Presentation of the Court: Sexton probably used a cable for federal investigators

The lawyers of a former president of the Chamber of Representatives and Legislative Employee accused in a federal corruption Provide researchers for information five years ago.

The former speaker Glen Casada and his chief of cabinet, Cade Cothren, affirm that federal prosecutors refuse to reveal the identity of people who gathered secret information against them in a fraud investigation, thus avoiding that the couple put them in the Position as witnesses in an established trial for April 22.

Sexton became a speaker after Casada resigned from office and is cooperating with federal prosecutors in the case. The presentation says that it is unlikely that the former director of the Legislative Administration, Connie Ridley, use a cable as part of the investigation and registered the conversations of the campaign committee of the Republican Caucus of the House of Representatives, as allegedly a person identified as “CHS1”.

“The most plausible explanation is that CHS1 is the speaker of the house, Cameron Sexton, or someone who works in the speaker’s office,” says the presentation.

The joint presentation at the United States District Court for Casada and Cothren says that federal prosecutors are hiding the identity of three informants. He says that the government could argue that references to one of the most important figures in the investigation could be confirmed in the emails. But he says that the references to the person in documents “suggest possible errors and point plausibly to more than one individual, thus improving the need for dissemination and clarification.”

Cothren and Casada are accused of executing a bribery scheme to help the former cabinet chief after being fired in 2019, on the other hand in racist and sexist text messages. A few months later, Married resigned after a vote without trust by the Republican Caucus of the Chamber.

The former president of the House of Representatives, Glen Casada, is seen in 2022. (Photo of the Tennessee Miradas Archive

According to federal documents, Cothren secretly directed a business called Phoenix Solutions so that their identity does not know, and married and former representative Robin Smith, a Hixson Republican, directed businesses to the members of the Republican Chamber. Cothren were paid almost $ 52,000 to make constituent emails for the members of the Chamber.

The Chamber’s Republican Caucus also hired Phoenix Solutions and paid approximately $ 140,000 for Caucus’s work.

The presentation of the lawyers of Casada and Cothren says that the investigation was “generated and strongly helped” by at least three identified confidential sources that “sub -ptically” recorded conversations about the defendants and Smith, revealed information about meetings of the house, he delivered Information about the foresting of the members and printing of accounts and gave “privileged information” about the new frank and printing guidelines issued by the speaker around June 2020.

Despite the role they played, government prosecutors have refused to reveal their identities because they do not plan to call them to testify.

Sexton confirmed that Cothren’s lawyer summoned him to testify in the case, although he again confirmed that he is cooperating with federal prosecutors. It was among the 19 legislators who received summons at the beginning of the legislative session of 2025.

Read more in Tennesseeelokout.com.