James Comer Helped a Donor Get Chinese Hemp. What They Got Tested as Marijuana

Rep. James Comer (R-KY) has for months used his power as House Oversight chair to assail Hunter Biden’s involvement in a failed business deal with a Chinese energy company.

But The Daily Beast has obtained emails and other documents showing that when Comer was running for governor of Kentucky, he himself was involved in a failed Chinese business deal. It involved importing Chinese hemp seeds through Comer’s office—he was Kentucky’s agriculture commissionerat the time—to benefit a campaign donor’s company that Comer had fast-tracked for his industrial hemp pilot program.

The documents—which The Daily Beast obtained after the Kentucky government released them to a third party in response to open records requests—contain a stunning revelation: While the emails show the involved parties clearly intended to import only legal hemp, two rounds of tests revealed the plants were essentially Chinese pot, containing illegally high levels of THC, the psychoactive compound that gives marijuana users a high.

The records chalk up the error to the decision to order seeds that “do not have good breeder documentation,” warning that the parties may “run into this issue again.” Emails show an intent to destroy the plants after the second test. If the plants were destroyed, however, it was not documented in the thousands of emails and attachments that the Kentucky Department of Agriculture (KDA) and Murray State University (MSU) produced in response to the open records requests. Records show Comer’s office wanted the KDA to oversee the proposed eradication but the trail at that point went cold—there appears to be no record of destruction or confirmation that state or federal law enforcement ever learned of the illegal plants. No one has spoken of these events publicly.

After the matter was resolved, Comer’s office sent a memo with his seal to program participants advising on how to handle law enforcement inquiries.

“There is nothing criminal occurring with the projects,” the memo said. “The program is in compliance with both state and federal regulations; there is nothing to hide.”

One bullet point was written in bold. It read: “However, if a request to collect industrial hemp material for a testing sample is made[,] refer law enforcement to contact KDA and do NOT allow the sample to be collected.” The memo suggested contacting the deputy commissioner, noting, “Without a court order, or warrant, you are under no obligation to allow the collection of a testing sample.”

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The affair overlapped with Comer’s gubernatorial primary campaign, for which the donor’s company hosted a fundraiser. While Comer made no secret of the industrial hemp pilot program—it was his top legislative priority as agriculture commissioner—emails between him, officials in his office, executives with the donor’s company, and officials at a university involved in the program reveal an effort to keep the Chinese hemp debacle under wraps.

For instance, in a May 20, 2014, email to four people—including Comer and his chief of staff—an official with the donor’s company wrote that the donor had “confirmed that he has some seed being sent directly to your office from China.” The official added that Comer’s office should send the hemp seeds directly to their academic liaison at MSU—copied on the email—who “agreed to test them.”

The email concluded, “I need to keep this between the four of us.”

Comer did not reply to the email.

The shipment arrived on May 23, according to a follow-up email. It was a sensitive time—on May 14, the KDA sued the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration over the seizure of 250 pounds of hemp imported for its pilot program from an Italian supplier, drawing national attention. The DEA released the Italian hemp one day after the company notified Comer of the inbound Chinese shipment.

Comer has cited the hemp program as a crowning achievement, lauding the project when he tried to recreate its success in the first bill he sponsored in Congress, the failed “Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2017.” However, the Chinese hemp imports—potentially mislabeled “as a decoy” for customs inspection and eventually found to contain quantities of THC nearly 10 times the legal limit—were never made public.

‘They want to get in on this’

The company at the center of the story is Caudill Seed, based in Kentucky and the “poster child” for Comer’s program. Caudill Seed had a strong business interest in the first-in-the-nation program, emails show, including a plan to fashion hemp into car door panels.

It’s unclear whether Caudill Seed was an officially sanctioned hemp producer at the time of the shipments from China. Comer’s pilot program made Kentucky the first state to relegalize hemp production and, while Caudill Seed eventually secured official status, emails around the time of the shipments indicate they struggled to get import permits; the KDA program website did not mention the company. While local news reports in spring 2014 identified Caudill Seed as a program partner, MSU materials did not. Caudill’s official hemp production application with the KDA is dated November 2014.

Those articles, press releases, and university documents only mention European and Canadian imports. Furthermore, Chinese plants were missing from later reviews of the program. For instance, Tony Brannon, then dean of the MSU School of Agriculture—the school’s point person in the emails and a Comer donor—published a glowing retrospective of the pilot program on Murray State’s website in 2019. The review acknowledged Caudill Seed’s role and congratulated the program for overcoming setbacks such as supplier issues, stigma, and the DEA seizure. But Brannon, who called Comer a “good friend” in the article, did not mention the Chinese hemp.

