Former Kentucky governor defends controversial pardons amid news of an FBI probe

Former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin Timothy D. Easley/AP, FILE

The FBI is looking into hundreds of pardons, some of them highly controversial, made by Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin before he resigned his post in December, according to reports.

“The impression I got is that there was an investigation ramping up,” Harris reportedly told the Courier-Journal.

The Louisville-Courier Journal said Tuesday State Rep. Chris Harris had shared with reporters that a “criminal investigator” had reached out to him last week, inquiring about the former governor’s pardons that included convicted killers and child rapists.

Despite the backlash, Bevin said he would not reconsider any of the pardons he’d issued and invited anyone in the media or law enforcement to investigate the cases in which he’d issued a pardon or commutation.

“I’m all for innocent people not being incarcerated. … The facts should matter,” he said. “I wish I would’ve had time to go more carefully through all of these that I didn’t have time to.”

Navy Vet

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