I needed to get home in time to be arrested by the FBI.
Federal agents were going to be in my driveway at 9 a.m. sharp on the morning of Thursday, November 19, 2020, and I was told not to be late.
Home was Cincinnati, but I would be starting the day in Cleveland, four hours away. My wife, Sarah, was finishing her medical residency at the Cleveland Clinic, and we were frequently back and forth between the two cities.
In order to not cut it close, I set my alarm clock for 3:30 a.m.
But setting my alarm didn’t matter. I never fell asleep. How could I? I had no idea what the feds were saying I had done—or what would happen next.
A week earlier, a member of the Cincinnati City Council had been indicted on charges of accepting cash bribes from undercover FBI agents in exchange for support of a project to redevelop a large blighted downtown building on Elm Street. I was also on the city council, and was a big supporter of the Elm Street project. And in 2018 and 2019, I had been in frequent contact with those same undercover agents, who were posing as out-of-town investors.
During that time, they had made legal contributions to my political action committee—donations that any citizen could look up. They had proposed the donations, not me, and not a cent had ever gone into my own pocket. I couldn’t imagine that their political donations could be construed as a bribe. The redevelopment that they were pretending to be involved with was one I had supported since before I had met them and was clearly in the public interest.
What was I missing?
