Agents from the FBI and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation raided the downtown offices of Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish last week.
According to a search warrant obtained by cleveland.com, they were seeking evidence of corrupt activity, extortion, civil rights violations and other crimes, most of them relating to operations at the Cuyahoga County Jail, where eight inmates died between June and December, 2018.
The agents left County HQ Thursday, after several hours of rooting around Budish’s office, with five boxes of material, two computer hard drives, an envelope of miscellaneous items and Budish’s cell phone in hand, according to a County spokeswoman. Budish provided agents with his cell phone’s password.
In an interview with cleveland.com later that evening, and in a follow-up internal memo and video to county employees (above), Budish characterized the raid as a politically motivated stunt.
From the cleveland.com interview: “I’ve worked my entire life to build a reputation for integrity and honesty, and I will be damned if I will let a political attack destroy that.”
From the county video: “I have done nothing criminal and nothing that merits this kind of treatment, so for them to come in and do a public stunt like they did yesterday is beyond terrible.”
Stunt. Public stunt. Political stunt. Political attack.
Cleveland.com editor Chris Quinn noted on WCPN Friday that the County Executive rarely uses this sort of forceful language. One thing the language does is discount the legitimacy of the broader investigation, which began in the county’s IT department and expanded after revelations about the jail. It also begs the question: If the raid was indeed a political attack, who was orchestrating it. And why?
Cleveland.com’s Peter Krouse, in a front-page PD story Sunday, hinted at one possible explanation.
“Budish believes the search was politically motivated to sully his good name,” Krouse wrote. “[Attorney General Dave] Yost is a Republican and Budish is a Democrat represented by former U.S. Attorney Steve Dettelbach, who ran against Yost last year.”
So the political attack was orchestrated by Dave Yost?
To what end, though? To cross swords with Dettelbach again? To get a trophy for the GOP? To sully Budish’s good name? That all seems … weird.
If a coordinated political attack did occur, it much more likely sprang from Budish’s own party, members of which stand to gain if Budish were to be removed.
But claiming that the raid was a “political attack” is just kind of a standard defense that, without elaboration or evidence, doesn’t mean much. Budish was already providing subpoenaed material, and had asked for an extension. What he seems to be objecting to is the public nature of the raid — the theatricality of it — because it reminds people of the 2008 Cuyahoga County raids. It makes him look like a criminal.
This is why Budish will not stand by and let his name be sullied. “The work we are doing is too important to let anything stand in the way of it,” he told employees.
Budish of course maintains that he has done nothing criminal, “nothing that merits” the raid. And yet, it was Budish who went to MetroHealth CEO Akram Boutros the day after a County Council meeting in May 2018 and asked for the removal of the jail’s nursing director, Gary Brack, because Brack spoke out about medical conditions at the facility. It was Budish who ruthlessly pursued consolidation and cost-cutting at the jail, which cleveland.com reporters identified as the central cause of the jail’s dismal conditions.
Budish is intimately involved in the scandal. That’s what’ll sully his “good name,” if anything does. Former jail director Ken Mills has already been indicted for various crimes, and Chris Quinn himself said that if there are emails which show Budish knew about jail conditions and did nothing, it would be “very bad.”
Whether or not Budish approves of the raid’s publicity, investigators had every right to collect his emails and other materials. Whether or not he thinks he has committed crimes, others will determine if he’s a crook.
This article appears in Feb 13-19, 2019.
Under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, isn’t it time for the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party to be labelled an ongoing criminal organization.
Budish should do the right thing and resign NOW!!! Unfortunately, hell claim his innocence all the way to jail.
Taxin Jackson should do the same thing too and resign now!!!
Arent you so glad that these thieves have stolen so much taxpayer money??? How pathetic our local government has become.
Corruption under Russo and Dimora largely consisted of contract steering and building a loyalty network of the very same employees still part of the crony party politics in NEO. But, Rokakis and Frangos also cultivated loyalists during their administration of the Treasurer’s office. Selective properties sold as third party tax liens and selectively overlooking the “dirty dozen” – so many politically connected folks, like Robert McCall, who was the strawbuyer on the YMCA at 3881 W. 25th St. The real estate component of corruption at Cuy Cty was largely overlooked by the FBI and the Plain Dealer, because the Ratners control real estate interests – along with other players like Mitch Schneider, Stark and Peter Rubin. Early on- NGOs like Cleveland Housing Network, Eden and Neighborhood Housing Services were incorporated to exploit Low Income Tax Credits. Hiring practices at HHS and Community Development -CDCs through City of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County extend to created NGOs receiving BIG federal monies for social services – hiring of Sharon Sobol Jordan at Centers for Families for $330K after it was vacated by Lee Fisher is an example. I would not be surprised, if Brent Larkin and Chris Quinn trot out Rokakis as a replacement for Armond Budish. This nightmare will never end.
Sobal-Jordan what a waste, but she was connected. Ken Mills, connected. Rokakis and Frangos connected. Connection in and of itself is not a crime, but conspiracy is. I hope Budish survives his boys shenanigans, but its looking rough. Budish should flip on them and save his skin.