goes to the Speaker's account," Clark told the undercover agents.

3News spoke with Jonathan Entin, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University who says the government is trying to establish that Householder is at the center of the scandal.

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[jessiefayne]

They need to really look into portage county talk about some corrupt politicians everybody in Northeast Ohio knows how bad the court system and everything is here been well known for years somebody needs to fix it

[cliffhill]

HOF in Canton now will have it for HOF Village