Margo Ellis, News Editor

On April 9, students and faculty joined Denison’s Pi Sigma Alpha National Political Science Honor Society chapter for a Q&A session. 

This event featured three individuals who were involved with uncovering the Ohio House Bill 6 scandal. Former FBI agent Jeff Williams, Ohio Statehouse reporter Laura Bischoff, and political operative and whistleblower Tyler Fehrman spoke about their involvement in the investigation that led to the scandal becoming public in 2020. 

The HBO documentary “The Dark Money Game: Ohio Confidential,” released in 2025, explains the scandal and the investigation in immense detail, as Williams, Bischoff, and Fehrman were interviewed extensively for the project. 

Williams, an agent focused on public corruption cases, said he came to Columbus after working on corruption cases in Maryland. However, Larry Householder’s presence in the Ohio political scene was another reason the FBI wanted a public corruption expert in the state’s capitol. 

The scandal, one of the major public corruption cases in Ohio’s history, was orchestrated by the former Speaker of The Ohio House of Representatives, Larry Householder. In 2019, the FBI arrested Householder and his associates on racketeering charges. This was after Householder accepted $61 million in bribes to bail out failing First Energy nuclear plants through House Bill 6. While the bill passed, undercover work from the FBI, journalists and whistleblowers allowed Williams and his team to reveal the bribery and corruption that had permeated the Ohio House. 

“Larry Householder was the last person I put handcuffs on,” said Williams.

Through subpoenas, undercover agents, and wire taps, agents were able to closely follow the trail of money that eventually led to Householder and his associates — including lobbyist Neil Clark. 

“Neil Clark was a talker,” said Bischoff. “He talked a lot, and he was unaware that he was on a wire.”

Following the passage of House Bill 6 and the emergence of an effort from Ohio voters to put House Bill 6 on the ballot and potentially vote to repeal it, Fehrman got a job managing the repeal campaign. He was contacted by an old friend of his, Matt Borges. Borges, former chairman of the Ohio GOP, asked Fehrman to leak information about the campaign in exchange for money and legal aid. 

“It gets to the point where [Borges] says, ‘Listen, it would make me a hero to my guys if you would just give me some inside information,’” Fehrman said. “And he tells me, straight up… ‘We know that if you guys make the ballot, we will lose.’”

Borges’s concern was based on the number of signatures that the repeal effort needed to be officially on the ballot in the upcoming elections. Without knowing how many signatures the other side had, Householder’s efforts could be futile, or unnecessary, if the campaign had already collected enough. 

After initially refusing to help Borges, a friend of Fehrman’s suggested that he contact the FBI, who were still investigating Householder at the time. Unsurprisingly, they wanted Fehrman’s help. 

“At the end of that conversation, Jeff Williams said, ‘Alright. We think you should take the deal,’” said Fehrman. 

He was then instructed to wear a wire, and reengage with Borges, offering information about the repeal effort. 

“Thankfully, it worked,” Fehrman said. The information recorded from Fehrman’s conversations with Borges allowed the FBI to connect more dots in the case against Householder, Clark, and many others. 

From the journalism side of the scandal, Bischoff said that her interactions with Williams and the FBI were, and continue to be, important relationships when covering issues like public corruption. 

“Jeff’s been around, and I remember having a coffee with him long, long ago, and he said, ‘I tell my agents on my team to read the paper.’ So, they’re reading our work, and looking to see things that make them go ‘Hmm,’” said Bischoff. 

Williams agreed, and said, “It’s almost like a symbiotic relationship. We had the power of subpoena, which they desperately wanted to have. And they had tremendously better informants than us.” 

In the aftermath of the scandal becoming public and Householder being sentenced to 20 years in prison, Fehrman said he gained a new perspective on the corruption that exists throughout American politics. 

“We need people to pay attention now more than ever… and honestly, people work in this to put people first, not party, or politics, or anything else,” Fehrman said. “People who are able to put people first, always and no matter what, may split the difference and help stop this stuff from happening.”

Reid Maynard ‘28 attended the event and said she enjoyed hearing about the different perspectives of the scandal. 

“I thought it was great,” Maynard said. “I also have law enforcement background, so it was really intriguing to hear that, especially from the federal side, and [that] they were working together, journalism and law enforcement.”

The president of Denison’s Pi Sigma Alpha chapter, Josh Thomas ‘26, helped arrange and facilitate the event.

“We were very happy to have them here, for all their insight and experience,” Thomas said after the event.