Biden pardons former top Kentucky Democrat moments before leaving office
Published in News & Features
Minutes before his successor was inaugurated into the presidency, former president Joe Biden pardoned Jerry Lundergan, one of the most influential Kentucky Democrats of the modern era.
Biden, the outgoing Democratic president, announced Lundergan’s pardon in a news release that also announced preemptive pardons for various members of his family.
The action was announced as the inauguration ceremony of Republican President Donald Trump began.
The former Kentucky Democratic Party chair was convicted in 2018 for the contributions made through a corporation to his daughter Alison Lundergan Grimes in her 2014 challenge against Sen. Mitch McConnell. Grimes, a Democrat, was a two-term secretary of state serving from 2012-2020.
Lundergan had petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn his sentence, arguing the federal ban on corporate contributions is unconstitutional when applied to contributions from a close family member.
The country’s highest court denied his motion.
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