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Choice Words: West Virginia Democratic Party criticizes Biden for public corruption commutations

President Joe Biden speaks at the Department of Labor in Washington, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

CHARLESTON — In a rare public disagreement with the head of their party, the West Virginia Democratic Party parted ways with President Joe Biden over three sentence commutations for former government officials in other states convicted for different forms of public corruption.

In a statement released Monday afternoon, Kanawha County Delegate and state Democratic Party Chairman Mike Pushkin criticized the sentence commutations for former Pennsylvania judge Michael Conahan, former Cuyahoga County commissioner Jimmy Dimora, and former local Illinois comptroller Rita Crundwell.

“Public corruption is a betrayal of trust. When officials abuse the power of their office for personal gain, they not only harm the communities they are supposed to serve, but they also erode faith in our government institutions,” Pushkin said. “President Biden’s decision to grant clemency to three high-profile public officials convicted of corruption is a blow to the principle of accountability in public service.”

Conahan, a former Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas judge, pleaded guilty in 2009 in federal court after previously withdrawing an earlier guilty plea.

According to the FBI Philadelphia Division, Conahan and former Commons Pleas Court judge Mark Ciavarella were charged with honest services mail and wire fraud and tax fraud for a scheme where they were paid for sending children in state custody to privately-owned juvenile facilities in the state.

FILE - In this Feb. 12, 2009, file photo, Michael Conahan, center, a former Pennsylvania judge involved in a scheme to send youths to a for-profit jail in exchange for kickbacks, leaves the federal courthouse in Scranton, Pa. (AP Photo/David Kidwell, File)

For his part in the scheme, which became known as “Kids for Cash,” Conahan was sentenced to 17 1/2 years in prison and ordered to pay more than $874,000 in restitution to the state. He was later released in 2020 to home confinement.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio, Dimora was sentenced to 28 years in prison after being convicted in 2011 on 32 counts, including charges of racketeering, bribery, conspiracy and other charges. Dimora was accused of accepting more than $166,000 in bribes in exchange for steering contracts, jobs and raises for associates, interference with judges and providing loans and grants.

The bribes came in the form of cash, home improvements, expensive meals, use of prostitutes, gambling trips and more. Dimora has been on house arrest after being released from federal prison in 2023.

Crundwell was the former comptroller for the city of Dixon, Illinois. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, she was sentenced in 2013 to more than 19 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud and admitting to engaging in money laundering.

Crundwell was accused of embezzling more than $53.7 million from the City of Dixon over a 20-year period. She used the embezzled funds to fund a quarter horse farming business and to fund a lavish lifestyle. She was released to home confinement from federal prison in 2021.

In his statement Monday, Pushkin compared Biden’s commutations to pardons issued during the first term of incoming President Donald Trump, including pardons for former National Security adviser Michael Flynn, former senior adviser Steve Bannon, former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and others.

“Even more troubling, these kinds of pardons are exactly what we would expect from President-elect Donald Trump, not President Biden,” Pushkin said. “By following this same path, President Biden has legitimized the idea that public officials who violate their oaths of office are above the law. Worse still, it will embolden Trump to issue even more pardons for political corruption if he returns to the White House.”

Pushkin was quick to praise Biden for his public service over the last four years. But he added that Biden’s pardons and commutations send the wrong signal to local, state and federal elected officials and public servants.

“We remain grateful for President Biden’s accomplishments in leading the country through an extraordinary period of economic recovery. But these decisions to commute the sentences of corrupt public officials send the wrong message to the American people,” Pushkin said. “Integrity in public service must be non-negotiable, and West Virginians deserve to know that their public officials are held to the highest standards of accountability and justice.”

Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com

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