Kwame Kilpatrick’s lawyer is trying to discredit a government witness who said he gave the former mayor $90,000 in cash from contractor Bobby Ferguson.
Thomas
Attorney James C. Thomas asked Mahlon Clift if he counted drug dealers among his customers as a jeweler.
“I don’t know what they did for a living,” Clift said. “When you go into McDonald’s, they don’t ask you what you do for a living.”
Clift, who is identified in the indictment as “Courier A,” said his clients included singer R. Kelly and athletes.
R. Kelly
“You didn’t want to know because you wanted their $20,000, or $50,000 or $100,000,” Thomas said.
“I wasn’t nosy,” Clift said. “I wanted their business.”
Thomas asked Clift if he ever saw Ferguson give Kilpatrick money.
“Never, never happened,” Clift said.
“Do you know if Kwame Kilpatrick had large amounts of cash on him?” Thomas asked.
“No, he had balled up $20s, it got on my nerves,” Clift said. “I don’t like money balled up.”
Clift said Tuesday he sold the $22,000 Rolex watch members of Kilpatrick’s staff gave the mayor as a birthday present.
Clift also sold the mayor a $15,000 bracelet on an installment plan. He recalls it took Kilpatrick a long time to pay.