NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A federal appeals panel is upholding a 21 month prison sentence in place of a former Tennessee state senator who tried to withdraw his guilty plea about violations of campaign finance law.
Monday’s ruling in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals focuses on former Sen. Brian Kelsey’s August 2023 sentencing. The Republican pleaded guilty to charges related to his attempts to funnel campaign money from his state legislative seat to his failed run for Congress in 2016. His lawyers argued that federal prosecutors violated Kelsey’s plea agreement when they said a longer sentence harsh could be applied after it attempted to withdraw his guilty plea in March 2023.
Kelsey remained out of jail during her appeal to the 6th Circuit under the trial judge’s order. He even has additional appeal options.
According to two of the three appeals judges, Kelsey’s legal team failed to raise an objection to federal prosecutors’ alleged violation of her plea deal. The third judge said the defense attorney properly raised the objection but concluded that prosecutors did not violate the plea agreement.
In the opinion, Judge Karen Nelson Moore wrote that Kelsey still received a more favorable sentence than the guidelines for her offense indicate, with or without the increased sentence the judge requested for obstruction of justice.
“Notwithstanding the government’s conduct, Kelsey received the main benefit of the plea agreement – a sentence not only within the range contemplated by the parties, but below it – so it is unclear how any violation harmed Kelsey,” Moore wrote.
Prosecutors argued that Kelsey broke her agreement first when she tried to back out of her guilty plea and that a harsher sentence would have been appropriate, but they ultimately chose not to seek the harsher sentence.
In a concurring opinion, Judge Raymond Kethledge wrote that prosecutors’ sentencing comments were an appropriate response to a question from District Judge Waverly Crenshaw and did not expressly request that the judge impose the increased sentence.
In March 2023, Kelsey argued that she should be allowed to backtrack on her November 2022 guilty plea because she declared it with an “unsure heart and a confused mind” due to events in her personal life; His father had terminal pancreatic cancer and died that February, and he and his wife were caring for twin sons born the previous September.
Crenshaw denied the change of basis in May 2023. He expressed disbelief that Kelsey, a Georgetown University-educated lawyer and prominent former state senator, did not understand the gravity of his guilty plea.
Before that, Kelsey had pleaded not guilty, saying many times that she was being targeted by Democrats. But he changed his mind soon after his co-defendant, Nashville social club owner Joshua Smith, pleaded guilty to one count under a deal that required him to “fully and truly cooperate” with federal authorities. Smith was sentenced to five years probation.
Kelsey, a Germantown attorney, was first elected to the General Assembly in 2004 as a state representative. He was later elected to the state Senate in 2009. He did not seek re-election in 2022.
Kelsey served as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees changes to civil and criminal laws, court proceedings, and more.
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