Saint Paul – Governor Pawlenty today sent a letter to Blue Earth County Attorney Ross Arneson and Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner asking them to pursue potential perjury prosecution in a matter that came before the Minnesota Board of Pardons in 2008.

The Governor is asking the attorneys to determine if Jeremy Giefer should be prosecuted if he falsely stated under oath that he had been law-abiding since the time of his sentence discharge.

“I am very troubled by the prospect that a pardon applicant may have been committing serious crimes while representing to the Board of Pardons that he was law-abiding. While the current press accounts concern criminal charges have not been proven yet in a court of law, the potential perjury or fraud should be investigated,” Governor Pawlenty wrote in his letter.

Giefer was granted a pardon by the Board in 2008. The Board voted unanimously to pardon the his 1994 conviction because it involved sexual conduct between two people who became husband and wife, maintained a long-term marriage, had a family together, and because the defendant completed his sentence many years before seeking the pardon which his wife and others supported. Recently, new allegations of felony criminal activity have come to light.

“These new charges are sickening and repulsive. Obviously, had this new information been available to the Board at the time of the pardon request, the pardon should not and would not have been granted,” Governor Pawlenty said.

Click here to read the Governor's letter