
THIS IS AN OPINION
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I believe wholeheartedly in redemption, in the human capacity to change.
And I believe it folly to define each other and ourselves by our worst mistakes.
I felt it important to start this column by mentioning those things. In fact, I struggled with whether to write this column at all.
Plenty of ink has been spent on Jeremy Hutchinson, the former Arkansas state senator who pleaded guilty to and admitted accepting bribes while in office and recently received a presidential pardon.
I was happy to let him skulk back into the free world even if I think the pardon was misguided.
But I’ve found his attitude, and the attitudes of those who advocated for his release, offensive and insulting.
As a refresher, here is what Hutchinson admitted to doing:
While representing a portion of Little Rock and central Arkansas in the Arkansas Senate, Hutchinson said he accepted payments from multiple companies and individuals in exchange for legislative favors. Hutchinson, who was a practicing attorney, disguised the bribes as payments for legal work.
Hutchinson also admitted stealing campaign funds for his personal use and falsifying tax returns. The guilty pleas were entered in separate cases in federal jurisdictions in Arkansas and Missouri, and he was sentenced to a total of eight years in federal prison.
Despite his own admissions, he and his supporters have painted him as the victim of a “corrupt” Department of Justice, which targeted him because of his last name.
They really think we’re that stupid — stupid enough to believe that the “deep state” targeted the nephew of the then-sitting governor of Arkansas and the son of a former U.S. senator. A sitting legislator who although he had an “R” by his name was despised by the most conservative members of the Arkansas General Assembly.
Hutchinson was also the law partner of a former Democratic state House member and candidate for attorney general.
This is the person they want us to believe was targeted by some shadowy liberal prosecutors. Pay no mind to the fact that the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas at the time was Cody Hiland, who after that post went to work on Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ gubernatorial campaign and became the chairman of the Republican Party of Arkansas before being appointed to the state Supreme Court.
Pay no mind to the fact that Hutchinson was just one of five former state lawmakers convicted as a result of the federal investigation, yet none of the others has received a pardon. I suspect those four would have something to say about disparate treatment due to a last name.
Upon his release, Hutchinson took to social media to post photos of himself in a Make America Great Again hat. His new bio on X reads: “Former Senator/former felon.”
Little appears to have changed.
