Ex-Tennessee senator begins federal prison term

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A former Tennessee state senator has begun serving his federal prison sentence following a guilty plea to an illegal campaign finance scheme in 2022. Despite attempts to retract his plea, Brian Kelsey is now an inmate at the federal corrections institution in Ashland, Kentucky. He was ordered to commence his 21-month prison sentence at the satellite camp on Monday.

In November 2022, Kelsey, aged 47, admitted to illegally redirecting campaign funds from his state legislative role to support his unsuccessful congressional campaign in 2016. Initially, Kelsey dismissed his October 2021 indictment as a politically motivated attack by the then-Biden administration. However, after a co-defendant entered a guilty plea the following October, Kelsey followed suit. His March 2023 efforts to rescind his plea proved unsuccessful.

Kelsey argued that personal crises clouded his judgment when he pleaded guilty, citing the care of twin sons born in September 2022 and the death of his father from pancreatic cancer in February 2023. Nevertheless, in May 2023, U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw ruled against allowing him to withdraw his plea, expressing skepticism that Kelsey, a well-educated attorney and once-prominent politician, did not grasp the severity of his admission of guilt.

While Kelsey accused prosecutors of breaching the plea agreement, Judge Crenshaw also rejected that challenge. However, he permitted Kelsey to delay his prison term until the appeal decision, though the appeal did not succeed finally. Last week, another attempt by Kelsey to remain at liberty, alleging inadequacies in his legal representation and claiming innocence backed by recorded evidence, was denied. Crenshaw reiterated Kelsey’s “unconditional admission of guilt” under oath.

Kelsey has continued his legal battle with a new appeal. His lawyers argue that constitutional violations and government misconduct should not mandate his incarceration during the appeal process. Meanwhile, co-defendant Joshua Smith, who owns a Nashville social club, entered a guilty plea under a cooperation agreement and was sentenced to five years of probation.

According to the indictment, Kelsey, Smith, and others obscured the movement of $91,000—sourced partly from Kelsey’s state Senate campaign and a nonprofit focused on legal justice—to finance advertisements supporting Kelsey’s 2016 congressional run. The subterfuge resulted in falsified campaign finance reports and excessive contributions to Kelsey. The document does not specifically name the national political group involved, yet a 2017 complaint highlighted that the American Conservative Union allegedly coordinated expenditures with Kelsey’s campaign. The Union, on its part, has claimed cooperation with the investigation.

Shanna Ports, a senior legal counsel for the Campaign Legal Center, remarked that this development reassures voters that elected officials are subject to the law. Kelsey, who began his legislative career in 2004 and advanced to the Senate in 2009, chose not to seek reelection in 2022. He chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee before his law license was suspended following his guilty plea.