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A federal judge has rejected a request from former Tennessee state Sen. Brian Kelsey to change his guilty plea on charges that he illegally funneled money to his failed 2016 Congressional campaign.
Kelsey is scheduled to be sentenced in July. The guilty pleas could come with up to 10 years in prison, six years of probation, and a $500,000 fine.
“Kelsey pleaded guilty in November to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and another for aiding and abetting the acceptance of funds in excess of federal limitations of $25,000. Recently, Kelsey wanted to withdraw his guilty pleas because he claimed to enter them ‘with an unsure heart and confused’ after his twin sons were born and his father was on his ‘death bed,'” the Tennessee Lookout reported.
“Kelsey previously served as chair of the Tennessee Senate Judiciary Committee. Kelsey illegally moved $90,000 from his state campaign account to a federal account to bolster his failed bid in 2016 for the Congressional seat currently held by U.S. Rep. David Kustoff, R-Memphis, according to prosecutors. It is illegal to direct state campaign funds to a federal campaign,” the outlet added.
“Kelsey’s gave $106,000 to his co-defendant Josh Smith, owner of The Standard Club, a downtown Nashville restaurant frequented by state Republicans, according to the indictment. The money was filtered through The Standard Club PAC and Citizens 4 Ethics in Government PAC to the American Conservative Union, which bought a radio and digital advertising backing Kelsey in the last weeks of his campaign,” the outlet continued.
Late last year, the DOJ said in a press release:
According to court documents, Kelsey, 44, of Germantown, admitted that he conspired to, and did, secretly and unlawfully funnel money from multiple sources, including his own Tennessee State Senate campaign committee, to his authorized federal campaign committee. Kelsey, who was a practicing attorney, and his co-conspirators, including Joshua Smith, also caused a national political organization to make illegal and excessive contributions to Kelsey’s federal campaign committee by secretly coordinating with the organization on advertisements supporting Kelsey’s federal candidacy, which caused false reports of contributions and expenditures to be filed with the FEC.
Kelsey and his co-conspirators orchestrated the concealed movement of $91,000 – $66,000 of which came from Kelsey’s State Senate campaign committee, and $25,000 of which came from a nonprofit corporation that publicly advocated on legal justice issues – to a national political organization for the purpose of funding advertisements that urged voters to support Kelsey in the August 2016 primary election. Kelsey and his co-conspirators also caused the political organization to make $80,000 worth of contributions to Kelsey’s federal campaign committee in the form of coordinated expenditures.
“Kelsey pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the FEC and aiding and abetting the acceptance of excessive contributions on behalf of a federal campaign. He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 9, 2023, and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison on each count. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors,” the DOJ press release stated.
“Joshua Smith pleaded guilty last month to aiding and abetting the solicitation, receipt, direction, transfer, and spending of soft money in connection with a federal election. He is awaiting sentencing. Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Mark H. Wildasin for the Middle District of Tennessee, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Tennessee, and Special Agent in Charge Douglas Korneski of the FBI Memphis Field Office made the announcement,” the press release added.
