CINCINNATI — The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio officially dismissed the indictment against former councilmember PG Sittenfeld on Monday, and ordered the fine he paid as part of his sentencing be reimbursed, according to federal court documents.
The court filing is tied to a presidential pardon issued by President Donald Trump in May 2025.
According to the order filed Monday, Sittenfeld's appeal to have his conviction thrown out was still moving through the courts when Trump issued his pardon. When the pardon happened, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the previous court's ruling that denied the appeal and sent the request to dismiss Sittenfeld's indictment back down to the U.S. District Court.
The U.S. District Court then ruled that Sittenfeld's indictment should be dismissed without prejudice, which means the case is done and prosecutors cannot again charge him for the circumstances that led to his conviction.
In November 2025, the Department of Justice asked the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out all of Sittenfeld's conviction in light of the pardon.
As part of his sentence, Sittenfeld was also ordered to pay a $40,000 fine; the court granted his request to be reimbursed for that fine.
Sittenfeld was convicted in 2022 and sentenced to spend 16 months in prison for bribery and attempted extortion — though he only served around four months of that sentence before Trump's pardon.
The former city councilman has maintained that he did nothing illegal by accepting $20,000 in campaign donations from undercover FBI agents who were posing as developers and championing their project to redevelop a blighted downtown property into a boutique hotel because he was a pro-development politician.
Sittenfeld was the third council member the FBI arrested in 2020 on public corruption charges stemming from a massive sting at Cincinnati City Hall involving at least three undercover FBI agents and multiple informants who secretly recorded numerous elected leaders over two years.
Former council member Tamaya Dennard pleaded guilty to honest services wire fraud for accepting $15,000 as part of a scheme to exchange her votes for money. A judge sentenced her to 18 months in prison and she was released in 2022.
Former council member Jeff Pastor also pleaded guilty to honest services wire fraud. Prosecutors said he took $55,000 in bribes in exchange for votes on development deals. He was sent to prison, but was released in December to serve the last seven months of his sentence either at a halfway house or home confinement.
Pastor spoke with us in his first public interview since his release, and he told us he's now seeking his own presidential pardon to allow him to restart his professional life and possibly resume a political career after his arrest.
