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Nov. 22 (UPI) -- A former Tennessee state senator pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges stemming from a corruption scheme that financially backed his unsuccessful 2016 bid for the U.S. Congress. A federal grand jury in Nashville had filed a five-count indictment against then-State Sen. Brian Kelsey in late October of 2021, spurring the 44-year-old Germantown resident to claim he was "totally innocent" and that the charges were "nothing but a political witch hunt."
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On Tuesday, Kelsey pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance laws and conspiring to defraud the Federal Election Commission, the Justice Department said in a statement.
Court documents state that Kelsey admitted to having illegally funneled money from his Tennessee State Senate campaign committee and other sources to his federal campaign for the 2016 Republican primary, which he eventually lost, finishing fourth, according to Tennessee election results.
The indictment states that Kelsey and Joshua Smith -- the owner of a members-only Nashville social club popular with politicians and local businessmen -- had worked together on the nearly yearlong scheme to shuttle so-called soft money from his local campaign to his federal one. The court documents also state that they also caused an unnamed political organization to make illegal excessive contributions to Kelsey's run for Congress.
Soft money are funds in amounts or from sources that are prohibited under federal law, according to the FEC.
Prosecutors said the pair worked from at least Feb. 1, 2016 to Oct. 13 of that year, illegally moving some $91,000, of which $66,000 was from his state campaign and $25,000 from a political organization, to fund campaign advertisements urging voters to send him to the U.S. House of Representatives.
The political organization also made $80,000 worth of hidden contributions to Kelsey's authorized federal campaign committee, prosecutors said, adding that the federal campaign committee and the unknown political organization were then tasked to create and submit false reports to the FEC.
In March, Kelsey announced that he would not seek re-election for state senate, saying that hopes to run again for elected office in the future.
Last month, Smith pleaded guilty to charges of aiding and abetting the solicitation, receipt, direction, transfer and sending of soft money in connection with a federal election. He is awaiting sentencing.
Kelsey is scheduled to be sentenced on June 9, when he could face a maximum penalty of five years' imprisonment on each count.
