Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick: “I think the Free Press has committed a crime”
Embattled Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, embroiled in a widely publicized text-messaging sex scandal has now lashed out against the Detroit Free Press.
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick today accused the Free Press of illegally obtaining the text messages that exposed an affair between him and his chief of staff and showed that they lied to jurors about their sexual tryst.
“How did they obtain these records? Where did they get them?” Kilpatrick said during a radio interview on WMXD-FM (92.3, the Mix). “The Free Press obviously had some meetings that they ought to answer to.”
Kilpatrick said the text messages were confidential and came after an $8.4- million settlement stemming from a whistle-blower lawsuit brought by three former police officers.
“I think the Free Press has committed a crime. I believe they committed a crime,” Kilpatrick said.
Caesar Andrews, executive editor of the Free Press, denied the mayor’s accusation.
“The Free Press did nothing illegal. We verified our coverage in numerous ways and reported only on the facts. This is such an important story that we’ve insisted on the highest standards in deciding what to publish,” Andrews said.
“No one, including the mayor, has challenged our factual reporting. And no one, including the mayor, has offered one iota of evidence that the Free Press engaged in anything criminal. His claims about the nature of Free Press coverage are just not logical, and they’re not true,” Andrews said.
“The proper focus for our coverage has been the conduct of the mayor. That’s the real deal,” Andrews said. “The mayor cannot be allowed to shift the blame elsewhere. There is no conspiracy. There is no hidden agenda. Our news coverage really stands on its own.”
In this video, shot today at the courthouse, Wayne Circuit Judge Robert Colombo Jr releases the documents to the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News.
A public figure’s pain and humiliation does not change the fact that freedom of the press is essential to our free society. Similarly, public servants, beholden to the public whom they serve, must accept the consequences for their actions, especially if and when those actions prove to be criminal actions. This troubling case continues to unfold in Detroit where the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press unrelentingly seek to uncover the truth.
This video documents the mayor’s supporters and opponents in a rally held on January 30, 2008.
I wonder why he is still in office?