By Tom Loftus, Kentucky Lantern · July 15, 2026

FRANKFORT — The attorney for former London Mayor Randall Weddle says that in the spring of 2023 the chief fundraiser for Gov. Andy Beshear’s reelection campaign “destroyed vital evidence” in a pending criminal case against Weddle for making excess campaign contributions to Beshear.

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Weddle was indicted by the Laurel County Grand Jury on March 31 in an investigation by Attorney General Russell Coleman. The indictment consists of four counts of making excess campaign contributions totaling $93,000 in late 2022 to Beshear’s campaign for reelection as governor and to the Kentucky Democratic Party (KDP).

Weddle has pleaded not guilty and a hearing in Laurel Circuit Court is scheduled for the case on Wednesday.

In a memorandum filed earlier this month in preparation for the hearing, Weddle’s attorney, Guthrie True, of Frankfort, said that information he received from the prosecution during the pre-trial “discovery” process shows “that the Attorney General’s star witness — who solicited the contributions at issue — has destroyed vital evidence.”

The “star witness” True is referring to is James Lucas Johnson, who was the main fundraiser for Beshear’s gubernatorial reelection campaign and the KDP in 2022 and remains in that role now as Beshear continues to raise money for super PACs that are funding his exploration of a possible run for president in 2028.

“Indeed, right after the meeting in which Mayor Weddle reported the contributions problem to the Governor, the Attorney General’s star witness — the high-ranking fundraiser in question — deleted vital text messages between himself and Mayor Weddle that were exchanged at the time the contributions were made — texts that prove Mayor Weddle’s innocence,” True wrote in the memorandum. “What’s more, the discovery makes it clear that these are just a sampling of the many issues that the trial court will have to address. This case is nothing but blunder piled upon blunder.”

True declined to elaborate when asked by the Kentucky Lantern on Tuesday about this broadside, which is an introduction to a memorandum offering a detailed argument to move the case from Laurel County to Franklin County.

Kevin Grout, a spokesman for Coleman’s office, said court rules governing pre-trial publicity prohibit him from commenting on the memorandum. If Johnson indeed deleted the messages from his own phone, he did not delete the same messages from Weddle’s phone. True got those Johnson-Weddle texts from Weddle’s phone and filed them with the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance years ago when the registry was making its own initial investigation of the same matter.

Johnson did not return phone messages left on a machine at Kentucky Democratic Party headquarters.

Eric Hyers, who managed Beshear’s two campaigns for governor and remains Beshear’s top political adviser, released the following short statement, which he said was on behalf of Beshear’s campaign and its employees, including Johnson: “Once we were made aware, the campaign reported the contributions to the state regulator and refunded the contributions. Neither the governor, his campaign, nor Lucas Johnson have been accused of any wrongdoing and are fully cooperating with all requests.

“Mr. Weddle’s attorney will present his argument for his client and the prosecutors will respond. We trust the justice system to determine the truth,” the statement says.

Weddle resigned as mayor of London last week after a string of legal setbacks in unrelated matters, culminating in a ruling by the Kentucky Court of Appeals on Friday, which reinstated his city council’s action last year of removing him from office for authorizing a $5 million mortgage on city property without the required approval of the council.

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The case over the excess contributions to Beshear is rooted in an April 2023 story in the Kentucky Lantern that found the biggest batch of donations Beshear had received to that point in the campaign came from Weddle’s family, employees and close business associates. The Lantern reported that members of this group had given more than $300,000 to the Beshear campaign and the Kentucky Democratic Party during Beshear’s campaign.

Weddle told the Kentucky Lantern at the time he had little knowledge about how these contributions came about.

But soon after the story was published, Weddle went to Beshear and told him that about $200,000 of the contributions were transmitted to Beshear’s campaign and the KDP on his credit card.

It was illegal under state law at that time to make a contribution to a candidate’s campaign of more than $2,000 per election. (That limit has since been raised to $3,500 per election.) And the law limits the amount anyone can give to a state political party to $15,000 per year.

Lawyers for the Beshear campaign and KDP reported Weddle’s excess contributions to the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance, which recommended the campaign and party refund the excess contributions to Weddle. They did so.

The story has taken many twists and turns since then.

Just before Beshear won reelection in November of 2023, the election registry launched its own investigation of the Weddle contributions. The registry’s board has authority to issue a fine of up to $5,000 per violation of the law and can refer what it suspects are “knowing violations” to the attorney general for consideration of criminal charges.

True filed the batch of more than 80 text messages exchanged between Weddle and Johnson in the closing days of 2022 with the election registry while the registry was conducting its investigation.

The texts give a rare inside view of the process of raising big money in a big campaign.

In the texts, the two discuss names of Weddle relatives and associates who might donate; Weddle secures donations from some of those people; Johnson — checking the campaign’s fundraising portal — confirms donations as the money rolls in. Through it all, Weddle keeps score.

On the night of Dec. 30, Weddle tells Johnson in his final text, “I’ve got you 219K this week”.

“Yessir you have! … ” Johnson replies. “Thank you so much. I’ve let the man know.”

But True said the most important part of the exchange is an email in which Weddle tells Johnson he’ll need to use his credit card for two pending contributions from his mother and mother-in-law. “I’ll have to use my card they’ll give it back to me,” Weddle says in the text.

Johnson answers, “Okay sounds good.” True says this exchange makes clear that Weddle was unaware his actions were illegal. He argues that Johnson’s response gave Weddle the green light to advance contributions in the names of others on his own credit card.

True also says Weddle made several unsuccessful attempts in early 2023 to fix any problems with excess contributions.

The registry’s staff recommended that the case be settled with Weddle and resolved with a fine, but the registry’s board said too many questions about the matter remain unresolved and unanimously voted to continue its investigation.

At some point later, Coleman’s office took over the case, launching its criminal investigation that produced the March 31 indictment.

Coleman took no questions at a press conference announcing the indictment, but made a brief comment that said in part, “I’m standing here today announcing this indictment for the people of London, Kentucky. They know the allegations, but in their eyes, before today’s indictment, nothing was being done to hold anyone accountable.”