FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) – An investigation commissioned by Republican Gov. Matt Bevin relies on interviews with 16 anonymous state employees to conclude officials in the previous Democratic administration committed “wholesale violations of state law.”
The 18-page report is the first to emerge after Bevin awarded a contract of up to $500,000 to investigate former Gov. Steve Beshear’s administration. The report asserts seven Beshear administration officials illegally pressured some state workers to donate to Democratic candidates and causes or risk losing their jobs. It offers no corroborating evidence, citing interviews with 16 people who reported being pressured but not naming them. A request for transcripts of those interviews was denied.
The state Finance and Administration Cabinet has forwarded the report to the Executive Branch Ethics Commission along with a letter promising to “cooperate fully with any investigation initiated by the Commission.” State law bans soliciting campaign donations from state employees.
Beshear called the report “a joke,” adding the authors should be “charged with theft of public money.”
“After almost a year – with access to 33,000 state workers, mind you – they came up with 16 secret and unnamed employees making vague allegations against … other employees, two of whom are dead and unable to defend themselves,” Beshear said.