Two years after being sentenced to prison for breaking federal campaign finance laws, former Tennessee state Sen. Brian Kelsey (R-Germantown) is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse his conviction on a technicality.
Kelsey, who served in the state House and Senate, filed a request Dec. 2 for the nation’s highest court to review a decision by the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, which refused to reverse his guilty plea and grant a trial after U.S. District Court Judge Waverly Crenshaw sentenced him to serve 21 months in prison.
Kelsey’s filing says federal prosecutors violated his plea agreement at the sentencing hearing two years ago, in part by advocating for a harsher punishment, even though he received less time than he could have under federal law after Crenshaw took character witnesses into account.
U.S. Appeals Court upholds Tennessee former state Sen. Brian Kelsey’s guilty plea
Kelsey pleaded guilty in November 2022 to funneling more than $100,000 from his state campaign account through two political action committees to the American Conservative Union, which bought digital and radio advertising to bolster his failed bid for a congressional seat in 2016.
Represented by Nashville attorney Joy Boyd Longnecker of Barnes & Thornburg, the fourth change of legal counsel in the case, Kelsey says the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals applied the wrong type of review when it denied his request to renege on the guilty plea and go to trial.
Kelsey says federal prosecutors agreed not to seek a harsher penalty for perjury or obstruction of justice — after Kelsey backed away from his guilty plea — but then contradicted themselves at the sentencing hearing when questioned by the judge.
Initially, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the 21-month prison sentence and ordered Kelsey to report Oct. 1 to a federal facility in Ashland, Kentucky. But then it gave him a 90-day reprieve allowing him to file a petition for a writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court. He is to report to prison if the high court refuses to hear the case.
Kelsey, who has been living in Lexington, Kentucky, conspired with Josh Smith, owner of The Standard dinner club in downtown Nashville, former state Rep. Jeremy Durham and Republican supporter Andy Miller to run the money from his state account through The Standard political action committee and Citizens 4 Ethics in Government to cover up the movement of funds. The American Conservative Union then received the money and used it to buy radio and digital ads to back Kelsey’s campaign.
Federal campaign finance regulations prohibit state campaign money from being used for federal races, mainly because it is raised under different rules.
Smith pleaded guilty in connection with the case and was fined $250,000 and sentenced to five years of probation after agreeing to cooperate with federal prosecutors.
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