Tim Pawlenty pardoned a child molester who then went on to molest his own daughter

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​Jeremy Giefer served time in jail in 1994 for having sex with a 14-year-old girl. But you wouldn't know it to look at the record of the man now charged with sexually molesting his daughter more than 250 times over the last eight years.

That's because two years ago, Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Attorney General Lori Swanson, and then-Chief Justice Eric Magnuson unanimously voted to wipe Giefer's record clean, granting him a pardon extraordinary.

One reason Giefer wanted his record cleared? His wife wanted to open a childcare center in the house where they live--the same house where Giefer allegedly molested his young daughter throughout the six years prior.

...

Governor Pawlenty is likely to feel ... heat for the Giefer pardon. Pawlenty has gone to great lengths as governor to position himself as a social conservative who's tough on crime and tougher on sex criminals.

That carefully manicured persona is now in jeopardy. If Pawlenty's political opponents want fodder for an attack ad when the campaign gets dirty, they couldn't ask for much better than the story about how he voted to clear the record of a sex offender now charged with habitually raping his own daughter.

And there's a paper trail showing Pawlenty knew the creep wanted to pave the way for a childcare center in his home. Here's a page of Giefer's letter to the Board of Pardons.

http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2010/12/jeremy_giefer_child_molester_pardon.php

Edited May 24, 2011 by \