Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick Will Not Be Released From Prison Despite Reports
Former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick will not be released from federal prison despite reports that he had been granted a release due to the spread of coronavirus in the Louisiana correctional facility where he is housed.
The Detroit Free Press reports that the Federal Bureau of Prisons announced that his application for home confinement has been denied. It issued a statement that directly contradicted the announcement from the EBONY Foundation that he would be released.
"On Tuesday, May 26, 2020, the federal Bureau of Prisons reviewed and denied inmate Kwame Kilpatrick for home confinement. Mr. Kilpatrick remains incarcerated at the federal correctional institution in Oakdale, Louisiana," the statement said, according to the Free Press.
Kilpatrick was sentenced to 28 years behind bars in 2013 on 24 counts of corruption including racketeering, extortion and fraud during his time as mayor beginning in 2002. He was forced to resign in 2008 because of a scandal involving his extramarital affair.
A non-profit called the EBONY Foundation, which has spent several months lobbying for Kilpatrick’s freedom, sent a press release last week to BET.com, confirming at the time that Kilpatrick had won release. In its statement, it said that the former mayor was on mandatory quarantine, then would be let out on home confinement on June 10. In an email, a representative said that among those who told them about Kilpatrick’s release were Ja’Ron Smith, a Trump administration adviser; Virgie Rollins, chair of the Democratic National Committee Black Caucus; and Kilpatrick’s own family.
BET.com has reached out to the EBONY Foundation for further comment, but has not yet heard back.
When news broke of Kilpatrick’s release last week, officials with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit said they had not heard that he had been granted an early release and said it could not confirm the EBONY Foundation’s claims. If an action like that had actually happened, officials there -- since they prosecuted the case -- would have been notified by the Department of Justice, the Free Press said.
Democratic Michigan State Representative Sherry Gay-Dagnogo was among those advocating for Kilpatrick’s release due to extreme sentencing. She says she was told of his early release by fellow legislator Karen Whitsett, who in turn had been told by President Donald Trump during a visit to the state last week. go free. Gay-Dagnogo expressed her frustration at what seems like a cruel game of telephone.
"I'm very disappointed and want to know why a sitting president would lie,” Gay-Dagnogo told the Free Press.
