Biden Lifts Sentence For Former Ohio Dem Official Convicted Of Taking Bribes, Corruption

President Joe Biden granted clemency Thursday to a former Ohio Democratic official who was convicted on charges related to taking bribes for nearly a decade.

Former Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora took over $166,000 worth of bribes, which included “cash, home improvements, lavish meals at high-end restaurants, services from prostitutes, gambling trips to Las Vegas and Canada, and other items,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio.

In exchange for bribes, Dimora made efforts to “steer contracts to allies, get jobs and raises for associates, intercede with judges on pending cases, lobby for grants and favorable loans for people who paid him,” per the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He was sentenced to 28 years in prison in 2012.

Dimora, who denies wrongdoing, previously requested clemency from President Barack Obama. Obama ignored the request while agreeing to commute hundreds of other sentences towards the end of his term.

Dimora was one of nearly 1,500 individuals whose sentences Biden commuted on Thursday in what the White House described as “the largest single-day grant of clemency in modern history.”

“I am also commuting the sentences of nearly 1,500 people who are serving long prison sentences – many of whom would receive lower sentences if charged under today’s laws, policies, and practices,” Biden wrote in a statement Thursday. “These commutation recipients, who were placed on home confinement during the COVID pandemic, have successfully reintegrated into their families and communities and have shown that they deserve a second chance.”

Dimora was released to home confinement under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and was previously set to remain there until 2030, according to the Akron Beacon Journal.

Over 50 people were convicted in the investigation into corruption in Cuyahoga County that Dimora’s trial exposed.

The list of individuals whose sentences were commuted by Biden also includes drug traffickers, crack dealers and convicts in some of the nation’s biggest fraud cases.