Robin Smith should have known better. As a state lawmaker, she surely knew it was wrong for an elected House of Representatives member to profit from the state in any way other than through her paycheck as a state rep.
Also, as a political consultant, Smith, a former Tennessee Republican Party chair, should have known better. In her day job away from the Tennessee General Assembly, she was paid by clients to make them look good and to sniff out controversies that make their political opponents look bad, whether they are or not.
But according to a newly filed federal charge against the now-former Rep. Smith, it wasn’t just that she should have known better: It was that she did know better, which is why, federal prosecutors claim, she “devised and intended to devise a scheme and artifice to defraud and deprive the citizens of … Tennessee and the government of Tennessee of their right to the honest services of a public official, namely the honest services [of herself and] members of the Tennessee House of Representatives through kickbacks.”
According to the charge, filed in federal court Friday in Nashville, the Hixson Republican faces one count of honest services wire fraud, a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison. She submitted her resignation from the House of Representatives effective Monday, and the federal court that same day received notice that she plans to plead guilty Tuesday.
According to the charging document, Smith so well knew better that she and “Individual 1 and Individual 2” – former House Speaker Glen Casada and Casada’s former chief of staff, Cade Cothren – made up a company name and a fictitious political consultant to go into cahoots together to provide political consulting and mailers for other state lawmakers. The state allows lawmakers to avail themselves of $3,000 each in state money plus their own campaign funds to pay for consulting and mailer services.
Smith and Casada – also a political consultant by trade who was forced to resign his speaker role after another scandal with Cothren in 2019 – were savvy enough to understand that they could not sell their consultations outright because a) it would look like a conflict, and b) it would be a conflict, and c) it would have to be approved by the state and couldn’t be for all the ethical and legal reasons listed above.
So with Smith’s and Casada’s “knowledge and support,” Cothren established Phoenix Solutions LLC to offer consulting services for legislators facing primary challengers. The fake firm was later expanded to offer constituent mail services.
Smith lied to fellow lawmakers that Phoenix Solutions was run by a guy named Matthew Phoenix, an experienced political consultant who had previously worked with her. But prosecutors write that Matthew Phoenix was “a fictitious person and was, in truth and in fact, Individual 2 [Cothren].”
The document continues: “Smith, [Casada and Cothren] concealed [Cothren’s] involvement in Phoenix Solutions from the state and members of the Tennessee General Assembly due to the expectation that Phoenix Solutions would not be approved” by the state, “or hired as a vendor by individual members” if Cothren’s involvement was disclosed.
“Smith, [Casada and Cothren] also concealed the fact that [Cothren] kicked back a portion of the profits from the state and members of the Tennessee General Assembly to Smith and [Casada] …”
It gets worse.
In early 2020, Smith was informed that state officials needed to work directly with Matthew Phoenix. She told Cothren this, and he was “notified” that the state could not pay Phoenix Solutions without an Internal Revenue Service form W-9 on file. So, prosecutors wrote, Cothren sent a W-9 signed by “Matthew Phoenix” from a fake email he’d set up.
In another email, Smith sought to engage Cothren, as the fictitious Matthew Phoenix, with a party official seeking constituent mailers and consults. She told him he “may have to assume the role of Matthew again.” Cothren replied, “Matthew, reporting for duty!” and included a GIF picture of a salute from Harrison Ford’s character Han Solo in the movie “Star Wars.”
Smith even emailed the General Assembly’s director of legislation to complain about delays in the mail program payments from the state to Phoenix Solutions, writing: “I was cc’d on this last week … It would be either illegal or unethical to move to print without knowing payment was coming …”
Funny. She knew about the state’s ethical and legal responsibilities. Go figure.
And, yes, according to the federal charge, she was paid. Cothren emailed her and Casada: “Friends, Here’s our up-to-date printing spreadsheet. All of these checks have been collected and deposited. All bills related to these print jobs have also been paid. So, let me know what address is best for you and I will cut checks for each of you?”
The charge summary states that from June through December of 2020, Phoenix Solutions’ bank account received about $158,165, and during 2020, “Phoenix Solutions, Company 1 [Smith’s consulting firm] and Company 2 [Casada’s consulting firm] received approximately $51,947 from the state in payments associated with the mailer program.”
In her resignation letter Monday, Smith wrote: “I want you to know that serving the great people of this district, and indeed, all of Tennessee, has truly been an honor. I have resigned with the deepest of humility and out of respect for the role of public service.”
Humility? Respect? If even half of what’s in the federal filing is true, Smith has no concept of humility and respect.