NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A former Tennessee state senator has reported to federal prison after he pleaded guilty in 2022 to an illegal campaign finance scheme, then tried and failed to take back his plea.
Brian Kelsey is now an inmate at FCI Ashland in Kentucky, according to a federal Bureau of Prisons database. The Republican was ordered to arrive at the prison’s minimum security satellite camp Monday for a 21-month sentence.
Kelsey, 47, pleaded guilty in November 2022 to charges related to his attempts to funnel campaign money from his state legislative seat toward his failed 2016 congressional bid.
After his October 2021 indictment, Kelsey deemed the case a witch hunt and blamed the Democratic administration of then-President Joe Biden. But when a co-defendant pleaded guilty the following October, Kelsey quickly did the same.
Afterward, Kelsey was unsuccessful in his March 2023 attempt to rescind the guilty plea.
Kelsey argued he should be allowed to go back on his guilty plea because he entered it with an “unsure heart and a confused mind” due to events in his personal life; he and his wife were caring for twin sons born in September 2022, and his father had terminal pancreatic cancer, then died in February 2023.
U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw in Nashville denied the change of plea in May 2023. He expressed disbelief that Kelsey, a Georgetown University-educated attorney and prominent former state senator, didn’t understand the gravity of pleading guilty.
Crenshaw later denied another challenge in which Kelsey accused prosecutors of violating his plea agreement. However, that September the judge also allowed Kelsey to stay out of prison until his appeal was decided. Kelsey’s challenge ultimately failed.
Last week, Crenshaw denied another motion to remain free by Kelsey, who argued he had ineffective legal counsel and that his claim of innocence is supported by recordings by two key witnesses — the co-defendant, Joshua Smith, and former GOP Rep. Jeremy Durham, who was not charged. The judge responded that Kelsey had given an “unconditional admission of guilt” under penalty of perjury.
Kelsey has again appealed.
“The law does not require a defendant to remain incarcerated while his conviction unravels under the weight of constitutional violations and government misconduct,” his attorneys wrote in the appeal to the 6th Circuit.
Smith, a Nashville social club owner, pleaded guilty to one count under a deal that required him to “cooperate fully and truthfully.” He was sentenced to five years of probation.
The indictment alleges that Kelsey, Smith and others illegally concealed the transfer of $91,000 — $66,000 from Kelsey’s state Senate campaign committee and $25,000 from a nonprofit that advocated about legal justice issues — to a national political organization to fund advertisements urging support of Kelsey’s 2016 failed congressional campaign. The scheme caused the political group to file false campaign finance reports and make illegal, excessive campaign contributions to Kelsey, the indictment says.
The indictment resembles a 2017 complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission and the Department of Justice by a nonprofit, the Campaign Legal Center, which named the American Conservative Union as making coordinated independent expenditures with Kelsey’s campaign. The American Conservative Union has said it has cooperated with investigators.
“Today marks an important moment in reassuring voters that the justice system protects their interests and that elected officials are not above the law,” said Shanna Ports, Campaign Legal Center’s senior legal counsel for campaign finance.
Kelsey, an attorney from Germantown, was first elected to the General Assembly in 2004 as a state representative. He was later elected to the Senate in 2009. He didn’t seek reelection in 2022.
Kelsey served as the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees changes to civil and criminal laws, judicial proceedings and more. His law license was suspended in 2022 after his guilty plea.