Former Speaker of the House in the Tennessee legislature, Glen Casada, was arrested on multiple charges of corruption. Casada was one of the leaders of the state Republican Party. His singular achievement as leader was pushing through a hotly-contested voucher bill by one vote.
FormerTennessee House Speaker Glen Casada and his one-time top aide Cade Cothren have been indicted on federal charges following a months-long corruption investigation.
Both face charges ranging from money laundering to bribery and were arrested Tuesday morning, according to a Department of Justice spokesperson.
Casada and Cothren were brought into federal court in handcuffs for their initial appearance on Tuesday. They pleaded not guilty during the hearing shortly before noon….
The charges mark a new low in a stunning fall for Casada, once one of the General Assembly’s most powerful Republicans. He resigned the short-lived speakership in 2019 amid a texting scandal over sexually explicit and racist conversations with his former chief of staff, Cothren.
A grand jury officially indicted the pair on Monday, the Department of Justice said, on charges that could carry up to 20 years in prison.
Both men are charged with:
- theft from programs receiving federal funds;
- bribery and kickbacks concerning programs receiving federal funds;
- honest services wire fraud;
- conspiracy to commit money laundering
- using a fictitious name to carry out a fraud;
- eight counts of money laundering.
During his time as speaker, Casada’s most notable achievement was pushing through Gov. Bill Lee’s school voucher plan.
More:GOP chairman regrets voting for voucher bill, says program won’t be implemented in 2020
The bill only passed after Casada made a deal with a House member to remove his county from the legislation. The move broke a deadlock, which would have seen the bill fail.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Speaking of Speakers of the House:
“Paul Pelosi already served two days in jail and received conduct credit for two other days, Napa County Superior Court Judge Joseph Solga said. Paul Pelosi will work eight hours in the court’s work program in lieu of the remaining day, Solga said during Paul Pelosi’s sentencing, which he did not attend.”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/paul-pelosi-jail-time-dui_n_63051437e4b035629bfef9ae
Incidentally, he received a massive PPP loan that he will never have to pay back, while his wife opposes student loan debt forgiveness.
And also incidentally, he and his wife have made millions on insider trading.
Did Paul Pelosi support vouchers?
Nancy Pelosi is the Speaker of the House of the Congress of the United States. I think that’s just a wee bit more influential than the Speaker of the House of Tennessee. There is a long trail of evidence of her and her family’s corruption. Yet you say nothing about one (a Democrat) while posting this about the other (a Republican). I think there’s a word that applies here … partisan, maybe?
Yes, I am partisan. I vote for Democrats. I despise the Party of Trump. I don’t report on every politician or his/her spouse and their misdeeds, but in the case of the Tennessee House Speaker, he forced the passage of a voucher bill.
Did Nancy Pelosi? No.
Did her husband? No.
Nancy Pelosi has been repeatedly elected as Speaker of the House because her colleagues admire and respect her.
If you think you can bully me into treating Democrats and Trumpers as equally corrupt, stop wasting your time.
I will Vote Blue in November.
Period.
Insider trading: https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/60-minutes-report-on-pelosi-prompts-bill-to-prohibit-congressional-insider-trading/
Why is this the only one of my posts that shows up? It was meant as a support to the prior one.
No comment of yours or anyone else is in moderation
Senators and Representatives don’t draw enormous salaries. However, they typically start their careers worth around 500K and then soon become multimillionaires. How exactly does THAT happen? Wouldn’t have anything to do with inside information, huh?
Endemic corruption.
It just occurred to me that all elected RINO Republicans and anyone running for office and even losing, at every level: county, city, state, to federal, that still publicly support Traitor Trump’s Big Lie are probably being investigated to determine if they were complicit in the traitor’s ongoing attempted coups.
Traitor Trump hasn’t given up yet in pulling off a coup. Just like everything else in his life, he keeps failing and never gives up.
The traitor has failed at business repeatedly but the banks were the biggest losers.
The traitor’s cons and frauds have failed repeatedly but his business partners were the biggest losers.
