Scott Jenkins, former sheriff of Virginia’s Culpeper County, was sentenced to 10 years in jail following a federal bribery conviction.
President Donald Trump on Monday mentioned he has pardoned Scott Jenkins, the previous sheriff of Virginia’s Culpeper County, who was sentenced to 10 years in jail following a federal bribery conviction.
In line with court docket paperwork, a number of people, together with three co-defendants and two undercover FBI brokers, have been promised official Culpeper County Sheriff’s Workplace badges and identification, regardless of not being skilled, vetted, or performing any regulation enforcement duties.
Jenkins maintained his innocence, whereas his three co-defendants pleaded responsible. His protection argued that the funds have been official marketing campaign contributions and that it was inside his authority as a sheriff to designate auxiliary deputy sheriffs.
Trump got here to Jenkins’s protection on Monday, accusing the decide who presided over the case of being politically motivated and excluding exculpatory proof in favor of the sheriff through the trial.
The judges allegedly “permit into proof what they really feel like, not what is remitted below the Structure and Guidelines of Proof,” the president wrote.
Jenkins led regulation enforcement in Culpeper County for over a decade earlier than the prosecution that in the end value him reelection in 2023. First elected in 2011, he served three phrases, twice as an unbiased and as soon as as a Republican, within the largely rural county of roughly 52,000 residents.
Over time, Jenkins emerged as a constantly conservative native chief with regards to points reminiscent of Second Modification rights, immigration enforcement, and public well being mandates. His profile grew as political pressure escalated between Virginia’s conservative rural communities and left-leaning progressive lawmakers in Richmond.
In December 2019, Jenkins joined greater than 30 different Virginia sheriffs in declaring his county a “Second Modification sanctuary” and vowed to deputize residents if the state Legislature handed new gun management legal guidelines that he mentioned would infringe on their Second Modification rights.
In 2020, Jenkins made headlines once more by refusing to implement COVID-19 lockdown orders issued by then-Gov. Ralph Northam.
Since his return to the White Home, Trump has pardoned a variety of individuals whom he mentioned have been focused by a politicized Justice Division through the Biden administration.
Jenkins “is an excellent particular person, who was persecuted by the novel left,” the president wrote on Monday. “He is not going to be going to jail tomorrow, however as a substitute may have a beautiful and productive life.”