Former Columbia councilman Cromartie, previously jailed for tax evasion, pardoned by Biden
Ernest William “E.W.” Cromartie, a towering figure in Columbia city politics who was imprisoned on a tax evasion charge, was pardoned in President Joe Biden’s last hours in office.
A lawyer who grew up in Columbia’s Waverly neighborhood, Comartie sat on the city council and managed a powerful and expansive personal network, which some likened to an old-fashioned political machine, with a personal touch. His powers to persuade were only matched by his fierce love for the city, which he committed his political career to improving.
He was considered instrumental in cleaning up parts of downtown Columbia, installing new sewer lines in Olympia and getting the city-owned Drew Wellness Center built on Harden Street. He was known for his personal touch, preferring in-person conversations and seemingly showing up anywhere constituents might have needed him.
But in 2010, Cromartie shocked his supporters when he pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion and two counts of structuring payments to avoid federal reporting requirements. As a result of that guilty plea, he resigned from Columbia City Council after serving for 28 years and lost his law license.
Cromartie was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison and ordered to pay $58,000 in back taxes to the IRS. Cromartie would go on to serve ten months in federal prison.
While a pardon does not signify innocence, it effectively erases the crime and restores full civil rights to the individual.
I.S. Leevy Johnson, Cromartie’s lawyer in 2010 and one of the advocates for Cromartie’s pardon, said Monday afternoon he was pleased with the pardon.
Cromartie has been applying for a pardon “for a number of years,” Johnson said.
“He deserved it,” Johnson said. “Most people do not understand and appreciate the major contributions that E.W. Cromartie made to this community. He was an excellent councilman for the city of Columbia – very progressive and very interested in this city being representative for all of its citizens.”
Cromartie, along with Luther J. Battiste III, were the first African-Americans elected to the Columbia city council, in 1983, Johnson said.
At his sentencing, Cromartie described his failure to pay taxes and the steps he took to shelter assets from government as “errors in my judgments,” saying “regretfully, I have not exercised the diligence in my personal and financial affairs in my private life as I did in my public life.”
Even at his lowest, Cromartie’s influence was such that hundreds of people, from lawyers and doctors to clergy, teachers and everyday people, wrote letters of support to the judge urging mercy.
Former Columbia Mayor Bob Coble, who spoke at Cromartie’s sentencing, told the court, “He was always, in my opinion, looking out for what was best for the city.”
At the time, U.S. District Court Chief Judge David Norton, who sentenced Croamrtie, said that he could not ignore the impact that Cromartie had on the lives of so many. ”Over the past 25 years, Mr. Cromartie has done more really good things than he did bad,” Norton said. “But what he did was really bad.”
Reporter John Monk contributed to this article.
This story was originally published January 20, 2025 at 2:58 PM.