In a busy day of news at the State Capitol, Gov. Asa Hutchinson told reporters late Thursday afternoon (June 7) that allegations concerning possible bribery of two state officials was “profoundly serious” and “troubling,” but refused to respond to speculation that one unnamed senator involved in an ongoing federal probe was his nephew.
Earlier in the day before Hutchinson’s pen-and-pad with reporters at his State Capitol offices, former Arkansas lobbyist Milton “Rusty” Cranford pleaded guilty in federal court to bribing Arkansas elected officials in a multi-million-dollar scheme that also involved embezzling millions of dollars from Springfield, Mo.-based Preferred Family Healthcare (PFH).
In that guilty plea to federal prosecutors, Cranford admitted that he and other executives at PFH paid bribes to former Arkansas Sen. Jonathan Woods, former Pine Bluff judge and state legislator Henry Wilkins IV, a person identified in court documents as “Arkansas Senator A,” and “others” who provided favorable legislative action for Cranford, his clients and the Springfield healthcare group.
