NASHVILLE — Multiple Tennessee lawmakers received subpoenas Wednesday to testify in the corruption trial of former House Speaker Glen Casada and his ex-chief of staff, Cade Cothren.
The Tennessee Lookout obtained a copy of a subpoena and cover letter from one lawmaker who spoke on condition of anonymity. The lawmaker said about 20 legislators were subpoenaed.
A federal marshal served the subpoenas on lawmakers during the second day of the 114th General Assembly session at the request of Nashville attorney Joy Boyd Longnecker and Cynthia Sherwood, the attorneys for Cothren. He and Casada face an April 22 trial on federal bribery and kickback charges involving state-funded constituent mailers run by a secretive vendor called Phoenix Solutions.
“In addition to the enclosed subpoena seeking your testimony in the defense’s case, you may be subpoenaed by the United States to testify in the government’s case,” Longnecker’s letter says.
Former state Rep. Robin Smith of Hixson pleaded guilty to federal charges in the case and is cooperating with prosecutors.
Cothren and Casada are accused of running a kickback scheme to help the former chief of staff after he was fired in 2019 for his part in racist and sexist text messages. A few months later, Casada resigned after a no-confidence vote by the House Republican Caucus.
According to federal documents, Cothren secretly ran the vendor so his identity wouldn’t be known, and Casada and Smith directed business to him from Republican House members. Cothren was paid nearly $52,000 to do constituent mailers for House members.
The House Republican Caucus also hired Phoenix Solutions, purportedly run by the bogus “Matthew Phoenix,” and paid him roughly $140,000 to do caucus work.
Cothren has denied wrongdoing, saying the work he was hired to was accomplished. Yet the indictment says he signed a W-4 federal tax form as Matthew Phoenix after the Legislative Administration required House vendors to fill out tax documents.
Cothren also has claimed he helped Rep. Cameron Sexton win the House speakership in 2019 before being paid tens of thousands of dollars through his business. He sought to subpoena phone records from Verizon Communications and Confide Inc., an encrypted message service, to show numerous communications between him and Sexton during 2019 and 2020 when he says he was a confidante of the Crossville Republican and worked on his speakership campaign before being ditched.
Casada resigned from the speaker’s post in August 2019, after less than a year on the job, amid the scandal involving Cothren and complaints about heavy-handed leadership. In addition to the texting scandal, Cothren admitted to using drugs in the Legislative Plaza offices, which upset several House members.