Coal Baron, Convicted After 29 Miners Died, Claims It's Senator Who Has 'Blood On His Hands'
Donald Blankenship, the former Massey Energy CEO who served a year in prison on a federal conspiracy charge, has released the latest in a series of aggressive video advertisements, this one seeking to tie Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) to both the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya and to the 2010 deaths of 29 coal miners at Massey’s Upper Big Branch mine. The 30-second ad asks viewers, “Does Manchin have blood on his hands?”
But it was Blankenship who was convicted by a West Virginia federal jury in December 2015 after the 29 workers died at his company’s mine. The jury, following a lengthy trial, rejected three felony charges but convicted Blankenship of conspiracy to violate mine safety standards, a misdemeanor. The federal charges against Blankenship did not accuse him of direct responsibility for the miners’ deaths, which occurred after poor ventilation caused caused a build-up of gases and subsequent explosion. But prosecutors alleged that Blankenship’s profit-focused management decisions helped produce the tragedy.
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