You may remember the controversy that became public last year when a Mississippi blogger and officials tied to Tea Party groups in the Magnolia State conspired to film Senator Thad Cochran’s late wife in the nursing home where she was suffering from dementia before she died. It was one of the many things that made the GOP Senate Primary between Thad Cochran and State Senator Chris McDaniel one of the most bizarre of the entire election cycle. Now, the blogger who took those pictures has been sentenced to prison:
Twenty-nine-year-old Clayton Kelly of Pearl, Mississippi, shot the video of Sen. Thad Cochran’s then-wife in 2014.
On Monday, Mississippi Circuit Judge William Chapman gave Kelly the full five-year maximum sentence, but he’ll be in prison for half that time. The rest is on probation.
Images of Rose Cochran, who had dementia, appeared online briefly during a tough Republican primary. Investigators say Kelly was one of several people who conspired to produce the video suggesting Thad Cochran was having an affair.
It’s unclear what will happen to the other people arrested in connection with the case. One of those man, a local attorney with ties to the Tea Party, ended up committing suicide last summer but the charges against the other two seem to still be outstanding. And thus ends one of the stranger chapters in recent political history.
