After 14 months, where there was smoke, there appeared to be no fire.
Until Monday, that is.
On Friday, Jan. 8, 2021, the homes and offices of state Rep. Robin Smith, R-Hixson, and three other Republican Tennessee lawmakers were raided as part of an ongoing federal probe into what were then said to be unknown matters.
At the time, she said she didn’t “even really know” why FBI agents would raid her home and office, and later that day her attorney assured her constituents, “Robin is not the target of the investigation, and she has not done anything wrong.”
Since then, she’d made no subsequent comment about the incident, no legal count was drawn against her, and she carried out her duties as a legislator.
On Monday, though, Smith was charged with one count of honest services wire fraud, per a nine-page information document unsealed in federal court. She subsequently resigned her seat in the legislature.
“I want you to know that serving the great people of this district, and indeed, all of Tennessee, has truly been an honor,” her letter to House Speaker Cameron Sexton reads. “I have resigned with the deepest of humility and out of respect for the role of public service.”
Nashville’s NewsChannel 5 reported that Monday’s charge is the first step in what is expected to be a guilty plea by Smith and a promise to cooperate in the ongoing investigation.
The fraud is wrapped up in a company called Phoenix Solutions that was set up by Cade Cothren, the former chief of staff of former House Speaker Glen Casada, “for the purpose of offering mail and consulting services for legislative members facing primary challengers, and was later expanded to offer constituent mail services to members of the Tennessee General Assembly.”
The information document further said Smith, Cothren [referred to in the document as Individual 2] and Casada [Individual 1] concealed Cothren’s involvement “from the State and members of the Tennessee General Assembly due to the expectation that Phoenix Solutions would not be approved by the Tennessee House Speaker’s Office, acting on behalf of the State, or hired as a vendor by individual members if [Cothren’s] involvement was disclosed.”
It further states that Smith and Casada received kickbacks – Smith getting at least two checks for more than $12,000 – from Cothren in exchange for using their positions as members of the Tennessee House to perform official acts, including pressuring the House speaker’s office to approve Phoenix Solutions as a vendor and to direct state funds to it.
The hubris that drove any Republicans to believe they needed a leg up in state Senate or House elections reminds us of former President Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal. In 1972, the Republican president was relatively popular with the American people, if not Democrats and the media. The Vietnam war was being brought to a close, and openings to the then-USSR and China had been broached. Little possibility existed that he would be beaten for re-election.
But officials within the Committee to Re-Elect the President authorized a plan that included burglarizing the Democratic National Committee headquarters to gain information and plant listening devices. When some of those people involved were caught in the act, the re-election committee and ultimately Nixon authorized cover-ups of the plan. The rest is history.
At the start of the 112th General Assembly in January 2021, the Tennessee House had 73 Republicans and 26 Democrats, and the Senate had 27 Republicans and six Democrats. In the 2020 presidential election, Republican Donald Trump won 92 of the state’s 95 counties. Republican held the governorship, the two U.S. Senate seats and seven of the state’s nine U.S. House seats. Democrats were making few inroads.
In other words, Republicans did not need the help of a Phoenix Solutions, even if it were fully vetted and approved and Cothren was not the disgraced former staffer of Casada, who resigned in May 2019 after the disclosure of text messages showing racist comments, the use of illegal drugs and vulgar comments toward women.
Frankly, we are shocked that Smith, who is smart, well-versed in the workings of the legislature from her days as Tennessee Republican Party chair, and is a former nurse who understands the ins and outs of complicated health legislation, would allow herself to become in involved in such shady activity.
But if, in fact, she has resigned and is pleading guilty in order to cooperate in the investigation, we applaud her for not letting the matter drag out.
Indeed, candidates for her seat have until Thursday, April 7, to qualify for the state primary and her 26th District seat in August.
Hamilton County Commissioner Greg Martin and Chattanooga City Councilman Ken Smith, both of whom represent the Hixson area, and outgoing Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger, who lives in Hixson, all would be formidable Republican primary candidates. It is unknown if any are interested.
For a woman who did much to help create the state’s Republican majority, we hate to see Smith’s legislative career end like this. Unfortunately, it’s only part of the price she’ll have to pay for running afoul of the law she swore to uphold.