AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
President Trump issued a slew of pardons and commutations last week. One was for a former Virginia sheriff who was about to head to prison to serve a 10-year sentence for bribery. Writing on Truth Social, Trump said the former sheriff, Scott Jenkins, was unfairly targeted and, quote, "dragged through hell" by the Justice Department under President Biden. NPR's Frank Langfitt went to Culpeper County, where Jenkins had served for a dozen years, and he joins us now. Good morning, Frank.
FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: Hey, good morning, Ayesha.
RASCOE: So what are you hearing from people in Culpeper County about their former sheriff's pardon?
LANGFITT: Well, Ayesha, I talked to more than a dozen people, and almost every one said the president was wrong to pardon Jenkins. I was chatting with a guy named Ken Green (ph). He's a retired entrepreneur in his 70s. He said this is how he sees the pardon.
KEN GREEN: To me, that's a terrific mistake. He should never have done it. It's a slap in the face, just like pardoning all of the January 6 people. I mean, some of them needed to go to jail.
LANGFITT: Now, Green is a Trump supporter, voted for him three times. And Culpeper County is Trump country. He won the county by more than 60% of the vote last year. Many I talked to said the pardon undermines the rule of law.
RASCOE: Wow. Well, before last week, the criminal case against former Sheriff Jenkins was not national news. What were the details of the case?
LANGFITT: Here's what happened. Federal prosecutors - they accused the sheriff of giving away these auxiliary deputy badges to businessmen in exchange for a total of about $75,000 in what they said were bribes and campaign contributions. Now, if you look at the court documents, they said the men were told that these badges would allow them to carry a concealed weapon without a permit, get them out of things like traffic tickets. And two of the people Jenkins took money from were undercover FBI agents. There was even video that prosecutors said showed Jenkins actually taking some of that money. The jury found Jenkins guilty after just about two hours of deliberations.
RASCOE: So why would the president of the United States - I mean, the leader of the free world - take so much interest in this kind of corruption case involving a county sheriff?
LANGFITT: Ayesha, that is exactly what people in Culpeper County were asking last week. They were shocked by the pardon, and they were surprised to see Culpeper. This is a county of 75,000 people showing up on places like the BBC.
Now, one apparent answer to this question is Roger Stone, longtime friend of Trump's. And on Stone's podcast last week - it's called "The Stone Zone" - Stone said he'd urged the president to pardon Jenkins, saying that the former sheriff, also a longtime Trump supporter, was a victim of the Biden administration.
(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "THE STONE ZONE")
ROGER STONE: These fake charges remind me of the dozens of phony felonies Democrats charged President Trump with.
LANGFITT: Now, people will remember that Stone was convicted of witness tampering and lying to Congress. Back in 2019, Trump commuted his sentence, and he said Stone was also a victim.
RASCOE: OK, so what does the former sheriff have to say about all this?
LANGFITT: Jenkins was actually a guest on "The Stone Zone," and he said the Department of Justice was especially focused on him because he and other sheriffs were talking about examining Hunter Biden's laptop. Now, I reached out to two of Jenkins' lawyers, but I haven't heard back. Jenkins added that he was also really grateful for the support of people like Stone and others.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SCOTT JENKINS: All of you who have put a kind word in and did the work you did to communicate with the White House and others to help, I'm forever indebted.
RASCOE: So this claim that Jenkins was targeted for political reasons, did anyone you talked to in Culpeper County see it that way?
LANGFITT: I mean, just one in passing. And there was another guy who thought maybe the former sheriff had gotten the Justice Department's attention because he had vowed in the past to deputize thousands of people to counter gun control legislation.
But, Ayesha, almost everyone I talked to thought Jenkins was guilty. I met a guy named Paul Hutchinson (ph). He owns a garden center business, voted for Trump in 2016. He thinks Trump sees Jenkins as sort of a kindred spirit.
PAUL HUTCHINSON: I think Sheriff Jenkins - he's kind of a mirror image, in some respects, to Trump. I think Trump sees a little bit of himself in that and kind of that victim mentality of, like, everyone's out to get me.
LANGFITT: But, Ayesha, almost everyone I talked to in Culpeper said Jenkins was not a victim, just a convicted criminal who should be in prison.
RASCOE: That's NPR's Frank Langfitt. Thank you so much for your reporting.
LANGFITT: Happy to do it, Ayesha. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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