In response to The Daily Beast’s questions, MSU provided a statement lauding Brannon and noting his retirement last January.

“Former Dean of Agriculture Dr. Tony Brannon is a well-respected member of the campus community who led innovative research efforts regarding the cultivation and production of hemp, carefully ensuring that these efforts were consistent with legal requirements,” the statement said.

It added: “Murray State University has no knowledge of any concerns or issues regarding this matter.”

The Daily Beast obtained the university’s own data confirming the illegally high THC content, as part of the open records production. The school did not reply to follow-up inquiries.

In a text message responding to detailed questions, Brannon said, “I am aware that Murray State University has issued a statement to you. I stand by that statement and have nothing further to add.” The Daily Beast asked how his central role in the events squared with MSU’s claim of “no knowledge.” Brannon did not reply.

Comer and the KDA did not respond to contact attempts. Caudill Seed did not respond to multiple inquiries. Carl Gering, a former employee featured prominently in the emails, told The Daily Beast he retired in March 2020.

“No comment to 10-year-old emails,” Gering said.

Headquartered in Louisville, Caudill Seed is a family-run operation, founded in 1947. Co-owner and longtime chief operating officer, Sanford “Dan” Caudill, formed a close relationship with Comer during his 2011 campaign for agriculture commissioner.

That year, state campaign finance records show, Dan Caudill and his brother, CEO Pat Caudill, made maximum donations to Comer. Shortly after the hemp tests in 2014, the company hosted a fundraiser for Comer’s gubernatorial bid, netting more max-outs from Dan, Pat, and other Caudills. In 2015, Dan Caudill gifted another $1,000 to Comer’s U.S. House bid. Federal records show Dan Caudill has contributed a total $3,500 to Comer’s congressional campaigns.

In 2014, Caudill Seed had business ties to China, including at least one facility and at least two patent applications that were eventually approved. Comer knew the company had been looking to China, telling the Frankfort State Journal in 2012: “They’ve been to China and other countries and researched what the seed market looks like over there. They want to get in on this.”

While Comer at first acknowledged that some pilot program imports may come from China, he appears to have stopped after 2013. That June, Comer criticized Virginia-based pork producer Smithfield for its merger with a Chinese company, telling the State Journal, “It’s always a concern when a communist country buys a very important agribusiness in the United States.”

Comer hews to such lines of attack today, with special criticism for the Biden family.

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Last July, in an interview on Fox Business, Comer blamed Joe Biden for China “gaining access to our markets” when he was vice president—a period that overlapped with Comer’s involvement in efforts to import Chinese hemp. Last August, Comer told former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, “The most illegal thing in the world for anyone in Washington is to take money from foreign nationals from China.”

While Comer knew about Caudill’s Chinese ties, it’s less clear whether he knew about Dan Caudill’s criminal record. News reports document drug arrests as far back as 1974, including the largest seizure of drugs in Oldham County—600 pounds of marijuana grown on his farm. A representative for the Kentucky state archive, which now controls those records, told The Daily Beast Caudill was ultimately “convicted of trafficking in marijuana and hashish and got 10 years total.”

(Dan Caudill is to this day a prominent advocate for rehabilitative employment programs for felons, efforts cited in a 2015 Brennan Center for Justice white paper authored by bipartisan officials including Huckabee, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), Hillary Clinton, and then-Vice President Biden.)

Comer promoted Caudill Seed. In 2012, months into his first term as agriculture commissioner and as he rolled out his hemp initiative, he gave the company a “Kentucky Proud Partner in Excellence” award. In a radio interview, Comer touted Caudill Seed as “a signature agribusiness,” saying, “We just want to tell them how much we appreciate them, see how we can continue their growth, and thank them for their accomplishments.”

In 2013, Louisville Business First reported that the Caudill brothers “became interested in [hemp] when they met James Comer, now Kentucky’s secretary of agriculture, during his 2011 campaign for the office.”

A farmer himself, Comer had long advocated for industrial hemp. He viewed the crop as an untapped revenue stream for an agricultural sector which stagnated after tobacco buyouts in the early 2000s. Once a top hemp producer, Kentucky, like other states, banned the plant in response to legal restrictions in the late 1950s. In 1971, the federal government classified hemp as a controlled substance due to its similarities with marijuana. For decades, production was strictly regulated.

While hemp and marijuana come from the same plant, cannabis sativa, industrial hemp strains contain only trace levels of THC. Even in conservative Kentucky, Comer—who has called marijuana hemp’s “evil cousin”—was far from alone in arguing that the plant was unreasonably outlawed. (In December 2023, Comer said he supported Washington, D.C., legalizing marijuana, though it was still outlawed in Kentucky. Last year, Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear legalized medical cannabis through an executive order, effective Jan. 1, 2025.)

