From the Tennessean:
Tennessee Sen. Brian Kelsey has been indicted in a campaign finance conspiracy alongside a Nashville social club owner, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Nashville announced Monday.
A federal grand jury returned a five-count indictment charging Kelsey, 43, and club owner Joshua Smith, 44, with violating multiple campaign finance laws as part of a conspiracy to benefit Kelsey’s 2016 campaign for U.S. Congress.
Smith owns The Standard, an elite Nashville club that also operates its own state political action committee. There, the investigators allege, they illegally funneled money into Kelsey’s campaign on one occasion at a private dinner on July 11, 2016 through the club’s PAC.
Kelsey, R-Germantown, and Smith are accused of secretly and illegally shuffling “soft money” from Kelsey’s Tennessee state Senate campaign committee to his authorized federal campaign committee.
“Soft money” includes funds that are not subject to the limitations, prohibitions, and reporting requirements of the Federal Election Campaign Act. Federal law caps campaign donations to $2,700 from any one individual or organization to a single candidate in each election.
The indictment alleges Kelsey, Smith and other unindicted co-conspirators funneled tens of thousands of dollars between February 2016 and October 2016 to Kelsey’s federal campaign for the 8th Congressional District.
In a brief news conference Monday afternoon, Kelsey and his attorney Ty Howard defended the senator. Kelsey called his charges “a political witch hunt” and blamed it on President Joe Biden and Democrats. The investigation into his campaign finances has been ongoing for years and started before Biden was president.
“I am totally innocent,” Kelsey said.