Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, convicted on corruption charges, was dealt another blow last week by a judge who denied his motion for unsupervised release.
A judge cited Kilpatrick’s failure to accept responsibility for his corruption charges and continued lavish lifestyle despite thousands owed in unpaid debts.
“Kilpatrick committed very serious crimes, and he still owes a significant amount of restitution,” U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds said in her opinion issued on Feb. 2.
The Detroit Free Press reports Kilpatrick still owes $854,000 in unpaid restitution.
Kilpatrick was convicted in 2013 for racketeering conspiracy, fraud, extortion and tax crimes, The Associated Press reported. He was sentenced to a 28-year prison sentence but was released in 2021 after former President Donald Trump granted him a commutation.
Since his early release, Kilpatrick has made several public statements in the media which helped fuel Judge Edmunds’ decision to deny him unsupervised release, a condition upon his commutation alongside repaying restitution.
On Apr. 21, 2022, Kilpatrick told Craig Melvin during a “Today Show” interview, “I did the perjury, but all this mail fraud, wire fraud, conspiracies, absolutely not.” He went on to maintain his innocence on the majority of his other charges.
In December 2022, Kilpatrick discussed his decision not to appeal the $1.5 million in restitution after getting his prison sentence commuted.
“I would have got out of prison with the commutation, and I would have only had 18 days to file [the appeal of restitution] when I got home and so I would have come home and filed it and it would have been news articles saying Kilpatrick tried to get out of paying his restitution and they would have had y’all hating me again,” he said during an interview with podcaster Anton Daniels.
Kilpatrick also believes he was a victim as a Black man amid his corruption scandal.
“I call it in the…
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