Alabama House speaker’s name comes up during ex-Ohio speaker's trial

Alabama House speaker’s name comes up during ex-Ohio speaker’s trial

Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter’s name came up during testimony Thursday in the federal corruption trial of former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder in Cincinnati.

Householder is accused of accepting bribes from FirstEnergy Corp. in exchange for supporting legislation to help the company. Householder has pleaded not guilty to racketeering. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Prosecutors say Householder met with two FirstEnergy executives in Washington D.C., the week of Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration in January 2017, according to a report by Cleveland.com. Prosecutors say a “secret deal” was planned at a series of steak dinners for FirstEnergy to bankroll Householder’s bid to become Ohio House speaker in exchange for Householder’s support of legislation to bail out nuclear plants owned at the time by a FirstEnergy subsidiary.

Householder denies having those steak dinner meetings. He testified that he hardly interacted with the executives while he was in Washington that week and said he did not have dinner with them.

During cross-examination on Thursday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Glatfelter, the lead prosecutor in the case, showed Householder a photo of him, his son, Ledbetter, and one of the FirstEnergy executives in a limousine. The photo was taken with the phone of a former top aide to Householder. Metadata attached to the photo shows it was taken Jan. 18, 2017 at 10:20 p.m. outside Charlie Palmer Steak, where Householder denied eating with the FirstEnergy executives.

Householder testified that the time stamp from metadata attached to the photo was incorrect because Ledbetter (who Householder referred to as “Banjo”) wasn’t in Washington that day.

Testimony in the case has ended. Jury instructions come Monday, followed by closing arguments and the start of deliberations on Tuesday.

AL.com has reached out to Ledbetter for comment about the testimony.

Ledbetter, a Republican from Rainsville, was elected to the Alabama House in 2014. Ledbetter became House majority leader in 2017. The House elected him speaker in January year after the retirement of Speaker Mac McCutcheon.

Ledbetter worked for more than 30 years for Sand Mountain Electric Cooperative. He and his wife are the former owners of the Mountain Valley News newspaper in Rainsville. He is a former mayor and city council member in Rainsville.