Kwame Kilpatrick tells judge: My $1.5 million debt is paid off. Let me travel

Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick may have had his sentence commuted by then-President Donald Trump, but he still has some loose ends to tie up with the federal government.

Kilpatrick is still on supervised release — a condition he is now asking a judge to end — and he owes $1.5 million in restitution, a debt that he says has been fulfilled.

In a court filing Tuesday, Kilpatrick's lawyer addressed both issues in asking U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds to terminate the ex-mayor's term of supervised release and grant him permission to travel. Attorney Brandon Byrd also argued that Kilpatrick's $1.5 million restitution tab, the residue from crooked contracts he oversaw while mayor, has been satisfied given the liquidation of assets tied to his co-defendant, Bobby Ferguson.

"These liquidated and liquid amounts should be applied as a credit against the amount that Mr. Kilpatrick owes on the $1,520,653.50 money judgment," Byrd argues, adding Kilpatrick's restitution "in this case has been satisfied."

Kilpatrick, meanwhile, still owes the city of Detroit $854,000 in restitution stemming from the text message scandal that triggered his downfall in 2008. His last payment of $500 was in 2013.

Kilpatrick, who was sentenced to 28 years in federal prison in 2013 for numerous public corruption crimes, was granted clemency by Trump in 2021 and resentenced to time served and three years of supervised release. Under the terms of his supervised release, he is not allowed to travel — in this case, leave the state of Georgia where he resides — without permission of the court or his probation officer.

Reached for comment Tuesday afternoon, Byrd declined to specify where it is that Kilpatrick wants to travel but said he would confer with his client and respond later.

Kilpatrick served nearly eight years of his sentence and has been on supervised release for almost two years. He wants it to end, arguing he has "done everything in his power to rehabilitate himself."

"While incarcerated and on supervision, Mr. Kilpatrick demonstrated that he hasmatured and learned from his mistakes," Byrd writes in the filing. "Mr. Kilpatrick worked hard to become a responsible, law-abiding, and productive citizen."

According to the filing, Kilpatrick helped many prison inmates while incarcerated, worked for six years in the prison chapel, where he was the worship leader for half that time, and took part in many prison programs, including "Authentic Manhood, Bible courses."

"There is no excuse for Mr. Kilpatrick’s past actions," his lawyer writes. "Today he understands andhas made a conscious decision to prove to this honorable court and all affected by his actions that he has taken the necessary steps to rehabilitation."

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Since his release from prison in 2021, Kilpatrick has remarried, fathered another son, moved to Atlanta, started his own ministry and become an advocate for prisoners.

"He is no longer in need of supervision," his lawyer writes. "His probation officer can attest that he has had no problems throughout his almost 2-year period."

Moreover, his lawyer argues, Kilpatrick "has proven that he is no threat to public safety while on supervised release," but rather "has been an asset to the community through volunteering his services and working with the community."

Kilpatrick's lawyer argues that if the judge denies the request to end supervised release, "it would severely damage" Kilpatrick's " ability to provide for his growing family and ministry" — though he did not state how.

As for the extortion, bribery and fraud crimes for which Kilpatrick was convicted at trial, his lawyer, Byrd, wrote:

"All agree that this offense was out of character for him and not indicative of the man he is or the manhe will continue to become."

Kilpatrick's downfall started 14 years ago when the Free Press published text messages that revealed he had lied under oath during a whistleblower trial about an affair with his chief of staff and his firing of a deputy police chief. State criminal charges followed, along with his resignation, and Kilpatrick eventually pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice as part of a plea deal with prosecutors.

Five years after his resignation, Kilpatrick was indicted federally on numerous public corruption charges. The six-month-long trial ended with a jury convicting him on 24 corruption counts, including racketeering, bribery, extortion and fraud. He was sentenced to 28 years in prison.

Kilpatrick's sentence was among the stiffest in U.S. history for public corruption, and was modeled after another 28-year sentence handed down to a county commissioner in Ohio, Jimmy Dimora, who remains in prison.

Contact Tresa Baldas: tbaldas@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Kwame Kilpatrick asks court to let him travel, clear his debt