The prosecutor handling the Cochran nursing home case suggested there was communication between one of the defendants and the campaign for state Sen. Chris McDaniel (R) around the time the video of Cochran’s bedridden wife was posted to to the Internet. But the prosecutor, Madison County District Attorney Michael Guest, did not elaborate on the nature or exact timing of the communications, and it’s not clear yet whether this means the McDaniel camp is implicated in the scandal at some deeper level.
Guest told The Madison County Journal on Wednesday that “there were communications between the campaign and the co-defendants at or about the time the video was released.”
Earlier on Wednesday, John Mary (pictured), one of the men who allegedly helped political blogger “Constitutional” Clayton Kelly go to a nursing home to photograph Sen. Thad Cochran’s (R-MS) wife Rose, pleaded guilty to conspiracy in the case. Mary was sentenced to five years probation in exchange for cooperating with authorities in the investigation.
McDaniel campaign spokesman Noel Fritsch told TPM that Guest was likely referring to a push by the McDaniel campaign to have the video taken down shortly after the McDaniel campaign became aware of its existence.
“As we’ve stated for the record, when we learned of the video, we put out an all call for it to be removed,” Fritsch told TPM. “While it seems odd for a DA to talk about evidence in the midst of an investigation, that is undoubtedly what Michael Guest is referring to.”
Guest did not return TPM’s request to clarify if that is, in fact, what Guest is referring to in his statement to the Journal.
The other co-defendants who are charged with helping Kelly are soccer coach Richard Sager and the late Mark Mayfield. Mayfield was found dead at his home in June in an apparent suicide.
“Mary has cooperated throughout the entire investigation,” Guest told the Journal. “We feel it is important that as this case progresses we have cooperation from at least one of the co-conspirators.”
