KY city council to probe mayor’s indictment. Attorney claims it’s partisan games
The London City Council intends to launch a fourth investigation into Mayor Randall Weddle following the announcement a special grand jury has indicted the city’s embattled mayor on four felony campaign finance violations.
Members of the council issued a statement Tuesday evening calling the charges “a deeply serious matter.”
“As we continue our ongoing investigations, it is clear that further inquiry will be necessary in the days ahead,” members of the council wrote in a statement. “We will be announcing additional steps soon.”
Weddle is accused of gifting $93,000 on behalf of his family and business associates to help fund Gov. Andy Beshear’s 2023 reelection campaign and the Kentucky Democratic Party. Attorney General Russell Coleman, who announced the indictment Tuesday, said Weddle put the donations on his own personal credit card, but used other people’s names in order to shield the money from state and federal regulators that enforce individual donor limits.
The mayor is slated to be arraigned before a Laurel Circuit Court judge next month. His attorney has denied any wrongdoing and claimed the prosecution is “clearly politically motivated.”
The mayor hasn’t responded directly to repeated requests for comment by the Herald-Leader.
The council, long at odds with Weddle and his administration, is already investigating the mayor over his alleged misuse of a federal criminal background check database, the city’s budget process and his handling of the London Police shooting of a Laurel County man in 2024.
Meanwhile, the mayor is also reportedly the target of an FBI investigation for allegedly using police tools to dig up dirt on his opponents, and he remains at the center of more than a dozen state and federal civil lawsuits over his conduct as mayor.
Still, Tuesday’s indictment marks a critical shift in Weddle’s tenure and the legal drama swirling around it. The consequences of a Class-D felony conviction can include hefty fines and even prison time in Kentucky. It would likely give the council the legal ammunition it needs to launch another impeachment bid against Weddle following his reinstatement by a circuit court judge last year.
Weddle also enters a hotly contested mayoral election under felony indictment. Tracie Handley, who temporarily replaced him after the council first impeached and removed Weddle from office last year, took to Facebook to celebrate the grand jury decision. She called Tuesday “a great day in the neighborhood.”
“It’s time for the corruption to end, and, in my opinion, corruption swirls around this man like a cesspool,” Handley said “It’s time we take London back — get rid of the corruption, get London back on track and make London even better than it used to be.”
Local landowner Matt Orr, Weddle’s other opponent for mayor, took a different, more somber approach.
“It’s a tough day for us,” he told his followers on social media. “We seem to be in the news on a regular basis for all the wrong reasons. Folks, this will get better, I can promise you that. Don’t get down about this news. Don’t let you think that London is not a wonderful place.”
Political motivations emerge
Weddle’s attorney, J. Guthrie True, told the Herald-Leader his client’s indictment, just six weeks ahead of the primary, stinks of political opportunism. The facts of the case don’t meet the high bar usually needed to prove criminal campaign finance violations, he added.
The Kentucky Registry for Election Finance, which first launched an investigation into Weddle’s political giving habits in 2023, narrowly avoided closing the case early last year after members of the board said they wanted more information about how Weddle made the donations and how the Beshear campaign and KDP credited the gifts.
At some point, since February 2025, KREF referred its investigation to the attorney general’s office, which usually signals investigators have uncovered evidence their target willfully broke the law. But True said Weddle notified KREF of the illegal donations himself and handed over troves of text message conversations that prove that he was unaware it was against the law in Kentucky to make political donations on behalf of other people.
Those documents, reviewed by the Herald-Leader, suggest Weddle took steps to recoup the donations as soon as he learned of his error.
“Mayor Weddle reported the situation and the situation was corrected, refunds were made,” True said. “I don’t see how you reach any other conclusion than that.”
The city council can choose to investigate the mayor, but it’s a “rather desperate effort,” True said.
“I think Mayor Weddle, indictment or no indictment, is most likely going to be reelected by a substantial margin come November,” he said.
Instead, True suggested the mayor is finding himself in the middle of state-level political gamesmanship. Weddle’s association with Beshear could be harmful for the governor if the mayor is under felony indictment, especially as Beshear eyes a potential White House bid.
The Kentucky Republican Party shared an earlier Herald-Leader story reporting Weddle’s indictment on Facebook, adding that Beshear “doesn’t serve Kentucky” but “exploits it for his own gain.”
“Today’s felony indictments are just the latest proof that corruption runs rampant in the Beshear political machine,” the party said.
Coleman, who is a Republican, announced his decision to prosecute Weddle publicly Tuesday. The Kentucky Supreme Court rules on trial publicity put limits on the information prosecutors can share about details in a case.
The attorney general said he opted to hold a press conference in this case in order to reassure the residents of London and Laurel County that law enforcement personnel and prosecutors are committed to delivering justice statewide.
“I’m certainly not here because Mr. Weddle made contributions to a candidate of a different party from me,” Coleman said. “I’m standing here today announcing this indictment for the people of London, Kentucky. For years, every time I’ve gone to Laurel County or the surrounding counties in the mountains up and down I-75, I’ve been met by Kentuckians who felt left behind by the justice system and that have commented about feeling as if they were a fly over.”
This story was originally published April 1, 2026 at 12:14 PM.
