If all goes according to plan, critics won't have ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to kick around much longer. Instead, according to the Associated Press, the scandal-plagued politician hopes to rebrand himself as a guru for those seeking public office.
Unlike infamous former Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry, Kilpatrick doesn't plan a return to any campaign trail once he's released from prison, where he's serving a five-year sentence for obstruction of justice and violating probation. Kilpatrick told the AP: "I don't want to work for anybody ever again. I need to work and be in my own company.
"I have set up a great deal of opportunities for myself, and opportunities to first make reconciliation to the city of Detroit. More than anything else, I have been given a great amount of gifts, and there are people, fortunately, who want for me to help them."
Kilpatrick, 40, reached a plea agreement to serve time for assault on a police officer and obstruction of justice in 2008. At the time, he was on trial for lying about an affair with a female staff member.
"Yes, I broke the law," he said. He also detailed the violence and suffering that he's witnessed since being incarcerated. Kilpatrick is now petitioning for early release because of "good behavior" while behind bars. To help pay the $1 million in fines he owes the court, he told the AP that he's releasing a biography late this summer entitled Surrendered: The Rise, Fall and Revelation of Kwame Kilpatrick.
"Any money that I make — any dime, any penny I make — will go to pay restitution," says Kilpatrick. "One of the things I've learned over the past year is to be a man of my word."
The Wayne County prosecutor's office offered assurance that Kilpatrick, who was convicted for lying on the witness stand about his public and private dealings, will be held to his word.
Read more at the Associated Press.
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