On Tuesday, the Ohio Supreme Court determined that a court had not provided sufficient cause for sealing the divorce paperwork of a man seeking election to the U.S. Senate to represent Ohio.
Documents about the divorce of Josh Mandel and Ilana Mandel’s marriage in April of 2020 were ordered unsealed because Judge Ronald Forsthoefel of the Ashland County Domestic Court did not provide the required legal permission for doing so.
Who Is Josh Mandel?
American far-right politician Joshua Aaron Mandel was born on September 27, 1977. He was Ohio’s 48th treasurer from 2011 till 2019. From 2007 until 2011, he served as the Republican representative for Ohio’s 17th district. In the 2012 race for the United States Senate, he ran as a Republican but lost to the incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown.
Mandel stated in 2016 that he will run against Brown again in 2018, but he ultimately decided not to do so. His second attempt for the Senate was in 2022, and he was defeated by J.D. Vance, a novelist, for the primary nomination.
On September 27, 1977, in Cleveland, Ohio, Mandel was born to Jewish parents Rita (née Friedman) and Bruce Mandel, who raised him as a religious Jew. Mandel’s grandmother, Fernanda, is originally from Italy but was hidden from the Nazis by Christian families in the United States during World War II.
Mandel’s grandfather, Joe, is originally from Poland and is a Holocaust survivor. The aforementioned Rachel is Mandel’s sibling. He was the quarterback for the football team at Beachwood High School.
Josh Mandel has not been bullied like this since his then-wife summoned him to divorce court. Good lord. https://t.co/jzvd6ZFTwz
— The Rooster (@rooster_ohio) April 21, 2022
Mandel attended Ohio State University, where he received his bachelor’s degree. He held the office of undergraduate student body president at Ohio State University for two separate periods. He attended the law school at Case Western Reserve University after graduating from Ohio State in 2000 and received his J.D.
Personal Life
In Jerusalem in August of 2008, Mandel wed Ilana Shafran, a social worker. Mandel and Shafran submitted divorce papers in April of 2020. d County judge that had the documents sealed.While the divorce was finalized in June 2020, the financial, custody, and support information related to their three children were kept under wraps until 2021. Mandel started dating his campaign employee Rachel Wilson in August of 2020.
Josh Mandel Divorce
OHIO’S Royal CITY: On Tuesday, the Ohio Supreme Court determined that former state Treasurer and U.S. Senate hopeful Josh Mandel and his ex-wife Ilana were entitled to unseal their divorce papers notwithstanding an earlier ruling by an Ashland County judge that had the documents sealed.
The state supreme court, in an unsigned judgment, directed Ashland County Common Pleas Court Judge Ronald Forsthoefel to examine divorce records to decide which ones are available to the public.
After coming in second in the Republican primary for the United States Senate in 2022 this past May, Mandel voluntarily released redacted copies of the divorce records showing that he received more than $1 million in the assets split during the divorce, the majority of which was in investment accounts, his state pension, and equity in his new home in Beachwood.
Mandel and his ex-wife, Ilana, will get primary custody of their three children, but he will be responsible for paying child support and providing health insurance. Although Forsthoefel’s order didn’t explain his reasons and the Mandels didn’t identify any legal authority to support sealing, in April 2020 he approved their application to seal their divorce papers.
To allow public access to the records, the Cincinnati Enquirer filed suit to have Forsthoefel’s decision nullified. Forsthoefel asserts that the action against the Enquirer is without merit because Mandel made redacted versions of the information available to the press in February 2021.
However, the Supreme Court ruled that the Enquirer wasn’t trying to get records; rather, it wanted an order telling Forsthoefel to revoke his sealing order and another order telling the judge not to enforce the order. In addition, the Supreme Court pointed out that the Enquirer’s argument concerns the original, unredacted records, not the redacted ones.
The Supreme Court found that the lower court judge “failed to explain why he thought the wholesale sealing of 21 case documents was the only legally proper way of resolving the Mandels’ motion” and “failed to disclose whether he considered a less restrictive means of limiting public access, such as redaction.”
Justices Pat DeWine and Sharon Kennedy, both Republicans, agreed with the court’s decision, albeit Kennedy issued a dissenting opinion.
