NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP/WVEC) - A former Virginia lawmaker imprisoned because of a corruption conviction is trying to get a pardon from President Donald Trump.
The Daily Press reports that former Del. Phil Hamilton is asking friends and supporters to help him get a presidential pardon. Hamilton was sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison after being convicted in 2011 of securing a job as director of a teacher training center he helped create with taxpayer money.
He said in an email to supporters that he's spent 80 months in prison "for a crime I did not commit." A federal appeals court rejected Hamilton's bid to file a new appeal in 2016.
Trump said earlier this month that he's looking at "thousands of names" of people who could be granted clemency. 13News Now political analyst Quintin Kidd said to make the Presidential Pardon happen, Hamilton needs someone with a lot of pull in the President's eyes.
"It would be unprecedented, certainly it would be historic," said Kidd. "It's hard for me to think through how the rationale would be made on the part of Phil Hamilton, and what the explanation would be that the president gave."
Hamilton's daughter, Meredith Archer, said she knows it's a long shot, but she will always be hopeful. She said she believes his sentencing, no matter how long he serves was 'outrageous.'
"There are murders that don't even spend seven years in prison," said Archer.
She said her dad is up for early release on June 27th, 2019. If he doesn't get early release or the presidential pardon his family will have to wait until December 27th, 2019.
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