Former Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada and his aide Cade Cothren have been pardoned by President Donald Trump, a White House official confirmed to USA TODAY.
Mr. Casada and Mr. Cothren, along with former state Rep. Robin Smith (R-Hixson) and others, were found guilty in a trial of more than a dozen public corruption charges related to a scheme that prosecutors say defrauded taxpayers through a state-funded mail-in program for Congress.
There are only a few weeks left until the two men go to prison. In September, U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson ordered Casada to self-report to the Federal Bureau of Prisons on Nov. 21 and serve three years in prison. He ordered Cothren to self-report to prison on Nov. 17 with a two-and-a-half year sentence.
Koslen’s attorney, Joy Boyd Longnecker, confirmed in a text message on Nov. 6 that Koslen, who was Casada’s former chief of staff, “received a call from President Trump today informing him that he will receive a full and unconditional pardon.” Longnecker said he would issue a “fuller statement” the next day. Casada’s attorney, Jonathan Farmer, would not confirm whether Casada had been pardoned as of 5:40 p.m. on Nov. 6.
The pardon had not yet been posted on the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Pardon Counsel’s website as of 7:56 p.m. Nov. 6.
Mr. Smith does not appear to have been pardoned. “Justice requires clemency for collaborators,” her lawyer Ben Rhodes wrote in a post to X. Smith pleaded guilty shortly after being indicted in 2022 and testified against his co-defendants at trial.
She was sentenced to eight months in prison.
This is not the first time this year that President Trump has pardoned a convicted Tennessee Republican lawmaker.
In March, former state Sen. Brian Kelsey was pardoned by President Trump, just two weeks after serving a 21-month sentence in federal prison for an illegal campaign finance scheme to which he pleaded guilty in 2022.
In addition to the prison terms they face, Richardson ordered Casada to pay a $30,000 fine and repay $4,600 earned from the criminal activity, and ordered Kozren to pay a $25,000 fine and repay the money earned from the criminal activity, which Richardson determined was $10,600.
Have questions about the justice system? Evan Mellins is the justice reporter for The Tennessean. For questions, tips and story ideas, please contact emealins@tennessean.com..
