Matthew Borges, the founder of a Republican anti-Trump political action committee, was arrested on Tuesday for corruption.
Borges is a lobbyist and former chairman of the Ohio Republican Party. His arrest came as part of an investigation into a year-long $60 million federal bribery scheme. Prosecutors say Borges and three other lobbyists are suspected of conspiring with the Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives to bail out Ohio-based energy company, FirstEnergy Solutions, with $1.3 billion in taxpayer money. Without the money, FirstEnergy would have to shut down two nuclear power stations.
Matt Borges – the former chair of the Ohio Republican Party – set up a #NeverTrump PAC to try and elect Joe Biden
Today he was arrested in a $60 million bribery case
h/t: @julie_kelly2 pic.twitter.com/Ts2jrXoBqq
— Will Chamberlain (@willchamberlain) July 21, 2020
Anti-Trump republican would have made 60 million in kick backs
JUST IN: Republican Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and 4 others have been arrested in a $60,000,000 federal bribery probe
We only investigate and arrest Republicans in this Country
— 🌟🌟Rooster🌟🌟 (@no_silenced) July 21, 2020
The prosecutors say that as part of the deal, FirstEneregy would have kicked back 60 million dollars to a nonprofit run by the Ohio House Speaker.
The exact role that Borges played in the alleged scheme has not been disclosed. The terms of his indictment have yet to be made pulic. As recently as last year, Borges was registered as a lobbyist working for FirstEnergy.
Borges political activity beyond his previous chairmanship of the Ohio Republican Party has not received the attention it deserves. As recently as last month, Borges joined forces with Anthony Scaramucci, who spent 11 days as Trump’s White House Communications Director, to form an anti-Trump super PAC called Right Side. The purpose of the committee is to channel votes from disaffected former Trump voters to the probably senile presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden.
According to Axios, the super PAC planned to pursue its aims by championing “Biden’s record on free trade, states’ rights, federal spending, and respecting U.S. diplomatic and military alliances … to make the case that most anti-Trump Republicans can feel comfortable supporting him.”
Borge told Axios that “We want to take an opportunity to kind of reset things. And the first way to do that is cut out the cancer and start rebuilding… We’re not trying to become Democrats.”
Future of anti-Trump Super PAC in doubt
Right Side has not commented on whether or not it has a future give the arrest of Borges. It is also unclear if any of the funds from the kickback scheme would aid the PAC.
Trump will now likely benefit as a leading member of the Republican ‘never-Trumpers’ has gone down. The news is also good for the unity of the Republican Party. Trump critic Mitt Romney, who has some business ties to Joe Biden, has also recently made noises that sound like he may be preparing to defect to the Dems. Good riddance.
