Mike Espy’s top lieutenant at the Department of Agriculture couldn’t evade justice like his boss
A federal court found the aide guilty and sentenced him to a 27-month stint in prison thanks to a $22,000 “gift” from two Mississippi farmers that received massive government subsidies.
From the Washington Post’s reporting at the time:
The top aide to former agriculture secretary Mike Espy was sentenced yesterday to a 27-month prison term for lying about $22,000 he received from two Mississippi individuals who obtained large government farming subsidies.
The sentence for Ronald H. Blackley, 47, Espy’s former chief of staff, was the longest sentence to date in an independent counsel’s investigation of Espy’s dealings. Espy is awaiting trial on charges that he actively solicited $35,458 worth of gifts from companies he was supposed to be regulating.
Blackley, of Woodbridge, was convicted Dec. 1 by a jury in U.S. District Court here of failing to disclose his outside income on government financial disclosure forms and then lying about the money to investigators.
Espy’s lobbied for an African dictator, his chief aide went to prison, and even he resigned from the Clinton White House in disgrace.
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