JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – One of the people pardoned during Donald Trump’s final hours as president is a Mississippi physician who pleaded guilty to a federal bribery charge in 2012.
Dr. Robert S. Corkern was the president, secretary and treasurer of Batesville Hospital Management, which handled business operations for the not-for-profit Tri-Lakes Medical Center in Batesville.
Federal court records show that in his January 2012 guilty plea, Corkern admitted that on March 28, 2007, he paid $25,000 to the Panola County administrator as a bribe for the administrator’s role in securing a $400,000 county payment to the rural hospital eight days earlier.
“Corkern had a financial interest in Tri-Lakes Medical Center and benefitted from the $400,000 transfer,” the records show.
Corkern was sentenced in November 2012 to two years’ house confinement and three years’ post-release supervision.
A White House news release said Trump’s pardon of Corkern is supported by Mississippi’s two Republican U.S. senators, Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith; and Republican former Gov. Phil Bryant.
“This pardon will help Dr. Corkern practice medicine in his community, which is in dire need of more doctors as it has struggled to keep up with demand for emergency services,” the news release said. “Dr. Corkern served in the Mississippi Army National Guard and has generously provided his services to low-income patients.”
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