On Tuesday, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the divorce records of a man running for the Ohio Senate were improperly sealed.
Ashland County Circuit Court Judge Ronald Forsthofel was forced to unseal Josh and Ilana Mandel’s divorce papers in April 2020 after failing to grant the necessary legal approval for it.
First thing about Josh Mandel!
Joshua Aaron Mandel was born in the United States on September 27, 1977. He is a member of the extreme right. During the years 2011–2019, he served as the 48th Treasurer of Ohio. In the years between 2007 and 2011, he represented Ohio’s 17th District as the Republican Party Representative. He ran as a Republican in 2012 for the Senate, but was defeated by incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown.
In 2016, Mandel said he would challenge Brown again in 2018, but has since backed away from that plan. In 2022, he ran for the Senate a second time, but writer JD Vance defeated him for the nomination.
Mandel was born on September 27, 1977, to Jewish parents Rita (née Friedman) and Bruce Mandel in Cleveland, Ohio. They raised him in a traditional Jewish household. Mandel’s grandmother Fernanda was Italian but spent World War II hidden from the Nazis by Christian families in the United States.
Joe Mandel’s grandfather was Polish and a Holocaust survivor. Rachel, already mentioned, is one of Mandel’s siblings. He was a quarterback on the Beechwood High School football team.
Mandel received his BA from The Ohio State University. For two different terms, he served as student body president of Ohio State University. After completing his undergraduate studies at Ohio State in 2000, he received his J.D. from Case Western Reserve University School of Law.
The Personal Life of Josh Mandel
Mandel married social worker Ilana Shafran in Jerusalem in August 2008. In April 2020, Mandel and Shafran filed for divorce. d The district judge who ordered the records sealed.
Although the divorce was finalized in June 2020, details of property division and child support for their three children were not released until the following year. In August 2020, Mandel began dating Rachel Wilson, an employee on his campaign team.
Why is Josh Mandel getting divorced?
CITY OF KINGDOMS, OHIO: The Ohio Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned an Ashland County District Court ruling that had previously ordered the divorce papers of former state treasurer and US Senate candidate Josh Mandel and his ex-wife Ilana to remain sealed.
In an unsigned opinion, the state’s highest court ordered Ashland County Common Pleas Judge Ronald Forsthoefel to determine which divorce documents are open to the general public.
In May, after placing second in the 2022 Republican Senate primary, Mandel released redacted copies of divorce records showing he received more than $1 million in assets divided during the divorce, per -most of which was in investment accounts, his state pension and the equity in his new home in Beachwood.
Primary custody of their three children will be shared between Mandel and his ex-wife Ilana, although he will be responsible for providing child support and health insurance. In April 2020, Forsthoefel granted the Mandels’ request to seal the divorce papers, despite the fact that neither party provided an explanation for their decision and no specific legal precedent was cited to support the sealing.
The Cincinnati Enquirer sued to overturn Forsthoefel’s decision so the public could access the records. In his defense, Forsthoefel pointed out that Mandel released censored versions of the documents to the media in February 2021, arguing that the lawsuit against the Enquirer was therefore without merit.
The Supreme Court ruled, however, that the Enquirer was not so much seeking access to information as it was seeking an order forcing Forsthoefel to reverse its sealing decision and another order barring the court from enforcing the order. The Supreme Court further noted that the Enquirer’s claim only applied to the unredacted versions of the information, not the redacted versions.
The Supreme Court ruled that the lower court judge “failed to disclose whether he considered a less restrictive means of limiting public access, such as redaction,” and “failed to explain why he believed that the blanket sealing of 21 documents in the case was the only legally correct way to resolve the Mandels movement.
Two Republican justices, Pat DeWine and Sharon Kennedy, joined the majority ruling in reaching that result, although Kennedy wrote a separate dissenting opinion.