Tennessee House speaker accused of wearing wire to incriminate predecessor in fraud claim
Attorneys for a former House speaker and legislative staffer indicted in a federal corruption case say in a new court filing that House Speaker Cameron Sexton or someone on his staff likely wore a wire to provide investigators with information five years ago.
Ex-Speaker Glen Casada and his chief of staff, Cade Cothren, claim federal prosecutors are refusing to disclose the identity of people who secretly gathered information against them in a fraud investigation, thus keeping the pair from putting them on the stand as witnesses in a trial set for April 22. Attorneys for Casada and Cothren want the court to compel federal prosecutors to identify their informants.
Sexton became House speaker after Casada resigned from the post and is cooperating with federal prosecutors in the case. The filing says it is unlikely that former Legislative Administration director Connie Ridley wore a wire as part of the investigation and recorded House Republican Caucus Campaign Committee conversations, as a person identified as “CHS1” allegedly did.
“The more plausible explanation is that CHS1 is the Speaker of the House, Cameron Sexton, or someone working in the Speaker’s office,” the filing says.
The joint filing in U.S. District Court by Casada and Cothren says federal prosecutors are hiding the identity of three informants. It says the government could argue that references to one of the most important figures in the investigation could be confirmed in emails. But it says references to the person in documents “suggest possible errors and plausibly point to more than one individual, thereby enhancing the need for disclosure and clarification.”
Former House Speaker Glen Casada, photographed in 2022. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
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 a business called Phoenix Solutions 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 and paid roughly $140,000 for caucus work.
The filing by Casada’s and Cothren’s attorneys says the investigation was “spawned and heavily aided” by at least three confidential sources identified as CHS who “surreptitiously” recorded conversations about the defendants and Smith, disclosed information about House meetings, turned over information about members’ postage and printing accounts and gave “insider information” about new postage and printing guidelines issued by the speaker around June 2020.
Despite the role they played, government prosecutors have refused to disclose their identities because they don’t plan to call them to testify.
Sexton has confirmed Cothren’s attorney subpoenaed him to testify in the case, though he again confirmed he is cooperating with federal prosecutors. He was among 19 lawmakers who received subpoenas early in the 2025 legislative session.
(This story has been updated since original publication.)