[Kentucky Politician Accepted Money] From Recovery Center He’s Investigating - The Daily Beast

When Kentucky Attorney General turned Republican gubernatorial candidate Daniel Cameron discovered that an elected state judge had accepted a campaign contribution of $250 from an attorney in a case before him last month, Cameron cited the donation as a reason that the judge had to recuse.

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But previously unreported public records information obtained by The Daily Beast shows that Cameron was in the same position at the same time—he just never acknowledged it.

In March and April, Cameron accepted $6,900 from officials at an addiction recovery center tied to an ongoing state investigation. Despite the donations, Cameron did not recuse himself from that investigation before he attacked the judge. Instead, he waited until an open records request threatened to reveal the existence of that investigation, personally withdrawing from the case two days after the request came in.

The full timeline of events raises questions about Cameron’s conflict of interest, what he knew, and when. It will also almost certainly add fuel to bipartisan accusations that the outspoken, politically polarizing, Trump-supporting Republican has abused the power of his office during his tenure.

The company in question is Edgewater Recovery Center, a Kentucky-based addiction resource provider. According to the open records correspondence obtained by The Daily Beast, Edgewater is currently party to an investigation run by Kentucky’s Office of Medicaid Fraud and Abuse, a division of the Office of Attorney General. The Cameron donors include Edgewater’s owner, its general counsel, and directors for the recovery center’s medical, human resources, and clinical practices.

No Edgewater employee has given to Cameron previously, Kentucky campaign finance records show. And the donations appear to have come in the late stages of the investigation, which was opened sometime in 2022, according to a public records response obtained by The Daily Beast.

The donations all came in March and April, per state campaign finance records. But Cameron only recused himself from the investigation on May 19—those two days after his office received a May 17 request for a list of his recusals, and one week after his conflict-of-interest broadside against the judge. It then took another week for Cameron’s office to answer the request, which included a copy of Cameron’s notice of recusal, dated May 19. To explain the recusal, Cameron’s office cited “an abundance of caution.”

But the recusal came three days after Cameron won the GOP primary, which the donations were designated to support, according to state campaign finance filings.

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Additionally, records reviewed by The Daily Beast show that while Cameron recused himself from other cases in the time after receiving the Edgewater donations, he didn’t recuse from that case until the public records inquiry.

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