This to add to his lying about aking money from a murdering African despot and a history of ethical questions going back to his time in the Clinton admin. But yeah, Cindy Hyde-Smith made a joke that’s being twisted into something racist.
Via Fox News:
Mississippi Democratic Senate hopeful Mike Espy is facing ethical questions over his work for a company that paid $2.5 million to settle a lawsuit concerning bribing of officials in a bid to score lucrative contracts with the state prison, the latest revelation of the Democrat’s troubling associations.
Espy, who’s facing Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in the Nov. 27 runoff election, declared in the latest financial disclosure nearly $10,000 income from Global Tel Link, a controversial prison phone company.
The company had to pay out $2.5 million to settle a lawsuit after Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood sued the company in 2017 for allegedly being responsible for bribes paid by their agents to then-Corrections Commissioner Christopher Epps.
The commissioner was sentenced to 20 years for taking at least $1.4 million in kickbacks and bribes from various companies, and awarding them with more than $800 million worth of state prison contracts.
Prison consultant Sam Waggoner also pleaded guilty to bribery in 2015 and testified that Global Tel-Link paid him and he funneled part of the money to Epps.
Last year, Epps, Waggoner and Global Tel Link were subject to a federal class-action lawsuit. The company was accused of keeping the inmate calling service contract without competitive bidding and is charging exorbitant fees far exceeding market rates, according to The Clarion-Ledger.
The exact nature of work Espy, a former lobbyist and U.S. agriculture secretary under President Bill Clinton, provided to the company remains unclear. The Espy campaign didn’t respond to Fox News’ request for a comment.