President Donald Trump has pardoned a former top Tennessee lawmaker and his chief of staff — two Republicans who say they were unfairly targeted by the Biden Department of Justice (DOJ).
The White House confirmed Friday to news outlets that the president had pardoned former Tennessee state House Speaker Glen Casada (R) and his former chief of staff Cade Cothren. Both had pleaded not guilty but were convicted of corruption charges.
Prosecutors had alleged Casada and Cothren had worked “with another unnamed lawmaker to funnel money to themselves using a political consulting firm — known as Phoenix Solutions, LLC — to conceal their involvement,” the Hill reported.
The arrangement allegedly was used to get taxpayer-funded mail business from other state lawmakers.
A White House official told the Hill, “The Biden Department of Justice significantly over-prosecuted these individuals for a minor issue involving constituent mailers — which were billed at competitive prices, never received a complaint from legislators, and resulted in a net profit loss of less than $5,000.”
“The Biden DOJ responded with an armed raid, perp walk and suggested sentences exceeding 10 years – penalties normally reserved for multimillion dollar fraudsters,” the official added.
In September, Casada was sentenced to three years in prison, Cothren to two and a half.
The former lawmaker was found guilty of 17 charges in the public corruption case, while Cothren was found guilty of all 19 charges in the trial, which began in April.
Casada resigned in 2019 after a no-confidence vote by fellow Tennessee Republicans.
Cothren had taken to social media since Trump’s 2024 reelection “to claim that he was among the Republicans who have been unfairly targeted by Democrats” and frequently posted about his support for the president, as reported by the Washington Post.
Trump has repeatedly come to the aid of those he says were subject to “witch hunts” by Democrats. As Breitbart News has reported, such “lawfare” was responsible for his own New York conviction of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
Trump has pardoned or given clemency to a number of politicians, including former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat who served nearly eight years in prison after he was convicted by the Obama DOJ for trying to sell a Senate seat.
Trump’s most sweeping pardon involved nearly all of the some 1600 defendants convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot and the commutation of the sentences of 14 others.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more
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