by Tom Loftus, @TomLoftus_CJ –
(Photo: By Pat McDonogh, The CJ)
FRANKFORT, Ky. – Attorney General Andy Beshear said Wednesday he will file state criminal charges against his former top deputy Tim Longmeyer, who last month pleaded guilty to a federal bribery charge.
“Last week my office started gathering information to prepare to charge Tim Longmeyer with state crimes,” Beshear said at an impromptu news conference following an unrelated hearing in the civil lawsuit challenging Gov. Matt Bevin’s cuts to higher education funding in the current budget. “There is no question that the crimes that he has pled guilty to on the federal level mean that he has broken state law.”
Beshear said, “The Office of Attorney General does not tolerate corruption and we do our job. We’re going to charge anyone across the commonwealth who engages in corruption regardless of where they live or work, even if they used to work right down the hall.”
Beshear was responding to new information about the case against Longmeyer that was revealed in court documents obtained Tuesday by the Lexington Herald-Leader.
Longmeyer, of Louisville, was active in Democratic Party politics for many years and served as Personnel Cabinet Secretary under Gov. Steve Beshear, Andy Beshear’s father.
And after Andy Beshear won election as attorney general last November, he hired Longmeyer as deputy attorney general.
Longmeyer resigned that post in March, just days before the bribery charge against him filed by the United States Attorney’s Office in Lexington. He has pleaded guilty to the charge and is scheduled to be sentenced in August.
The charge against Longmeyer alleges that while he was state Personnel Cabinet secretary he ran a scheme to arrange for the two companies that managed the public employee health insurance plan to hire a consulting firm to conduct focus groups and telephone surveys for the health plan. The consulting firm, which the Courier-Journal first identified as MC Squared, of Lexington, then allegedly kicked back about $200,000 to Longmeyer in cash and about $6,000 in illegal campaign donations.
The court documents obtained by the Lexington Herald-Leader say that Andy Beshear’s campaign received three illegal contributions of $1,000 each and that the unsuccessful Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jack Conway got two $1,000 illegal donations.
The newspaper also reported that the court documents show Longmeyer also helped arrange work for MC Squared from the Beshear campaign and that Longmeyer promised more work for MC Squared from his new job at the Attorney General’s Office.
Andy Beshear told reporters Tuesday, “The U.S. Attorney and the FBI have been absolutely clear on multiple occasions that there was no wrongdoing by me, the office of the attorney general, or any campaign including mine.”
But he also said, “Both I and the commonwealth are, and should be, very grateful to the U.S. Attorney and the FBI. Without them, a person who had a reputation for honesty and integrity would not have been exposed as a criminal. And he could have done real damage in the Attorney General’s Office,” Beshear said.
Beshear said, “The new information also suggests, or makes me concerned that, my campaign was the victim of criminal activity. I know the campaign expended funds to a Louisville company to do get out the vote efforts. I now question whether anything was done pursuant to that expenditure whatsoever. If it wasn’t, that’s what’s called stealing.”
Reporter Tom Loftus can be reached at (502) 875-5136 or [email protected].
