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Tuesday, Nov 10, 2009
There's no evidence Ashcroft intervened on behalf of his nephew, but Alex Ashcroft's connection to the governor was widely known. The arrest made national newspapers, from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to USA Today, as well as the local dailies.
Mindy Tucker, a spokeswoman for the Bush-Cheney transition team, said, "Given Sen. Ashcroft's reputation for zero tolerance, I'm sure if he had anything to do with it, the penalty would be much worse. He would have influenced it [the sentence] in the opposite direction." She declined further comment.
The federal law enforcement official who had jurisdiction over the case at the time, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri Jean Paul Bradshaw II, said he had no knowledge of the Ashcroft case. A Bush appointee, he is now in private practice in Kansas City, Mo.
Others convicted of similar offenses in Missouri have certainly faced tougher punishment. Eric Edmundson, an electrical engineer in Pineville, Mo., served two years in Leavenworth federal prison after his August 1993 arrest for what police said were 51 marijuana plants growing on his property.
Edmundson was accused of selling marijuana, a charge he denies. He accepted a plea bargain to spare his wife, a non-drug user, who was also charged. "You get a bad gut feeling in your heart, when [during sentencing] the judge says 'I'm sorry I have to do this -- no good can come out of it,'" says Edmundson, who now works as a production manager in a circuits factory. He said he's "bitter" that Ashcroft merely got probation after being convicted on similar charges.
The irony of an Ashcroft relative receiving lenient treatment for a drug offense won't be lost on drug reformers. The Drug Reform Coordination Network, a national advocacy group, calls Ashcroft "one of the most hawkish drug warriors supporting some of the most extreme drug war legislation during his tenure in the Senate." He has supported toughening mandatory minimum sentencing laws, and has opposed efforts to end the disparity between penalties for crack and powder cocaine, and to curtail racial profiling.
His nephews' arrests weren't the only drug-related embarrassments during Ashcroft's term as governor. His drug czar had to resign over revelations he'd used drugs himself in his youth.
As for the Ashcroft nephews, their mother reports they are both married and doing well. Alex works in computer installation, and Adam, the younger, is in insurance. "It was a good learning experience," she says. "They're both responsible citizens. It was a stupid college deal that taught the family a lot."
