MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The U.S. Department of Justice announced that Tennessee State Senator Brian Kelsey from Germantown pleaded guilty Tuesday to violating federal campaign finance laws in his 2016 campaign for Congress.
The guilty plea comes after Kelsey initially criticized the charges as a political witch hunt.
The DOJ said 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.
Nearly a year ago, a federal grand jury in Nashville handed up a five-count indictment against Kelsey and Nashville social club owner Joshua Smith. The indictment alleged that the two violated campaign finance laws by illegally concealing the transfer of $91,000 during the Republican lawmaker's 2016 failed congressional campaign.
Prosecutors also allege that Kelsey and others caused a national nonprofit political organization to make illegal and excessive campaign contributions to Kelsey by coordinating with the organization on advertisements, and they caused the organization to file false reports to the Federal Election Commission.
Smith has since pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the solicitation and spending of at least $25,000 of so-called "soft money" — or funds not subject to federal limitations and reporting requirements — in connection with a federal election. The plea was part of an agreement Smith struck with prosecutors in which he agreed to truthfully testify "regarding the activities that took place."
Kelsey stood in the Senate chamber shortly after the charges were announced, declared he was "totally innocent" and vowed his name would be cleared at trial. He later announced that he wouldn't run for reelection this year. The trial was originally set for January 2023.
Kelsey, from Germantown, was first elected to the General Assembly in 2004 as a state representative. He was later elected to the Senate in 2009.
Separately, the indictment mentions but does not charge two alleged co-conspirators, one of whom is described as an attorney and former Tennessee House member expelled in 2016. Former Rep. Jeremy Durham, a Republican attorney from Franklin, was the only lawmaker expelled that year.