Blogger allegedly took pics of Sen. Cochran’s bedridden wife

Mississippi’s already contentious U.S. Senate GOP primary race took a bizarre turn after the arrest of a political blogger who allegedly sneaked into a nursing home where incumbent Sen. Thad Cochran’s wife is bedridden, photographed her and posted the image in a political “hit piece” on the Internet.

Madison police arrested Clayton Thomas Kelly, 28, of Pearl on Friday night on a charge of exploitation of a vulnerable adult. He was being held on a $100,000 bond, accused of sneaking into St. Catherine’s Village in Madison, where Rose Cochran has resided since 2000, suffering from progressive dementia.

Kelly operates the “Constitutional Clayton” blog, a YouTube channel and other social media. He has posted numerous pieces in support of Cochran challenger state Sen. Chris McDaniel and appears to have interviewed McDaniel on video at least once.

Campaign sources said Kelly on April 26 posted an anti-Cochran, pro-McDaniel hit piece video that included the image of Rose Cochran. The video and references to it were removed from the Internet within a couple of hours.

Donald Clark, attorney for Thad and Rose Cochran, said the Cochrans’ “privacy and dignity have been violated” and after “we looked at various legal options” he notified Madison police. He said the nursing home is also doing an internal investigation. Police had little comment on the matter Saturday, other than it is an ongoing investigation.

The McDaniel campaign denied any hand in Kelly’s alleged act and said he has never worked for the campaign. McDaniel condemned it and offered condolences to the Cochran family Saturday.

But the Cochran campaign on Saturday questioned when and how McDaniel and his campaign knew about the incident, and the McDaniel camp appeared to give conflicting answers.

Cochran campaign spokesman Jordan Russell said McDaniel’s campaign manager, state Sen. Melanie Sojourner, appeared to know about Kelly’s arrest before news of it broke. He said Sojourner called Cochran campaign manager Kirk Sims about 7:45 a.m. Saturday, offering condolences over Kelly’s alleged actions and indicating she had been concerned about it since Friday night. A GOP aide who listened to the voicemail said Sojourner said McDaniel himself was disgusted and wanted to speak to Cochran.

But both McDaniel and his campaign spokesman Noel Fritsch made statements roughly a couple of hours later indicating they knew nothing of the arrest or incident.

However, Scott Brewster, coalition director for McDaniel’s campaign, contacted shortly before, had indicated he was aware of the video.

“I do remember when it came out,” Brewster said. “I think people made some phone calls (to have it removed). I didn’t personally — nobody personally talked to (Kelly). I don’t know if anybody made phone calls about it. I’m not sure. Just, I remember, all of a sudden it was gone.”

Madison police late Friday night released a statement about Kelly’s arrest, but neither it nor initial news reports mentioned Rose Cochran. The blog Jackson Jambalaya was first to report the arrest and post the statement, late Friday night, but not that the alleged victim was Rose Cochran.

A Clarion-Ledger article posted online at 9:24 a.m. Saturday broke the news about the connection between the arrest and the Cochrans.

McDaniel campaign spokesman Fritsch, contacted at 9:47 a.m., said he knew nothing about the arrest or news and said he had never heard Kelly’s name. McDaniel, interviewed for an article by the Capitol Hill publication The Hill less than an hour after The Clarion-Ledger’s story broke, said he knew nothing about it.

The McDaniel campaign later issued a statement that it “found out about the break-in when a local political blog posted about it at 11:40 p.m. last night.” The statement also said “it is unconscionable for the Cochran campaign and the liberal media to use the act of a sick individual to lob despicable accusations.”

Then later, McDaniel’s campaign issued another statement on the time line.

“(Sojourner) noticed the political blog post at around 1 a.m. Saturday and was alarmed that it was likely Ms. Cochran who had been photographed based on a preponderance of evidence, including the name of the rest home and the comments on the blog,” the latest statement said. “At around 7:30 a.m., Chris was notified only briefly of the incident and the need to personally reach out to Sen. Cochran.

“Shortly thereafter, (Sojourner) called Cochran campaign manager Kirk Sims to express in strongest terms the campaign’s condemnation of the alleged crime. (The Hill reporter) interviewed Chris at around 9:30 a.m. during an event, at which time Chris had still not been fully briefed. Chris was not fully briefed until he left the event around 10:30 a.m., at which point the campaign issued a statement at 10:49 a.m.”

Russell said McDaniel and his campaign have appeared to have conflicting stories about when they knew about the arrest or video.

Cochran issued a statement Saturday: “I have been fortunate to have a wonderful family, and like so many families, we are deeply affected by my wife’s serious, long-term illness, that we consider to be a very private family matter. We will continue doing everything we can to protect my wife’s safety and security.”

McDaniel in a written statement said, “I have reached out to Sen. Cochran directly to express my abhorrence for the reprehensible actions of this individual. This criminal act is deeply offensive, and my team and I categorically reject any such appalling behavior. My thoughts and prayers are with Sen. Cochran and his family. Politics is about the exchange of ideas, and this type of action has no place in politics whatsoever and will not be tolerated.”

Contact Geoff Pender at gpender@jackson.gannett.com or (601) 961-7266. Follow @GeoffPender on Twitter.

Assistant Managing Editor Sam R. Hall contributed to this report.