Kwame Kilpatrick among those who attended Donald Trump rally in Saginaw County

Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick paid a visit to a crowded political rally in Saginaw County on Wednesday for the man who commuted his prison sentence in 2021: former President Donald Trump.

Michigan Republican Party Chairman Pete Hoekstra ? who knew Kilpatrick from his time as mayor and as a state legislator and Hoekstra's time as a congressman from west Michigan ? told the Free Press he saw Kilpatrick, his wife and his children come into the hangar at MBS Airport in Freeland ahead of the event.

"He said, 'Hey, congressman, good to see you.' I didn't recognize him at first ? my bad ? and he said, 'Kwame Kilpatrick,'" Hoekstra said, adding that the two spoke briefly. Hoekstra also served in Congress with Kilpatrick's mother, former U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Detroit.

The Detroit News, which first reported that Kilpatrick was in attendance at the campaign rally, showed the former mayor in photographs wearing a white baseball cap and a light blue coat. Television footage of the rally showed a person appearing to be Kilpatrick standing near the front of the crowd to the left of the stage after Trump's speech, near where the former president walked up the stairs back into his plane to depart.

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On his last day as president in 2021, Trump commuted Kilpatrick's public corruption sentence, cutting 20 years off a sentence for a conviction handed down in 2013. The former mayor ? elected in 2001 and again in 2005 ? resigned from office in 2008 in the aftermath of a text message scandal uncovered by the Free Press that purported to hide a romantic relationship between him and his chief of staff they had denied in an earlier whistleblower trial.

Kilpatrick was later sentenced to a 28-year federal prison sentence on convictions involving several charges of public corruption, including racketeering, bribery, extortion and fraud.

Trump pardoned or otherwise commuted the sentences of more than 140 people during his last day in office, including Kilpatrick, though he left in place $4.7 million in restitution owed by the former mayor. The order signed by Trump at the time said, "It has been made to appear that the ends of justice do not require … Kwame Malik Kilpatrick to remain confined until his currently projected release date of Jan. 18, 2037, and the safety of the community will not be compromised if he is released."

Contact Todd Spangler: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter@tsspangler

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Kwame Kilpatrick attends Donald Trump rally in Saginaw County