About
P.G. Sittenfeld served on the Cincinnati City Council from 2011 to 2020, elected at 27 as the youngest person ever to win a seat on the council. A Princeton graduate and Marshall Scholar, he is now a writer working on a memoir.
He fought his public corruption case from the first day to the last: a 2018 FBI sting, a three-week jury trial, four and a half months in 2024 at a federal prison camp in Kentucky, and early release by a panel of three federal judges. He received a full and unconditional presidential pardon in 2025, and in April 2026 the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously vacated his convictions. He told that story at the 2026 White Collar Conference.
Photo: Sittenfeld for Senate, via Wikimedia Commons, cropped, CC BY-SA 2.0
At the White Collar Conference
P.G. Sittenfeld recounted his 2018 meeting, while serving on Cincinnati City Council, with two men presented as out-of-town investors who turned out to be undercover FBI agents, and the public corruption prosecution and three-week trial that followed. He described four and a half months at a federal prison camp in Kentucky before an early release, a full and unconditional presidential pardon, and the Supreme Court's unanimous April 2026 decision vacating his convictions, after which the trial court dismissed the case. He called the chance to fight a case a privilege and said winning did not return the months away from his wife and young sons.
“I determined from the absolute onset I was going to fight this case with everything I had, every single step of the way.”
Watch at 2:34
“It's a privileged position in our current system to be able to force the government to carry its burden.”
Watch at 2:55
“Even when you win, even when you fight back and prevail, there are things the process can't give back to you.”
Watch at 3:34
Join us in fall 2027.
The fourth annual White Collar Conference is planned for fall 2027, virtual on Zoom and open to all.