Kwame Kilpatrick, the former mayor of Detroit, Michigan, is sounding off about former president Barack Obama declining to commute his sentence after he was convicted of racketeering conspiracy and sentenced to 28 years in prison in 2013.
Kilpatrick became the mayor in 2002 and promised to “revitalize the city” but instead “stole “from the citizens he had vowed to serve,” according to the FBI. The former mayor was convicted of “a wide-ranging racketeering conspiracy that included extortion, bribery, and fraud” and routinely used illegal cash to pay his credit card bills and go on luxury vacations.
Kilpatrick pled guilty to two felony counts of perjury in 2008 and resigned before being indicted for mail fraud, wire fraud, and tax evasion two years later. He was convicted of racketeering conspiracy charges in 2013 and sentenced to 28 years in prison. The ex-mayor was also ordered to pay $4.7 million in restitution.
When then-president Obama was commuting sentences back in 2016, Kilpatrick hoped to receive a pardon but was disappointed to learn that his sentence would not be commuted, according to CBS News. According to the Detroit Free Press, the disgraced mayor’s sentence was commuted to time served by twice-impeached former president Donald Trump in 2021.
Kilpatrick shared a throwback photo of himself with Obama on Instagram and called out the former president for not granting him clemency. He also praised Trump in the Nov. 2 post.
“THROWBACK THURSDAY! Me and the future Prez chillin in the Mayor’s office back in 2007. We supported each other. He helped me with a fundraiser in Chicago, and I did the same in Detroit. I thought we were real cool,” he wrote. “But he sure left me locked up in that cell. THINGS DONE CHANGED! It’s cool…it was meat for the Master’s use. The Lord moved President Trump’s heart. And now God gets ALL the glory. THANK YOU LORD!
#truestory#victory#detroit#love#ThankYouJesus#blessed#perfecttiming#trump
After the post was shared by The YBF Daily on Instagram, users had a lot to say to the former Detroit mayor.
“I commented on his post. Told him that I’m glad he’s out, but this ain’t it! He needs to take accountability for his crimes instead of taking a cheap shot at Obama for not doing anything for him,” replied one user. “Obama ain’t no Eagle Scout, but the man was running for the highest office in the country. He couldn’t be associated with Kwame’s mess.”
“If ‘lack of accountability’ and ‘misplaced blame’ was a person,” echoed another.
“Trump’s heart didn’t move. He hoped getting Kwame released would help him win Michigan, and it did NOT,” noted one. “When you lack accountability but have all the audacity,” added another.
Kilpatrick requested to end his three-year supervised release early so that he could travel freely as a pastor. Still, the request was denied by U.S. district judge Nancy Edmunds in February, citing his failure to pay restitution while seeking a luxurious lifestyle.
“Kilpatrick has a history of spending his money on a lavish lifestyle rather than paying off his obligations,” she wrote. “He has only made a little over $5,000 in payments towards his restitution obligation in this case. Yet, as recently as 2022, Kilpatrick and his wife sought to raise $800,000 to purchase a residence in a gated, luxury community in Orlando, Florida.”
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