Is Mike Huckabee telling the truth about his role in the Dumond affair?
I’m sure by now that nearly all of our readers are aware of the story of Wayne Dumond, the convicted rapist who was freed under Mike Huckabee’s administration, only to rape and kill a woman in neighboring Missouri. Although Huckabee disclaims responsibility for the decision that granted Dumond parole, there’s no dispute that this is a result he favored. In fact, Huckabee wrote a “Dear Wayne” letter to Dumond in which he stated, “My desire is that you be released from prison. I feel that parole is the best way for your reintroduction to society to take place.” And Huckabee admitted to Byron York that “I thought he would, you know, be clean. . .he had a job, he had sponsors lined up, so at the time, I did not have this apprehension that something horrible like that would happen.”
This admission, coupled with the lame explanation, raises serious questions about Huckabee’s judgment. In addition, there’s the question of whether Huckabee is telling the truth when he claims that he did not influence the board that voted to grant Dumond parole.
There’s no dispute that Huckabee spoke favorably about Dumond to the board a few months before it granted parole. Three members of the parole board state that Huckabee influenced their decision, and intended to. Dr. Charles Chastain says that Huckabee “made it obvious [Dumond] got a raw deal and wanted us to take another look.” Ermer Poindexter says she voted in favor of parole because Huckabee wanted him paroled, and that if Huckabee says he had no influence he knows that’s not true. Deborah Suttler says that Huckabee “came before the parole board and made it known he wanted Dumond paroled.”
Huckabee told Wolf Blitzer that all three of these individuals are not telling the truth. He noted that they were appointees of prior Democratic governors (Bill Clinton and Jim Guy Tucker) and implied that their statements were motivated by the fact that Huckabee did not renew their appointments.
But even if we credit Huckabee’s claim that all three are lying, what about Butch Reeves, a former top Huckabee aide who remains close to the ex-governor and in fact has contributed to the Huckabee campaign? Reeves attended the meeting in question, and two journalists who interviewed him say he contradicts Huckabee’s account. Murray Waas writes that Reeves told him: "The clear impression that I came away with from the meeting was that he favored Dumond's release, and I can understand why board members would believe that to be the case." This is consistent with what the board members whom Huckabee seeks to discredit say. Waas also reports that Reeves said Dumond’s prison sentence was "outlandish" and "way out of bounds for his crime." Indeed, Huckabee was of the view that there "was something nefarious" about the how the state's criminal justice system had treated Dumond, Reeves recalled.
The second journalist who interviewed Reeves is Brian Ross of ABC News. His report confirms nearly verbatim that of Waas. In addition, Reeves told Ross that he could recall Huckabee making only a few appeals like the one he made for Dumond.
Today, the Huckabee campaign attempted to shore up the governor’s version and to discredit Waas’ report as a “distortion.” The campaign quotes Reeves as saying that the issue of parole never came up at the parole board meeting. Instead, Huckabee supposedly made his comments about the injustice he thought Dumond had suffered in the context of a discussion of clemency. According to Huckabee (supported now by Reeves), Huckabee was defending his notice of intent to grant clemency, not urging the board to grant parole.
As a general matter, it’s not a very attractive defense for Huckabee to say he was advocating clemency for Dumond, rather than parole. Certainly, the family of Dumond's victim in Missouri will find little solace in the distinction.
Nor is it clear that this defense gets Huckabee off the hook with respect to claims that he’s been dishonest about the meeting. In his interview with Ross, Reeves characterized Huckabee’s statement as an appeal. This suggests that Huckabee hoped to influence the board, as would be natural if he believed Dumond was the victim of an injustice. And Reeves told Waas that Huckabee left the clear impression that he wanted Dumond released. Board members justifiably would take this to mean that the governor, who (as Huckabee has noted) had the power to reappoint them or not, wanted them to vote in favor of parole at the next opportunity, as nearly all of them did. Finally, Huckabee told Dumond in his “Dear Wayne” letter that his desire was to see him released from prison and that he believed parole was the best way for this to happen. If this was Huckabee’s stated position in early 1997 when he wrote the letter, it was probably his view in October 1996 when he met with the board.
The Huckabee campaign argues that "if the Governor was actively seeking to release DuMond, he could have easily done so by granting him clemency." But it’s easy to see why Huckabee, despite having initially expresed an intention to grant clemency, might ultimately favor parole (by a vote of a state agency) to a pardon (for which he would be held directly responsible). In this regard, it may be significant that, in an unusual measure, the parole board’s recording secretary was asked to leave the room during the meeting, according to Waas. The Huckabee campaign also stresses that Huckabee repeatedly refused to grant clemency to Dumond after his parole fell through (it was conditioned on him moving to another state, and no state would take him). But this tends to undercut Huckabee's defense that at the parole board meeting he was defending the idea of granting clemency to Dumond, and had no interest in parole.
