State probe of Longmeyer not yet started

by Tom Loftus , @TomLoftus_CJ –

FRANKFORT, Ky. – The revelation by a federal prosecutor at Tim Longmeyer’s sentencing that the former state Personnel Cabinet secretary arranged for $100,000 or more in illegal straw campaign contributions could have significant implications for a state investigation of Longmeyer.

But the special prosecutor heading the state investigation said Monday he has not done any substantial work in the Longmeyer case due to lack of information.

State law limits the amount a person can give to a campaign to $1,000 per election. And to knowingly exceed that limit by giving additional donations in the names of straw donors is a Class D felony in Kentucky.

Attorney General Andy Beshear announced last spring, soon after Longmeyer admitted to a federal bribery charge, that the details of that federal case showed Longmeyer also clearly violated state laws. Beshear said he would bring charges against Longmeyer.

However, because Longmeyer had had a close relationship with Beshear, the attorney general quickly decided he had to withdraw from the case and appoint a special prosecutor. (Longmeyer and members of his family had given $10,000 to Beshear’s campaign for attorney general; and soon after Beshear was elected last November, Beshear appointed Longmeyer as deputy attorney general. Longmeyer resigned that job just days before he was charged by federal authorities in March.)

Beshear appointed Franklin County Commonwealth Attorney Larry Cleveland as the special prosecutor.

Cleveland said Monday he has been able to do little with the case because he’s received no investigative reports about Longmeyer from the attorney general’s office and that federal prosecutors so far have declined to share any information with him.

Cleveland said about all he has on Longmeyer are news reports about the federal case. “I haven’t done any substantial work on it because of a lack of information,” Cleveland said. “As soon as I have something to work with, I’ll get to work on it.”

But Terry Sebastian, spokesman for Beshear’s office, said in a statement that investigators from the attorney general’s office “have met and are working with Mr. Cleveland, and will continue to do so on this case.” Sebastian said that since last May when the case was turned over to Cleveland, “It is now entirely within his power and judgment.”

At a hearing last week in federal court where Longmeyer was sentenced to 70 months in prison, Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Boone said that Longmeyer used at least half of the nearly $200,000 he received in cash from his illegal kickback scheme in 2014-15 to make straw campaign contributions. Boone’s comments in court made no reference to what Longmeyer did with additional large amounts of cash court records show he received through the scheme between 2009 and 2014.

Boone declined later to provide details such as identifying the campaigns that got illegal contributions. But federal authorities have said they have no evidence that the campaigns that got the money were aware the contributions were tainted.

Beshear has said that his campaign fund will not keep any money that may have come from the Longmeyer scheme but would donate the amount of such contributions to the watchdog group Common Cause.

Sebastian said no money has yet been transferred to Common Cause because the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance is continuing a routine audit of the Beshear campaign. When the audit is complete, Sebastian said Beshear will give all of the campaign’s remaining funds to Common Cause.