As agriculture commissioner, Comer built a bipartisan coalition that in 2013 made Kentucky the first state to re-legalize industrial hemp. Comer’s pilot program drew wide support, even ardent backing from the state’s most powerful pol, Sen. Mitch McConnell.

‘Your Eyes Only’

Comer worked to get Caudill Seed involved. In a December 2014 email, Brannon, the MSU dean, wrote, “I got involved in the hemp project for one reason. It was because of a phone call that I received from Commissioner Jamie Comer in March requesting that Murray State be involved with Caudill Seeds as our partner in the pilot research.”

The following September, Brannon tagged Comer in a Facebook post, writing, “I’ll never forget the phone call I received from him sitting in the parking lot at the MSU motor pool asking us to work with Caudill Seed to grow Agricultural Hemp in 2014.” In his 2019 review, Brannon wrote, “That [call] began a close association with friend Carl Gering at Caudill.”

As operations manager at Caudill, Gering handled most communications with KDA and MSU about the Chinese hemp. Emails show him pushing Brannon to help obtain hemp for his company, offering to pick up product and cover costs for harvesting, transportation, and testing. Brannon resisted those offers but in a January 2015 email flagged an $1,800 bill for THC retesting. A university invoice that summer shows MSU billed Caudill Seed $2,000 for “research variety education.”

It was Gering who wrote the May 20, 2014, email asking to “keep this between the four of us.” He and Dan Caudill frequently corresponded with Comer and his office about the program, including planning and delivering the Chinese shipments.

For instance, an April 30, 2014, email from Caudill Seed’s Lori Thomas to Comer’s chief of staff—subject line “RE: U.S. Customs and Border Patrol is working with us…”—said, “we do want to bring in the hemp seeds we have secured from China and have them sent directly to your office.”

Gering forwarded that email to a McConnell assistant, Tate Bennett, writing, “China does not require an export permit so this might work, and we might be able to get seed from China.”

Comer’s office fielded a second Chinese shipment—this one mislabeled—that arrived two weeks after the DEA released the seized Italian hemp. On June 2, Comer’s chief of staff wrote Gering and Brannon, “I have a package sitting in my office that is written in Chinese. At least, I think.” The package, she said, was labeled “rape seed.”

“Is this what we are expecting?” she asked.

It turned out it was. While it is unclear why the package was mislabeled, Thomas speculated in an email to Gering it had been done “as a decoy.”

“Exactly what I am thinking,” Gering replied, adding MSU’s Brannon to the chain. “I would have.”

Asked about this email, Gering declined to comment.

Emails show Comer’s office arranged to deliver the seeds to Murray State and keep a 100-gram sample for their records. The school planted its Chinese seeds on June 12, according to MSU records. By September, something smelled funny.

On Sept. 30, 2014, Gering emailed Brannon about a nervous driver who had picked up some of their plants from the university—on Comer’s personal authorization—only to discover that the payload reeked of pot.

“FYI—your eyes only,” the email began. “The driver who picked up the hemp seed was scared all the way back from Murray. He stated the odor was very strong and he observed a few truckers pass his truck and snicker. I was told the smell is identical to what maryj [marijuana] smells like...I personally have to take their word for it.”

Gering told Brannon the company had “a letter from Jamie” authorizing transportation “under the research permit.” (Caudill Seed appears to have applied for a permit in November.) However, Gering added, they “were not aware the driver had had a previous drug conviction.” The driver, he wrote, “was terrified of the potential of being pulled over and having to explain his way out of the delema [sic].”

That email came in response to a note from Brannon, who said Comer had joked with him about THC testing at a university ceremony that day.

“He says that state still has not ok’d testing,” Brannon wrote. “Here was his quote ‘it’s going to come back at .4%’. I said I bet ours comes in at .29%. Ha.” The federally mandated limit for THC in hemp plants was 0.3 percent.

That evening, Brannon’s emails state, he attended a Comer fundraiser. Kentucky campaign finance records show he donated $250. In one email, he said he “Gave Jamie some Hemp playing cards for rummy games at 1:30 in the morning when he arrives in a motel. Precious.”

Brannon’s 0.29 percent estimate was way off. When the results came back a week later, the Caudill team was dismayed to learn all their Chinese seeds tested above 0.3 percent THC and as high as 2.74 percent—nearly 10 times the legal maximum under the federal Farm Bill.

Gering emailed Dan Caudill, writing, “My question would be if a hemp plant has a high THC content, is it considered a marijuana plant? Do we need to get this seed out of the building (and dispose), and not receive any of the second harvest?”

