President Trump on Thursday pardoned former Tennessee Home Speaker Glen Casada and his former chief of workers Cade Cothren, who had been convicted on federal corruption expenses.
Casada, a Republican, was sentenced in September to 3 years in jail over a 2020 scheme to obtain over $50,000 in taxpayer cash from a mailer program for lawmakers. Prosecutors stated Cothren, with help from Casada, listed a faux identify on tax paperwork for a political consulting agency that acquired the funds. Cothren was sentenced to 2.5 years in jail.
George Walker IV / AP
“The defendants abused their energy as authorities officers and defrauded taxpayers for their very own enrichment,” Matthew Galeotti, head of the Justice Division Felony Division, stated after the September sentencing. “The Felony Division is dedicated to holding accountable those that betray public belief.”
However the White Home stated Friday that the Justice Division underneath former President Joe Biden had “considerably over-prosecuted these people for a minor subject involving constituent mailers — which had been billed at aggressive costs, by no means acquired a grievance from legislators, and resulted in a internet revenue lack of lower than $5,000.”
Casada’s lawyer Ed Yarbough stated he was nonetheless ready for the pardon paperwork, however Mr. Trump had known as Casada on Thursday to provide him the information that he could be granted a full pardon. The decision got here days earlier than Casada was presupposed to report back to jail to serve his sentence.
Casada resigned as speaker in 2019 amid a number of scandals that weren’t associated to the corruption expenses, together with reviews he had exchanged sexually express texts about ladies with Cothren.
Cothren resigned shortly earlier than Casada, after sexual, racist and drug-fueled texts he had despatched had been revealed by Information Channel 5 in Nashville and different retailers. He additionally admitted that he had used cocaine in a state legislative workplace constructing whereas in a earlier job.
Mark Humphrey / AP 
Throughout his second time period, Mr. Trump has pardoned a number of Republican lawmakers who had been convicted of fraud or corruption. In mid-October, he commuted the sentence of former New York Rep. George Santos, who was serving over seven years in jail for wire fraud and aggravated id theft. In Might 2025, Mr. Trump pardoned former New York Rep. Michael Grimm, who served eight months in jail in 2015 for tax evasion.
