Jerry Lundergan, center, applauds his daughter, Alison Lundergan Grimes, as she speaks at the Graves County Democratic Breakfast, Aug. 2, 2014, in Mayfield. Grimes, then Kentucky’s secretary of state, was the Democratic nominee challenging Republican Mitch McConnell for his seat in the U.S. Senate. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
President Joe Biden has pardoned Lexington businessman and former state Democratic Party chief Jerry Lundergan for his conviction on federal campaign finance charges.
The charges stemmed from Lundergan’s daughter’s unsuccessful 2014 campaign against Republican Mitch McConnell for U.S. Senate.
In a statement released by his attorney, J. Guthrie True, of Frankfort, Lundergan said, “I have taken responsibility for my actions, sought atonement, and am working to make a positive difference in the lives of the most vulnerable, including the homeless, those recovering from addiction, and those re-entering society. I am grateful for the president’s action; it offers healing to my family and confirms that our justice system is grounded in forgiveness.”
The presidential pardon, one of a record number that Biden issued in his final days in office, ends years of legal wrangling in the Lundergan case and comes after he served a term in federal prison. Lundergan, 77, completed his sentence during the COVID-19 pandemic and after suffering a stroke, the statement said.
A presidential pardon restores civil rights, such as the right to vote, hold office and serve on a jury. It also removes legal disabilities, such as restrictions on owning a firearm.
True, Lundergan’s lawyer, called the action “a worthy application of the pardon power” for “a mistake motivated by a father’s love for his daughter. But with or without the pardon, Jerry always works to make the world a better place in which to live.”
Lundergan was sentenced in July 2020 to 21 months in prison followed by two years of supervised release for making illegal contributions to the failed U.S. Senate campaign of his daughter, former Democratic Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, and for causing the concealment of those contributions from the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Grimes served as secretary of state from 2012 to 2020.
Prosecutors said Lundergan orchestrated a multi-year scheme to funnel more than $200,000 in illegal contributions to Grimes’ 2014 campaign against McConnell. They alleged he either paid for campaign services directly and didn’t seek reimbursement or paid costs through a co-defendant, political consultant Dale Emmons of Richmond.
On Sept. 12, 2019, following a five-week trial, a jury convicted Lundergan of one count of conspiracy, one count of making corporate campaign contributions, four counts of causing the submission of false statements to the FEC and four counts of causing the falsification of documents with the intent to obstruct and impede a matter within the FEC’s jurisdiction.
According to the evidence presented at trial, Lundergan used the funds of S.R. Holding Co. Inc., which he owned, to pay for services provided by consultants and vendors to his daughter’s campaign. Grimes was the Democratic nominee.
The evidence established that Lundergan caused the issuance of a number of payments from S.R. Holding for services that included audio-video production, lighting, recorded telephone calls and campaign consulting between July 2013 and December 2015.
The U.S. Department of Justice said the corporate contributions also included monthly payments from S.R. Holding to co-conspirator Emmons and his company during this period. Emmons provided services to the campaign and sought and received compensation from Lundergan and S.R. Holding.
Emmons also used the funds of his corporation, Emmons & Co. Inc., to pay other vendors and a campaign worker for services rendered to the campaign. Those services included recorded telephone calls, technological support services and other campaign-related expenses.
The evidence established that Lundergan and Emmons concealed these activities from other officials associated with the campaign. Their concealments caused the campaign to unwittingly file false reports with the FEC because the reports failed to disclose the source and amount of the corporate contributions.
McConnell won the 2014 race with 56.2% of the vote.
Defense argued no criminal intent
Lundergan’s attorney, J. Guthrie True of Frankfort, argued consistently that Lundergan never had any criminal intent in giving money to try to help his daughter.
Emmons was sentenced for his six convictions to three years of probation, nine months of which were served in a halfway house. He was fined $50,000 while Lundergan was fined $150,000.
