*Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has reportedly been granted early release from prison due to a COVID-19 outbreak at his prison in Louisiana.
Kilpatrick has been incarcerated since 2013 and was sentenced to 28 years in federal prison for multiple public corruption crimes. He has long argued that he was wrongfully convicted and reportedly requested a pardon from Trump’s White House after losing all appeals.
As noted by the Detroit Free Press, State Rep. Karen Whitsett said that she learned of Kilpatrick’s pending release from President Trump during his Thursday visit to Michigan.
“He said that he was being released,” Whitsett said, adding: “I’m elated for him … An out is an out … He’s done his time. And I think, ‘My God, when is long enough long enough.’ ”
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#BREAKING Former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has been granted an early release from prison- according to the Ebony foundation. @WWJ950 @FOX2News pic.twitter.com/aiNe8CEVPX
— Charlie Langton (@charlielangton) May 22, 2020
Kilpatrick is reportedly among the 3,000 inmates set for release as part of a federal initiative to speed up the release of “vulnerable inmates” and provide relief for prisons that are hotbeds for the deadly contagion.
According to Daniel Ferguson III, who was married to Kilpatrick’s sister Ayanna, Kilpatrick sent an email to his supporters in which he wrote: “I am well, it’s on … See you all soon … LOL Lord have mercy. LOL”
“I called Ayanna and she was so hysterical and going crazy that I knew it was true,” said Ferguson.
We previously reported… Detroit Rep. Sherry Gay-Dagnogo said Donald Trump seemed “very receptive” to a request to have Kwame Kilpatrick’s lengthy prison term commuted.
Gay-Dagnogo said she handed Trump a letter during the National African American History Month Celebration at the White House on Feb. 27, with the hopes of bolstering Kilpatrick’s presidential pardon request.
“Based on his body language, I could tell that he was present, paying attention, receptive and somewhat reassuring,” Gay-Dagnogo said of her brief interaction with Trump. “He seemed familiar with the request and I believe he said he’d look into it.”
Kilpatrick, 49, was not eligible to be released until 2037.
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