Jay LaPrete, Associated Press file photo

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CLEVELAND, Ohio — It may have raised eyebrows when the word "extortion" appeared in documents released this week that laid out an ongoing federal investigation into Ohio's former House speaker.

But former federal prosecutors say it appears the FBI is trying to build a classic bribery case against Cliff Rosenberger, a Republican who resigned his powerful position in April shortly after the investigation became public. He has not been charged, and has denied wrongdoing.

“Calling it extortion is misleading to the lay public,” said Ann Rowland, who retired earlier this year after a decades-long career prosecuting federal public corruption cases in Northern Ohio. “…It’s just garden-variety bribery.”

“Now, any bribery situation can rise to the level of extortionate conduct, more or less,” Rowland said. “A public official can passively accept a bribe, and it’s still considered a violation of the statute, or a public official can go and twist somebody’s arm. So, it can be on all levels of the scale of extortion, if that makes sense,” she said.

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The records

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In response to a months-old public records request, state legislative officials on Monday released copies of a subpoena and a search warrant federal investigators delivered to them in late April.

The documents confirmed media reports of a federal investigation into Rosenberger’s prolific travel habits, including a 2017 trip to London in which he was accompanied by lobbyists for the payday lending industry. They also provide an unusual level of detail about the case, given the preliminary stage of the investigation.

Federal investigators are required to leave behind copies of search warrants after a raid, detailing what they took. State officials on Monday also released thousands of pages of records, including Rosenberger's scheduling records, travel receipts and internal emails, that they turned over the FBI.

But going beyond describing what they took, an attachment to the search warrant, signed by a federal magistrate judge in Cincinnati, lays out the federal crimes federal agents believe Rosenberger and a group of lobbyists for the payday-lending industry committed, and identifies them as targets of the investigation.

Paul Flannery, a former federal prosecutor who now practices privately in Cleveland, said he was surprised to see the news media was able to obtain such detailed information through a public-records request.

"In this instance, the records were so specific that in order to specify which records they wanted, it essentially required them to identify the people that were the subject of the investigation," he said.

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The relevant laws

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Courtesy of Ohio Statehouse archives

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In the documents, agents wrote they believe Rosenberger and others violated a federal law known as the Hobbs Act. This law describes obstructing, delaying or affecting commerce by “robbery or extortion” — the federal bribery statute.

A second law agents referenced is a federal conspiracy law. And a third is the “Travel Act,” which bars traveling across state or international lines while committing a federal crime.

While the Travel Act is not a common feature in recent, local corruption prosecutions, the Hobbs Act and conspiracy charges are fairly typical.

Here are some recent examples of other public officials who have been charged under either of those two laws.

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Jeff Johnson

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Zachariah Durr, cleveland.com

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Johnson, then an ambitious state senator and a rising political star, was convicted in 1999 of violating the Hobbs Act for extorting campaign contributions from a local convenience store owner. He served nine months in prison.

State law permanently bars people with bribery convictions from holding elected office. However, in a 2017 Supreme Court case challenging Johnson’s eligibility to appear on the ballot, county officials argued that because Johnson did not violate a state bribery law, the state law did not apply. The Supreme Court dismissed the challenge, clearing the way for Johnson, then a city councilman, to run for mayor of Cleveland later that year. (He lost.)

Perhaps of note, a footnote in the search warrant for the Rosenberger investigation says the FBI has “probable cause” to believe Rosenberger and the payday-lending lobbyists broke Ohio’s bribery law.

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Jimmy Dimora

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Marvin Fong, The Plain Dealer

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Dimora, the powerful former Cuyahoga County commissioner and Cuyahoga County Democratic Party leader, in 2012 was convicted of multiple Hobbs Act and federal conspiracy violations. He also was convicted of racketeering among other crimes, which contributed to his 28-year prison sentence.

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Frank Russo

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Plain Dealer file photo

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Russo, the former county auditor, in 2010 was sentenced to nearly 22 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to numerous corruption-related crimes, including Hobbs Act violations. He was also ordered to pay $7 million in restitution.

Prosecutors said Russo accepted kickbacks from a company to which he steered commercial appraisal work. He accepted more than $1 million in bribes and used his influence to get his friends county jobs and contracts.

Russo ended up testifying against Dimora, the other central figure in the massive Cuyahoga County corruption probe.

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Joe Jones

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Then a city councilman, Jones in 2004 was charged with Hobbs Act violations for accepting bribes from two consultants in exchange for favors at Cleveland City Hall. The investigation was part of a larger case against Nate Gray, an associate of then-Cleveland Mayor Michael R. White, and others.

However, prosecutors dismissed those charges after Jones pleaded guilty to mail fraud. Jones resigned from office, and was sentenced to probation. In 2017, a county judge expunged his charge, clearing Jones to run for his old Cleveland council seat. Jones won the election later that year.

Gray in 2005 was also convicted of Hobbs Act violations, as well as money laundering and racketeering. He is serving a 15-year prison sentence.

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Emmanuel Onunwor

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David I. Andersen, The Plain Dealer

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Also as part of the Gray investigation, Onunwor, then the mayor of East Cleveland, was convicted of taking bribes from Gray in 2005. Among the charges he was convicted of were Hobbs act violations. He served eight years in prison.

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Edward Hills

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File photo

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Hills, a former top official at the MetroHealth system, was convicted in July of multiple bribery and conspiracy charges, among others.

Prosecutors say Hills and three former MetroHealth dentists, Sari Alqsous, Yazan Al-Madani and Tariq Sayegh, were part of numerous schemes to defraud the health care system, including paying Hills kickbacks in exchange for bonuses and referrals of hospital patients to private clinics in which the dentists had financial interests.

They have yet to be sentenced.

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Jacqueline Middleton

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The former CEO of the Council for Economic Opportunities in Greater Cleveland was sentenced in to 30 months in prison in 2014 for contract steering. In exchange, the companies that received the work gave her more than $20,000 in cash, home renovations and other things of value, prosecutors said.

Among the laws she admitted to breaking was the Hobbs Act

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William Montague

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Montague, the former head of the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, was sentenced to nearly five years in prison in 2016.

He was convicted on 64 felony counts, including Hobbs Act violations. Prosecutors said he accepted tens of thousands of dollars in bribes and kickbacks from contractors in exchange for inside information. His case was an outgrowth of the Cuyahoga County corruption case that ensnared Dimora and Russo.