Late last week, the Oklahoma City media was gifted jailhouse recordings of a sad, desperate Brent Swadley begging his wife, son and one hardworking publicist to cash in back-channel political favors with Kevin Stitt, Mike Mazzei and others.
They quickly dug into the recordings like it was a BBQ buffet, piling their plates high with delicious Swadley’s content for everyone to enjoy.
For example, The Oklahoman sicced famed BBQ consumer Nolan Clay on the case. He focused on the juicy angle that Swadley was seeking out Stitt for political help…
KFOR took a similar approach…
As did News 9…
Those are three of, I’d say, about 500 local news reports and social media posts about the tapes. If you ask me, there are a few ways to interpret them.
On one hand, the tapes didn’t exactly make Swadley sound like some well-connected political mastermind working the system from behind bars. They made him sound like a convicted fraudster, locked up and panicking, desperately throwing out the names of any powerful Republican he once served BBQ.
And you know what? Can you blame him? If I were locked up in the Oklahoma County Jail, I’d also be begging my friends, family and legal team to pull whatever strings were necessary to get me out, too. Who cares if they’re just placating me with false hope and politely telling me to shut up?
On the other hand...
Knowing Kevin Stitt and the Oklahoma criminal justice system like we do, there’s real concern that there could be some sort of back-channel effort at play to get Swadley off the meat hook. You know Stitt would love to cross Gentner Drummond and isn’t shy about pulling political favors for former supporters, so it’s not exactly crazy to wonder if Swadley thought his old political friends could help him secure favorable treatment.
I guess the question is which takeaway is closer to the truth.
It’s probably a mix of both, but I’d lean toward Swadley just being pathetic and desperate.
If his family and publicist really cared about him, they’d stop giving in to his fantasy that one more phone call to the right Republican can undo reality, and instead start helping him own up to his actions. That’s not as fun as cheering on Mike Mazzei or pretending he’s the victim of a political hit job, but it’s probably the only thing that would actually help him.
Anyway, Swadley’s desperate phone-a-friend campaign may not have freed him from the smoker, but it does appear to have made things worse.
At one point in the calls, Swadley fantasized about selling the family business and fleeing to Jamaica. Prosecutors claim this is evidence of him being a flight risk, and that he should be locked up while he appeals.
First of all, does this mean Swadley’s is for sale? You know how The Onion bought InfoWars? Maybe we could do something similar with Swadley’s! Let’s start a GoFundMe!
Second, what an idiot, huh? Not only did he basically admit to being a flight risk, but he gave away the location he was going to escape to! How this man built a BBQ empire before the Swadley Swindle is beyond me. It kind of makes you wonder who else he’s cheated.
Anyway, thanks to the Swadley Tapes, his defense attorneys had to push back a June hearing to July to better prepare for a bond appeal hearing or something like that, which means, at least for now, Brent Swadley remains slow-cooking in the Oklahoma County jail. We’ll continue to follow the story and provide updates.
Stay with The Lost Ogle. We’ll keep you advised.
