Probe: State House speaker, others get grand jury subpoenas

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee's Republican House speaker says he and other state lawmakers have been subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury in an intensifying federal investigation, following a former lawmaker's guilty plea to wire fraud in an alleged political consulting kickback scheme that implicates the speaker's scandal-plagued predecessor.

In a statement, Speaker Cameron Sexton reiterated he has been “fully cooperating” with federal authorities in the investigation since assuming the top House position in 2019 after Rep. Glen Casada was pressured into resigning from the speaker role.

"It is not unexpected that I and other members would be called to appear before a grand jury to provide factual statements as part of this ongoing investigation,” Sexton said in the statement.

Earlier this month, a federal wire fraud charge was unsealed against former Republican Rep. Robin Smith. She quickly resigned and then pleaded guilty a day later, pledging her cooperation with authorities as the investigation unfolds.

Federal authorities say Smith, Casada and his former chief of staff Cade Cothren collaborated on a consulting firm, Phoenix Solutions, as a way to funnel money to themselves secretively and illegally through both campaign and taxpayer-funded work. Prosecutors have so far kept Casada and Cothren unnamed and have not charged them with anything, but they described the two in easily identifiable terms in court documents.

Prosecutors said the three claimed the firm was run by a certain “Matthew Phoenix.” In fact, it was Cothren using an alias because they feared lawmakers and the House speaker’s office — which Sexton had taken over — would not use the vendor if Cothren’s involvement came to light, prosecutors allege.

Casada and Cothren had been pushed...