LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Kentucky’s attorney general is asking the FBI to investigate former Gov. Matt Bevin’s pardons.
“While Kentucky’s Constitution gives the governor the power to pardon a person convicted of a crime, I believe the pardon power should be used sparingly and only after great deliberation with due concern for public safety,” Attorney General Daniel Cameron wrote in a Monday letter delivered to state Rep. Chris Harris and Sen. Morgan McGarvey.
Harris and McGarvey, both Democrats, had requested the attorney general launch a state investigation into the pardons.
Cameron, a Republican, told the legislators he has formally asked the FBI to look into the matter, and that his office will assist federal, state and local investigators as needed.
Bevin, who has defended his pardons, has received national criticism for pardoning or commuting the sentences of more than 650 people following his failed re-election bid in November.
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron Cameron, a Republican, told the legislators he has formally asked the FBI to look into the matter, and that his office will assist federal, state and local investigators as needed. (Photo: Alton Strupp/Courier Journal)
Some have applauded the former governor’s actions as a show of compassion and righting injustices, including for more than 300 nonviolent drug offenders.
But several pardons and commutations have created a bipartisan chorus of criticism in Kentucky, with state prosecutors and other elected leaders such as U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., condemning the former governor’s decisions.
GOP Senate President Robert Stivers had also condemned the pardons and called for an investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“It is the prerogative of the attorney general to determine whether this matter falls within the purview of his office,” Stivers said. “If he believes that the information at hand requires the involvement of federal law enforcement, then the request is warranted.”
Bevin could not be reached for comment.
Patrick Baker, right, who was recently pardoned by former Gov. Matt Bevin, smiled at his attorneys Elliot Slosar, left, and Amy Robinson Staples during a press conference in Lexington, Ky. on Dec. 17, 2019. Baker's pardon has been criticized because his family donated to Bevin's reelection campaign. (Photo: Sam Upshaw Jr./Courier Journal)
One of Bevin’s more controversial pardons involved Patrick Baker, who had served two years of a 19-year sentence for reckless homicide and robbery in the slaying of a Knox County man in front of his family.
Baker’s brother held a campaign fundraiser for Bevin in July 2018 that raised $21,500. The former governor also received a letter from business executive Terry Forcht, one of the state’s Republican megadonors, urging Bevin to pardon Baker.
Matt Bevin: Ex-governor defends flurry of pardons
“Kentuckians deserve to know if the pardon of Patrick Baker, whose family raised tens of thousands of dollars for Gov. Bevin in 2018, was granted improperly,” Harris and McGarvey said in their joint statement. “We believe strongly that this and potentially other pardons should be investigated impartially, and are pleased that the attorney general agrees and has asked the FBI to make sure that happens.”
Harris told The Courier Journal previously that a criminal investigator had contacted him asking questions about what he knew about Bevin’s pardons. He did not elaborate on what questions were asked, and he declined to say which law enforcement agency contacted him.
Cameron reaching out to the FBI coincides with more attention from other federal law enforcement into Bevin’s actions.
U.S. Attorney Russell Coleman, who represents Kentucky’s Western District, has said Bevin’s pardons are raising concerns. He said Tuesday he is particularly concerned about the “risk to the public by those previously convicted of sex offenses, who by virtue of the state pardon, will not fall under any post-release supervision or be required to register as sex offenders.”
Bevin was fiercely condemned when he justified the pardon extended to Micah Schoettle, who was convicted of raping a 9-year-old child.
In 2018, a judge sentenced Schoettle to 23 years in prison but Bevin argued there was “zero” physical evidence in the case, saying the victim’s hymen was intact.
Several medical professionals blasted Bevin’s comments, saying he is uninformed.
Follow Phillip M. Bailey on Twitter at @phillipmbailey.
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