There was much confusion on Friday regarding the status of Kwame Kilpatrick, the former mayor of Detroit and ex-state representative who's been in prison since 2013.
Rep. Karen Whitsett told Detroit area reporter Charlie Langton from FOX 2 that she had talked with Trump about Kilpatrick, claiming that the POTUS said the former mayor would be one of several thousand prisoners slated to be released soon. The release decision, Whitsett added, was spurred by COVID-19 containment concerns. Whitsett also said Kilpatrick would be placed on house arrest.
In a press release shared by Langton, a rep from the Ebony Foundation—a nonprofit arm of Ebony Capital Partners—said Kilpatrick had been "granted early release" from his widely criticized 28-year sentence. In 2013, Kilpatrick was convicted on multiple counts including perjury and obstruction of justice.
The FOX 2 report, meanwhile, makes clear that the White House-related aspect of the report had not been confirmed at the time of the report's writing. A separate report from Detroit Free Press, meanwhile, adds even more context to the confusion surrounding the report of Kilpatrick having been granted an early release. The U.S. Attorneys office in Detroit is said to be "stumped" by the report, while Kilpatrick's appellate lawyer said he had also not heard word on an early release. A subsequent update to the DFP report added that Kilpatrick's former brother-in-law had spoken with Kilpatrick's sister Ayanna, who said she had received word that her brother would indeed be getting an early release.
A Bureau of Prisons records search showed Kilpatrick still being listed as currently housed at a low security federal correctional institution in Oakdale, Louisiana as of Friday afternoon.
