DETROIT – Billionaire Peter Karmanos is a long time friend of former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and on Charlie LeDuff’s podcast, he said he was working to get the ex-mayor a presidential pardon.
Karmanos implied that Kilpatrick was a victim of a political conspiracy and that he will use his influence with President Donald Trump to get him freed from prison.
The former Detroit mayor was sentenced to a term of 28 years in prison back in 2013 after he was found guilty on 24 of 30 counts, including racketeering. He has been fighting his sentence ever since. The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals had denied his original appeal of his conviction and sentence. He filed another motion in 2017 to vacate his prison sentence, and that was denied by a district court judge.
Karmanos said he believes the charges and evidence against Kilpatrick were inflated or fabricated. He said Kilpatrick is an innocent man.
Kilpatrick said at one time he wrote a letter to Trump asking for clemency and Karmanos said he had used his influence to deliver that letter.