Bill Clinton, John Calipari, other heavy hitters send letters to support convicted KY politico
The former head of the Kentucky Democratic Party is rolling out support from some heavy hitters as he faces sentencing for violating federal campaign-finance rules.
Former President Bill Clinton sent a letter praising Jerry Lundergan. So did University of Kentucky men’s basketball Coach John Calipari.
In all, more than 85 family members and friends provided letters of support for Lundergan, including current and former public officials and church leaders.
Lundergan, 73, of Lexington was convicted last September on 10 charges related to making more than $200,000 in illegal corporate contributions to support the 2014 U.S. Senate campaign of his daughter, Alison Lundergan Grimes.
Grimes served two terms as Kentucky secretary of state but lost that 2014 race to Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Longtime political consultant Dale Emmons, of Richmond, was convicted with Lundergan on six charges.
The two are scheduled to be sentenced July 16 in federal court in Frankfort.
The maximum sentence on the most serious charges would be 20 years in prison, but Lundergan and Emmons will face considerably lower sentences under federal guidelines.
Lundergan’s attorney, J. Guthrie True, said in one document that the correct sentencing range for him would be 21 to 27 months.
However, True argued Lundergan would be eligible for probation.
In letters posted in the court file Wednesday, family and friends urged U.S. District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove not to send Lundergan to prison, lauding his devotion to his family and friends, his devout Catholic faith, his hard work and success in business, and his record of charitable giving.
Clinton wrote of his “deep personal friendship” with Lundergan, calling him “a good man with a big heart who has made a positive difference in countless lives, including my own.”
Lundergan’s defense team has been collecting letters for months. Clinton’s was dated March 7, while Calipari’s was dated Dec. 3.
Calipari said he has attended mass every morning with Lundergan at the Cathedral of Christ the King in Lexington for years, and that Lundergan has served on the board of Calipari’s charitable foundation.
Lundergan has supported Calipari’s holiday dinners for needy families and he and his family volunteer every year to serve the Thanksgiving meal at the Salvation Army, the UK coach said.
“I have never met a more generous or caring man, he cares more about those around him than he does about himself,” Calipari wrote the judge.
Joseph W. Craft III, who heads coal company Alliance Resource Partners and has been a strong supporter of President Donald Trump, who appointed Craft’s wife, Kelly Knight Craft, as ambassador to the United Nations, described how Lundergan’s disaster-services company responded to a fire that burned for three days at one of the company’s mines in Pike County in 2004.
Lundergan napped in his car so he would be close to help handle any needs, and the two have remained friends for years, Craft said.
“Jerry has taught me well the true importance of a servant’s heart and just how trivial all the other ‘stuff’ tends to be,” Craft wrote.
Others who provided letters include former state Supreme Court Justice Bill Cunningham; Darrell Brock and Steve Robertson, who both headed the state Republican Party; former Lexington Mayor Teresa Isaac; Lexington council member Bill Farmer; W. Terry McBrayer, a Lexington lawyer and former head of the state Democratic Party; Greg Stumbo, a longtime state representative and former attorney general; former Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo; and former Virginia Gov. Terence McAuliffe.
Several supporters said that while Lundergan made a mistake, the motive was one any loving father could understand.
“Jerry is a good man and any mistakes he made were done with a father’s love for his daughter, not an opportunist seeking political advantage,” Robertson said.
The jury convicted Lundergan of using money from his companies to pay for services that helped Grimes and then not billing the campaign for the spending.
Defense attorneys said that the unreimbursed corporate spending by Lundergan was inadvertent, but jurors convicted the two after deliberating less than three hours.
Lundergan and Emmons have asked Van Tatenhove to set aside the guilty verdicts or order a new trial, arguing among other things that the spending at issue did not qualify as illegal corporate contributions and that the evidence failed to show the two intended to break the law.
Prosecutors oppose the request. They have argued that Lundergan and Emmons knew what they were doing and attempted to hide the spending.
“These were secret payments because the defendants knew what they were doing was wrong,” one of the prosecutors, Robert J. Heberle, told jurors.
This story was originally published July 8, 2020 at 2:59 PM.
