(Frankfort, KY) - The former governor of Kentucky is defending hundreds of pardons he granted before leaving office.
Before losing his re-election bid, Republican Matt Bevin commuted over 400 sentences and pardoned over 160.
He addressed the criticism on Twitter Friday night, saying it's highly offensive to him that some believe he granted those pardons because of political or financial motives.
Bevin says he spent hundreds of hours reading every application and he personally wrote each justification.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was among those criticizing Bevin, saying many of those cases involved heinous crimes.
Bevin says many of them involved people who were already released from prison and "fully paid their debt to society."
He added that no community in Kentucky is more or less safe because of the pardons.
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