Randall Weddle appeared in court Tuesday at the Laurel County Judicial Center in London and pleaded not guilty to four felony counts of campaign finance violations tied to donations that prosecutors say exceeded Kentucky limits and aided Gov. Andy Beshear’s 2023 reelection effort.
The April 15 arraignment came after a Laurel County grand jury indicted Weddle on March 31, accusing him of making $93,000 in excess contributions to two committees supporting Beshear. Each count is a Class D felony carrying up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
The case has been building for two years. The Kentucky Lantern first raised questions in April 2023 about possible excess contributions. In June 2023, Beshear’s campaign committee and the Kentucky Democratic Party refunded $202,000 to Weddle after he said the payments had been made on his credit card. At the time, Kentucky law capped contributions to a candidate’s campaign at $2,000 per election and to the state-regulated part of the Kentucky Democratic Party at $5,000 per year.
The Kentucky Registry of Election Finance reviewed the matter last year before Attorney General Russell Coleman took over the investigation and presented it to the Laurel grand jury. That path matters because the criminal case now rests on conduct that, according to Weddle’s lawyer, did not belong in Laurel County at all.
Weddle’s attorney, Guthrie True, is asking to move the case to Franklin County, arguing the alleged criminal behavior did not occur in Laurel County. True said Weddle was on a cruise with his family in the Bahamas in the last days of 2022 when he discussed the contributions with Beshear’s fundraiser and electronically transmitted the payments. The court has set a July 15 hearing on that motion.
The Beshear campaign has said it never gave Weddle permission to make the contributions on his personal credit card. That dispute sits at the center of the case: whether the payments were an innocent mistake made with apparent approval, or an illegal attempt to skirt contribution limits. For now, Weddle faces four felony charges, and the venue fight will be the next test of where the case is heard and how it moves forward.
