The special grand jury that’s been investigating state government hiring practices today indicted Gov. Ernie Fletcher on three misdemeanor charges of conspiracy, official misconduct and political discrimination.
The jury also indicted former transportation Cabinet official Sam Beverage with perjury, which is a felony. And the jury also submitted to Franklin Circuit Judge William Graham 14 more indictments that are under seal.
Those indictments cover crimes that may have occurred before Aug. 29, 2005 when Fletcher pardoned all administration officials except himself.
a sitting governor has been indicted. that's big stuff. amusingly, the slogan at the top of fletcher's website is "together, we can move kentucky forward." forward to where? why, forward past fletcher's scandals, of course.
fletcher's office has a statement on his website:
This has been a politically motivated, media-driven investigation from the start.
As Governor Fletcher has said repeatedly, his conscience is clear. He has done nothing wrong.
We are evaluating the charges and, likewise, we are studying our recourse of action in the wake of this malicious prosecution.
Because of the politicization of this entire investigation, we are filing a motion at this time to disqualify Greg Stumbo and his entire office from further participation in this matter.
if the governor did nothing wrong, why did he need to issue a blanket pardon to his administration? ¶
