Phillip M. Bailey and Tom Loftus | Courier Journal

Tom Loftus, Louisville Courier Journal

Kentucky Lt. Gov. Jenean Hampton told officials in Gov. Matt Bevin's administration that her fired deputy chief will keep working and that she expects the former aide to receive back pay.

The declaration marks an escalation in the lieutenant governor's rebellion over ousted aide Adrienne Southworth, who was terminated last Friday. In an exclusive interview, Southworth told the Courier Journal she does not know why she was sacked.

“Honestly, I have no earthly clue,” Southworth said.

In a June 3 email, obtained by the Courier Journal through open records request, Hampton told Bevin administration officials that Southworth isn't going anywhere.

"Ms. Southworth will continue to assist me as deputy chief," Hampton said in the email. "She will track her time manually until she is officially reinstated, so personnel can process her pay retroactively to May 31, 2019."

Hampton was responding to Personnel Cabinet Secretary Tom Stephens, who informed the lieutenant governor that her deputy chief, who was a non-merit employee, could be terminated at will.

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"Under Kentucky law, it is well settled that an unclassified, governor-appointed employee can be terminated for any reason, so long as that reason is not contrary to some other law," Stephens said in the email. "Here, no other law precluded her termination."

Stephens went on to say that Southworth's termination was signed by Troy Robinson, the executive director of the Finance and Administration cabinet. He said Robinson, as the appointing authority for the governor's office, "possessed the requisite authority to issue the letter."

"You and I both know Mr. Robinson is an administrator who does not make a move without direction," Hampton said in the Monday email.

Following a bill signing ceremony at the Capitol on Wednesday, Bevin reiterated that he hasn't been involved in the decision-making.

"For people at this level I have zero involvement," he said. "So, I’m not aware of what letters or communication has occurred. Nor will be I ever be involved in that decision making process, nor should I, nor should any governor."

Bevin said that he trusts that state officials handling Southworth's firing are doing it according to the law. But he suggested that Hampton is overstepping by inserting herself in the firing.

"At the time we last spoke neither of us had the exact details because neither of us was involved in the process itself," Bevin said of Hampton. "And I don’t intend to be, and she doesn’t either have the authority to do so. And so I think she understands that. I understand that and we’ll let the process sort itself out."

Hampton, who Bevin dropped from the 2019 Republican ticket for state Sen. Ralph Alvarado, started this public feud within the administration on social media last Friday when she asked Kentuckians for prayers against "dark forces" inside the administration.

"Calling prayer warriors," Hampton said in a tweet posted to her official and personal page. "Yesterday, person(s) unknown initiated unauthorized personnel action ending employment of my talented, stellar Deputy Chief Adrienne Southworth, against my wishes. Pray for me as I battle dark forces."

Southworth is the second person on Hampton’s staff fired by the Bevin administration in the last five months, leaving the lieutenant governor with just one staff member.

In January, Hampton's chief of staff, Steve Knipper, was fired after he filed to run in the Republican primary for secretary of state. Knipper lost the race in a four-way election.

The dismissal stemmed from the Bevin administration’s policy that any governor-appointed non-merit employee who runs for partisan office must resign from their job.

Hampton tried to use an executive order to rehire Knipper but later submitted a separate document without the executive order header.

Legal experts said the lieutenant governor has no explicit authority to use an executive order for any purpose. Knipper is appealing his termination to the state Personnel Board.

Read more: Kentucky Supreme Court rules against Matt Bevin in pension open records case

Bevin, who dumped Hampton from his reelection ticket, has tried to stay out of the fray. He told reporters that he didn’t know details of Southworth's firing.

“We have 30-some thousand who work for state government," Bevin said Monday. "And people are hired and people are let go on a regular basis. I don’t have any knowledge of the situation involving this individual."

Southworth said she doesn't know if the governor is telling the truth or not, but in a Facebook post her husband has accused the governor of being directly involved in the firing.

"Bevin knows who my wife is... so for him to act like she is some random employee in state government he knows nothing about when she is one of probably 50 in the Capitol building working in the administration is disingenuous at best, especially when he threatened Jenean with firing her on at least a handful of occasions that I can remember," Chris Southworth's post reads.