by
Kwame Kilpatrick
Ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has filed a motion asking the federal judge who sentenced him to relieve him of about $823,000 he owes Detroit taxpayers in restitution as a result of his public corruption conviction in 2013.
In a motion filed on Monday by Kilpatrick himself, he writes that he doesn't believe he owes the money and denying his request "could potentially stymy his professional progress and ability to earn adequate income for his family, as well as having a chilling effect for those who he mentors," counsels and teaches to be law-abiding citizens.
"When released from this restitution burden (and surrounding activities by federal attorneys, agencies, and media) he would be able to seek, produce, and achieve additional opportunities for the betterment of his family and community."
Kilpatrick disputes the amount owed. The feds now say $823,681. But he attached in his court filing a 2023 letter from the U.S. Attorney's Office saying he owed $164,584.42.
Kilpatrick, 55, who lives with his wife and two children in Novi, writes in the motion that he is an ordained minister who is invited to preach, teach, and speak throughout the U.S., Africa and the Caribbean, "all while he continues his advocacy for inmates in state and federal prison." He also has a virtual ministry, Movemental Ministries.
This story was first reported by Robert Snell in the Detroit News.
In 2013, a federal jury convicted him on 24 of 30 counts of corruption. U.S. District Judge Nancy G. Edmunds sentenced him to 28 years in prison. In January 2021, President Donald Trump commuted his sentence to time served, which amounted to about eight years.
A pardon would have relieved him of any restitution.
In April Bridge Michigan reported that Kilpatrick told state Rep. Rep. Karen Whitsett that he had campaigned for Trump in 2024 after Trump promised to pardon him. That hasn't happened.
In 2022, he admitted to Craig Melvin of NBC's Today Show that he committed perjury in his state case. However, when talking about the federal case, he emphasized his innocence, saying: "All of this mail fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy, absolutely not."
Kilpatrick took a more measured approach in his motion on Monday to Judge Edmunds, who likely would not take kindly to him denying guilt while asking for a break on the restitution.
"Kilpatrick makes no excuses for his past action," Kilpatrick wrote in the motion. "In his pursuit of transformation, he made exceptional strides in becoming all that he was born to be."
Meanwhile, federal prosecutors continue to look for ways to get money from Kilpatrick to pay for his restitution.
