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Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was among 70 people who had their jail terms commuted by President Trump early Wednesday, just hours before the president’s term expired.
The commutation was long requested by Kilpatrick, 50, who served about seven years of a 28-year sentence for crimes of public corruption for which he was convicted in 2013.
Following President Trump’s decision, Kilpatrick will be released from prison early.
Seventy-three others, including former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, received the president’s pardon.
What was his path to switching?
Kilpatrick, a native of Detroit and Democrat, served as a Michigan State Representative from 1997-2002 before serving as Mayor of Detroit from 2002-2008.
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The former mayor’s downfall began when the Detroit Free Press published text messages between him and his chief of staff that appeared to show he lied during a police whistleblower trial while denying an affair between the of them. He resigned from his post in 2008.
Kilpatrick was sentenced to 28 years in federal prison in 2013 after being convicted of racketeering conspiracy, fraud, extortion and tax offenses related to shaking up entrepreneurs and rewarding his allies. The government called the project the “Kilpatrick Enterprise”.
Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick sits in a Detroit courtroom. The disgraced former mayor is set to be released from prison after President Trump is switched on Wednesday morning. (Associated press)
He has maintained his innocence and has fought against his conviction ever since. However, all of his appeals have failed over the years.
The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals had dismissed his original appeal of his conviction and sentence in 2015, according to WDIV-TV of Detroit.
He filed another petition in 2017 to quash his prison sentence, which was denied by a district court judge, the station reported.
He then asked Trump for a presidential pardon and mercy in a blog post in 2018.
“By the grace of God, I received forgiveness from him, through Christ Jesus. I pray that I also receive the opportunity for pardon / mercy from the President of the United States, ”he wrote on the Free Kwame Project website at FOX 2 in Detroit.
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In 2019, he was again refused by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, according to reports. The US Supreme Court even refused to hear his case, according to the Detroit Free Press.
Last year, rumors spread that he was going to be released early and allowed to live at home in Georgia, the newspaper reported.
In November, Michigan State Representative Karen Whitsett and her family members said Kilpatrick would be released – after claiming in May he would be absent due to the coronavirus. The two never arrived.
In a February letter to President Trump, the Ebony Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to fighting mass incarceration, argued that Kilpatrick’s lengthy sentence was not appropriate for his crimes.
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Kilpatrick was held in a low-security Louisiana prison and was initially scheduled to be released in January 2037 before Trump’s switching order was announced Wednesday morning.
Fox News’ Brie Stimson and Louis Casiano contributed to this report.
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