Trump pardons former Tennessee House speaker convicted on federal public corruption charges

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump pardoned the former Tennessee House speaker and a former aide on public corruption charges after the White House said the Biden administration’s Justice Department “significantly overprosecuted” both over a minor matter.

Former Republican state Rep. Glen Casada was sentenced in September to three years in prison, and his former chief of staff, Cade Cothren, was also convicted and given a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence. The case focused on their actions after they were both ousted from their leadership roles and accused of leading a scheme to seize taxpayer-funded mail business from lawmakers.

P Photo/George Walker IV, Archive

The moves continued a pattern by Trump, a Republican, who used his second term to grant unlikely pardons to political allies, prominent public figures and others convicted of defrauding the public.

Many of the pardons he has granted have been directed toward criminal cases that the Justice Department once considered fair. They also came amid an ongoing effort by the Trump administration to erode public integrity barriers, including the firing of the department’s pardon attorney and the near-dismantling of a prosecution unit established to hold public officials accountable for abuse of public trust.

According to prosecutors, Cothren launched a company called Phoenix Solutions, with the knowledge and support of Casada and then-Rep. Robin Smith. The three claimed that the company was run by “Matthew Phoenix”, which was later determined to be fictitious. Companies controlled by Casada and Smith received approximately $52,000 in taxpayer money in 2020 from a mailing program for lawmakers.

A “Matthew Phoenix” signature ended up on an IRS tax document. An alleged associate of that fictitious person was played by Casada’s then-girlfriend, prosecutors said.

That all came after Casada resigned as president in 2019 following a no-confidence vote by fellow Republicans over scandals, including revelations that he exchanged sexually explicit text messages about women with Cothren years ago.

Cothren also left his position over those racist messages and texts, along with an admission that he used cocaine inside a legislative office building during a previous job.

A White House official said Thursday night that Trump approved the pardons for Casada and Cothren because the Justice Department under Trump’s Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, “over-prosecuted these individuals for a minor matter.”

The official spoke on background to discuss a pardon that had not yet been made public, but said the case against Casada and Cothren involved mailings to constituents, which were billed at competitive prices, and that the case was filed even though prosecutors had not received a complaint from lawmakers.

The scheme also resulted in a net loss of profits of less than $5,000, the official said, noting that the case included an armed raid, a criminal walk-through and the possibility of long prison sentences — things often more appropriate for federal cases involving multimillion-dollar fraud.

Trump’s actions for Casada and Cothren follow his earlier pardons of former Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and former Republican Connecticut Gov. John Rowland, whose promising political career was upended by a corruption scandal and two stints in federal prison.