When the traitor can’t win a court case or drive the person/business he’s taken to court into bankruptcy to they’ll quiet, he settles out of court.
The traitor’s term as president was a failure.
The traitor failed at handling the COVID pandemic
The traitor continues to fail in his attempt to pull off a coup.
Traitor Trump must think if he tosses the dice enough times sooner or later he’s going to win.
And if the traitor is found guilty in court, and ends in prision he will fight to get into a more comfortable, safer prison and fight to keep his mobile phone and fight to retain his internet use from his cell.
one down. . . .
One mistake he made was not using his real name to carry out fraud.
Apparently what they nail you on in Tennessee is using a fictitious name to carry out fraud..
Another mistake he made was “honest services wire fraud”
“dishonest services fraud” might have been better.
It’s about daxxed time!
Here is the link to the press release:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdtn/pr/tennessee-state-representative-former-chief-staff-indicted-bribery-kickback-conspiracy
“NASHVILLE –Tennessee State Representative Glen Casada, 63, of Franklin, Tennessee, and his former Chief of Staff Cade Cothren, 35, of Nashville, were indicted by a federal grand jury yesterday and charged with conspiracy to commit the following offenses: theft from programs receiving federal funds; bribery and kickbacks concerning programs receiving federal funds; honest services wire fraud; and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The 20-count indictment, unsealed this morning, also charges Casada and Cothren with using a fictitious name to carry out a fraud; theft concerning programs receiving federal funds; eight counts of money laundering; six counts of honest services wire fraud; and two counts of bribery and kickbacks.”
I think vouchers are the “bribery & kickbacks re programs receiving fed funds”
Unlike philanthropists, politicians can cross a line and be held legally accountable. The author of a new book wrote, “Many if not most acts of philanthropy are usurpations of public authority.” Philanthropic money subverts social and political equality.
No accountability for Bill Gates, Leonard Leo, state Catholic Conferences, Family Research Council nor the funders and staff of Fordham Institute.
Jail time for the politicians who take a cut while enabling oligarchy and theocracy.
Rigged.
The bribed sometimes get caught and (rarely) punished but the bribers almost always go free.
And that’s only for the cases that legally quality as bribery.
The Supreme Court made sone of the most massive and far reaching cases of
bribery legal with their Citizens United ruling.
It was a handsome return on investment for organizations like the Federalist Society.
“All [of the most critical problems we face as a country] however, are problems of political corruption at their core. And in almost every case, a solution to these problems is being blocked by politicians being paid off in a fashion legalized by Republicans on the Supreme Court.
And all began with a handful of Republicans on the US Supreme claiming that corporations are persons and money is constitutionally-protected free speech.”
That’s a quote from Thom Hartman
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/08/24/march-towards-us-fascism-began-corporate-hijacking-democracy
There are several approaches we could take to fix this, which I’ve discussed in the past and will again in the future.
But, like President Teddy Roosevelt did back in the day, first we have to establish a nationwide consensus that this is the crisis, the cancer at the core of our democracy, that must be dealt with immediately.
That whole thing is from Thom Hartman
Hartman is right. If nothing is done, the Supreme Court and the unlimited legal bribery of publuc officials that it has spawned are going to be the death of our democracy.
100% correct
The PPP helped a lot of organizations keep going during the pandemic and they put the money to good use.
Those who took advantage to line their own pockets should be prosecuted.
I love the way those who have money complain when those in poverty are given a life line, but are the first to grab every penny they can get (and they don’t care if it’s done legally or not). The word entitled doesn’t even begin to describe it.
NPE exposed the large number of charter schools and private schools (with large endowments) that asked for and received $1 billion in PPP funds, even though they had no need. And the charters simultaneously received funding from the money allocated for public schools. Charters called themselves both “public schools” and “private businesses” to double dip.
I hope they find those shysters and prosecute.
Maybe the money that was just allocated to the IRS can go toward investigation and prosecution of charters.
NOD should send them their investigation findings.
That should give the scarecfows a little fire.
NPE not NOD