WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump has been hearing from donors, politicians and pastors asking him to intervene and commute disgraced former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s 28-year sentence.
Detroit State Rep. Sherry Gay-Dagnogo attended the national African American History celebration at the White House after discussions with President Trump’s team on the Kilpatrick issue. Gay-Dagnogo brought a letter signed by politicians and pastors across the state requesting commutation of sentence.
“None of us are arguing he’s innocent,” Gay-Dagnogo said. “If that was the case we’d be asking for a pardon, we’re not, we realize during his leadership he did some things that were wrong and impacted the city negatively and pretty much scarred us for a very long time. But we also realize this is an act of mercy and a second chance.”
This is the latest attempt to get President Trump to consider it. So far his administration hasn’t dismissed the idea outright.
“The margins are going to be incredibly tight, incredibly close. So if you think of it from this perspective, Trump got 8 percent of the African American vote last time. If he can move that to 9 percent, 10 percent, that is a huge gain in a state like Michigan,” political strategist Dennis Darnoi said.
This is just the latest in a multi-pronged effort to free Kilpatrick, including intervention from Peter Karmanos.