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Mike Espy, a Democratic nominee for the Mississippi Senate election on Nov. 27, has been confronted with ethical issues during his political career.
Espy, a former Congressman who served as Secretary of Agriculture during the first term of former President Bill Clinton, will face Senegalese Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith in the second round, after neither candidate did not win the majority of votes in the mid-term elections of 6 November.
Espy was closely scrutinized by his lobbying work for Ivory Coast under the then president, Laurent Gbagbo, who is currently being tried by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.
Espy said in 2011 that he had stopped putting pressure on Gbagbo's government less than a month after signing a three-month contract. Espy also claimed at the time that he only received $ 400,000 from the $ 750,000 contract and waived the remaining $ 350,000.
But a report from Fox News on November 15 seems to contradict this statement.
An additional declaration signed in Espy's law on the registration of foreign agents by the Ministry of Justice in June 2011 shows that he worked for the Gbagbo government for more than two months and that he was receiving all 750,000 $.
Espy's lobbying of Gbagbo's government has already been accused of ethical misconduct.
Congressman Mike Espy (2nd L) accepts his appointment as Secretary of Agriculture on December 24, 1992 in Arkansas under the auspices of Bill Clinton (left), President-Elect of the United States. (Photo: SWANSON HERB / AFP / Getty Images)
Espy resigned from the Clinton administration in October 1994 while she was under investigation for allegedly receiving gifts.
Espy was charged with 30 counts of the crime in August 1997 but was acquitted of all charges in December 1998 after the jury concluded that there was no evidence of reconciliation or d'Espy having accepted the gifts with criminal intent.
The acquittal of Espy was compared to the unsuccessful prosecution of New Jersey Democrat Senator Bob Menendez and former Virginia Republican Governor Bob McDonnell. (RELATED: The MSNBC host states that the Menendez Corruption case is "does not look closed, it looks overwhelming")
Although Mr. Espy escaped conviction, the OIC investigation "revealed widespread misconduct on the part of Secretary Espy and his principal collaborator, as well as on the part of of people and companies regulated by or with companies prior to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). , "According to the CIC final report.
"The investigation revealed that, among other offenses, companies whose business was financially significant before the USDA had offered the Secretary Espy – either directly or through members of his family or his girlfriend – many gifts in order to gain his favor, "OIC report of January 2001. states.
Dr. Espy's chief of staff at the USDA, Ronald H. Blackley, was sentenced in March 1998 to 27 months in jail for "lying about $ 22,000 that he received from two Mississippi people have gotten major government agriculture grants, "the Washington Post reported at the time.
The Espy campaign did not return a request for comment.
Follow Hasson on Twitter @PeterJHasson
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Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available at no cost to any eligible news publisher that can provide a wide audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].
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