The men are longtime friends and well-known political figures in Kentucky.
Lundergan served in the legislature and was Democratic party chief in 1988 for the late Gov. Wallace Wilkinson. He resigned as party chair after being indicted — and later convicted — for concealing that his catering company had profited from a no-bid state contract despite a state law barring lawmakers or their businesses from receiving no-bid contracts of more than $25. The conviction was overturned on grounds that the case should have not have been prosecuted as a felony and that time had runout to prosecute a misdemeanor.
Lundergan again became chair of the Kentucky Democratic Party in 2005 when then-Attorney General Greg Stumbo, the highest ranking Kentucky Democrat at the time, recommended him for the post. He also served as the state chair for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. Lundergan is close to the Clintons. Former President Bill Clinton wrote a pre-sentencing letter on Lundergan’s behalf to U.S. District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove, calling Lundergan “a good man with a big heart who has made a positive difference in countless lives, including my own.”
Emmons has worked on campaigns for offices from courthouses to Congress.
The two men broke “important laws that regulate the integrity of our elections,” Robert Duncan, U.S. attorney for Kentucky’s Eastern District, said at Lundergan’s conviction.
Ethics commission still pursuing case against Grimes
Meanwhile, Kentucky’s Executive Branch Ethics Commission is seeking to reverse a judge’s ruling that cleared Grimes of ethics violations charges while she was secretary of state.
The five-member commission made that request to the Kentucky Court of Appeals in June. The appeal questions Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd’s order that cleared her of ethics charges that she improperly ordered the downloading and distribution of voter registration data while she was Kentucky’s secretary of state.
Her political future cloudy, Grimes must contend with effort to reinstate alleged ethics violations
The commission investigated Grimes for several years. As secretary of state, Grimes was the state’s chief elections officer. In her position, she had access to data from the state Voter Registration System in the State Board of Elections.
Shepherd, in his 33-page order, agreed with Grimes’ arguments that the commission’s charges were barred by the five-year statute of limitations and that the record did not support a finding of any violations of the executive branch’s code of ethics.
The commission had charged that Grimes violated the ethics code by sharing voter information without requiring an Open Records request or other “established process of government.”
Grimes submitted that all the voter data at issue was information in the public domain, that she had full legal authority and discretion as secretary of state to access and share such information. She claimed no statute or regulation was violated by the sharing of such public information.
Shepherd faulted the Ethics Commission for not conducting an evidentiary hearing in the case to hear testimony from witnesses.
Grimes’ attorney, True, called Shepherd’s ruling “a complete vindication” for Grimes.
Susan Clary, executive director of the Executive Branch Ethics Commission, has said the panel is appealing Shepherd’s order because it particularly is concerned about the statute of limitations in its daily work.
She has said the commission is independent and that Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear had no input on the panel’s decision to appeal the Grimes case
The Beshears and Lundergan have been involved in a decades-long political family rivalry that stems from state legislative races in the 1970s between the governor’s father, former Gov. Steve Beshear, and Jerry Lundergan. Both Steve and Andy Beshear, however, supported Grimes in her 2014 race against McConnell.
Steve Beshear lost to McConnell in 1996. His son has been mentioned as a possible candidate in 2026 for McConnell’s U.S. Senate seat, but the younger Beshear has said he wants to serve out the remainder of his term as governor, which ends in 2027.
McConnell, who will be 84 in 2026, has not yet said whether he will again seek reelection.
The Kentucky Lantern reported last August that several political science professors in the state do not think Alison Lundergan Grimes’ ethics charges would rule out success for her in another political bid. Grimes attended the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last year.
“We’ve seen voters forgive candidates for legal troubles for years. Consider Donald Trump,” said Stephen Voss, associate professor of political science at the University of Kentucky.
The political scientist said voters tend to ignore the charges against the candidates unless they are personally affected by the charges. “How personally relevant to them is the legal problem?” he asked.
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