Grand jury indicts London Mayor Randall Weddle over Beshear campaign donations
A special-called grand jury indicted London Mayor Randall Weddle Tuesday on four felony charges related to election donations made to Gov. Andy Beshear’s campaign in 2022.
The grand jury impaneled in Laurel County Circuit Court handed down four felony charges for excessive campaign contributions. The indictment stems from a 2023 Kentucky Registry of Election Finance board probe into about $100,000 in donations the mayor, his family and his former company gave the Beshear campaign and the Kentucky Democratic Party.
Weddle is accused of putting $93,000 in campaign donations he made on behalf of family members and associates on his personal credit card, essentially shielding his own donations behind other people’s names in order to skirt state and federal donor limits.
In a news conference announcing the felony indictment Tuesday, Attorney General Russell Coleman said he wanted the people of London and Laurel County to know they haven’t been forgotten.
“The only reason I’m standing here today is to reassure the people of Laurel County and all the communities outside the golden triangle, that law enforcement, prosecutors and public servants in every corner of this commonwealth are working long hours with a fire in the belly to protect you, to protect your families,” he said. “I’m standing here to assure you that the rule of law applies to all 120 counties.”
Weddle has served as London’s mayor since 2022 in a tenure that has embroiled the city government in public controversy. The mayor himself has been named or is a party to more than a dozen federal and state lawsuits.
He did not immediately respond to a Herald-Leader request for comment Tuesday. Weddle will be arraigned in front of a Laurel Circuit judge April 15.
What we know about the donations
Weddle, a former co-founder of a London-based freight-hauling company, was first elected mayor in 2022.
His company and family were listed as top Democratic donors in 2023, responsible for more than $300,000 to the governor’s reelection effort and state party coffers that year.
The move thrust him into the statewide spotlight when it emerged he had far exceeded individual campaign donor limits and was under investigation for that and sponsoring a free gasoline giveaway during his own campaign.
According to a release from the Beshear campaign at the time, Weddle’s credit card was flagged as the source of $202,000 in campaign contributions. Individuals are limited by law to $15,000 per year in gifts to political parties and $2,100 to campaigns.
At the time, Weddle made the donations, individual contributions to campaigns were limited to $2,000, but the amount is indexed to inflation and has since increased.
The felony indictment says Weddle donated $8,000 to the Andy Beshear for Governor campaign on behalf of four other individuals and $25,000 to the KDP on behalf of five people Dec. 27. Three days later, the indictment says, Weddle gave $10,000 to Behsear in five other people’s names and $50,000 on behalf of 10 other people.
KREF investigation was referred
Last year, KREF deferred a staff recommendation that would have resolved the civil investigation into Weddle’s donations, opting to continue its investigation. Later, the board referred its investigation to Coleman’s office for a criminal probe.
KREF usually refers cases to the attorney general’s office when it has determined an illegal campaign donation was made “knowingly,” meaning the target of the investigation was aware they were committing a crime.
Attorneys for Weddle told the KREF board in 2024 the mayor was not aware he was barred from making donations on behalf of other people and he took steps to recoup the money shortly after the donations were made in December 2022.
“The undisputed fact remains that Mr. Weddle self-reported the mistaken contributions charged to his credit card, and he did so directly to the Governor in April,” the attorneys wrote in a letter obtained by the Herald-Leader. “Shortly thereafter, all of the incorrect contributions were reversed and refunded.”
A spokesperson for Beshear’s campaign said the campaign and KDP informed by KREF once they were made aware of the excessive donations and they refunded the contributions, per the agency’s instructions and disclosed the refunds in their next campaign finance reports.
“We trust the justice system to determine if these were intentional campaign finance violations by the donor, but the campaign and the Kentucky Democratic Party did exactly what they should—report and refund the contributions,” said Eric Hyers, the campaign spokesperson.
The Herald-Leader’s Austin Horn contributed to this report.
This story was originally published March 31, 2026 at 1:54 PM.