The answer to Gering’s first question is yes. The U.S. Department of Agriculture classifies any cannabis plant with THC content greater than 0.3 percent as marijuana; anything less than that is hemp. In the eyes of the U.S. government, the plants were Chinese marijuana. Of the other hemp varieties MSU planted, none tested higher than 0.13 percent THC, university data shows.

Gering alluded to the legal distinction in a follow-up to his boss. “The Farm bill states it is legal to grow hemp with a THC content lower than [0].3% THC,” he wrote. “We have hemp seed with a THC content of 1.87 and 2.74%.” The Daily Beast obtained MSU test results that confirm these numbers.

Gering recommended destroying the hemp and canceling the second harvest, writing: “I feel that Murray will want to eradicate the Chinese seed plots as soon as possible, because of the potential liability.”

Dan Caudill, however, had a different plan.

“I do disagree with your e-mail,” he replied. Caudill said he was suspicious of the results, since the test was carried out by private company Cannavest—a “potential competitor”—even though, as Gering noted, the tests were blind.

“Therefore, let’s go to Jamie Comer’s office and ask them where we can get this material tested, even if it is the state police laboratory and we’ll pay for the cost,” Caudill wrote.

There followed a months-long back-and-forth between Caudill Seed, MSU, and Comer’s office over how to re-test the Chinese hemp, and whether the state had the capacity and authority to do so.

Caudill continued to try to acquire hemp to prototype its car door panels. In mid-November, the company held a fundraiser for Comer, who was running for governor. Comer collected maximum $1,000 gifts each from Dan Caudill and his wife, co-owner Pat Caudill and his wife, and Dan Caudill’s son, Corey Caudill, head of inventory management at Caudill Seed. A person identifying himself as Caudill Seed employee Richard McChesney gave $100.

But by January, hope had run out. The team secured a third-party test from University of Mississippi cannabis expert Dr. Mahmoud ElSohly, who confirmed impermissibly high levels of THC in the Chinese varieties provided by MSU and the KDA.

When Brannon broke the bad news to Gering, he asked how to proceed. Though Gering and Dan Caudill both noted “variance” in the testing—ElSohly’s readings were generally lower, the two highest strains testing at 2.33 and 2.36 percent—they decided to destroy the plants. They also made clear that the fewer people who knew, the better.

A draft letter from Dan Caudill, forwarded by Gering to Brannon on Jan. 15, read, “I’ve advised Carl [Gering] to go ahead and destroy any of the Chinese hemp plant material that we have available here. Although we are keeping samples of the seed since we know they are a low THC.”

The note concluded, “We’ll just not include it with your data.”

Gering blocked Caudill’s letter. This, he told Brannon, was “highly confidential.”

“[R]ead the below email and you will see why I need your support,” Gering wrote. “Sometimes you have to work outside the box to do what is best for all involved. The testing data is too critical to not be totally accurate and transparent. Give me a call when possible.”

Comer was not copied on this email.

The next day, Brannon sent Gering the final testing spreadsheet, saying, “Please do not distribute. This is between you and me right now.”

Gering replied that he “would advise us to limit access to this data,” but recommended consulting an official in Comer’s office.

“Someone not privileged to the overall scope could easily run with this data and state we are growing a hemp variety which is more marijuana than hemp,” Gering wrote. “This is not our intent, but as we research legacy varieties and varieties that do not have good breeder documentation, we will run into this issue again. It’s good we are getting this out in the open and documenting how the KDA will handle this in the future.”

Brannon replied, “Agreed.” He added that the test variance information might be useful.

That day, Brannon submitted MSU’s production report to the state agriculture department. He noted “China variety fiber and seed delivered to Caudill Seed,” and listed six optional suggestions for improvements—including “plant earlier (mid April),” “mechanical harvest,” and “produce handbook for Kentucky hemp production.” The report includes an attached table of the THC readings, but Brannon did not otherwise comment on them.

It is not clear from the emails what happened to the high-THC Chinese hemp. An official with Comer’s office advised Caudill Seed to hold off on disposal until someone from KDA could oversee the process, but if that process was followed it is not confirmed in the records.

When Brannon sent the final results, he wrote: “I’m just proud to be associated with Caudill Seeds and the addition of your friendships and our professional relationships was a highlight of my 2014 year.”

Brannon signed the email, “Dean of Hemp.”

That June, Comer lost his gubernatorial primary. After that, he ran for Congress and won. In December 2015, Brannon gave $250 to that effort, and in November, Dan Caudill, now CEO of Caudill Seed, contributed $1,000.

Dan Caudill gave Comer’s campaign $1,000 in both 2020 and 2021, and another $500 this April, federal records show. No other Caudill Seed employee has donated to Comer since 2014.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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