A federal judge lambasted a suspect in a criminal public corruption case for posting a FBI informant’s social security number and address on the internet.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Black said he finds it “entirely incredible” that lobbyist and former GOP Chairman Matt Borges accidentally posted the information of the whistleblower online, as Borges claimed.
“Indeed, page 3 of the file alone includes [the informant’s] name, address, phone number, spouse’s name, spouse’s phone number, and [the informant’s] social security number, all of which are listed in large, bold font, at the very top of the page,” Black said, using the visual emphasis in his court order.
“It is virtually impossible for anyone to scroll through the file and not see that it contains unredacted personal identifiers.”
Federal prosecutors have accused Borges of participating in a scheme alongside former GOP House Speaker Larry Householder and three others to take $60 million from FirstEnergy Corp. and enrich themselves while ensuring passage of favorable legislation for the company.
FirstEnergy has since admitted to giving $60 million to a nonprofit secretly controlled by Householder in exchange for his help passing House Bill 6 in 2019. Borges allegedly used $15,000 of the money to bribe a political operative for inside information about a campaign to overturn the recently-passed legislation via a ballot referendum.
Borges worked as a lobbyist for a FirstEnergy subsidiary at the time, with deep...
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