Nashville – Several Tennessee lawmakers received the subpoena on Wednesday, testifying at the corruption trial of former House Speaker Glen Casada and former chief of his staff, Cade Koren.

Tennessele Lookout obtained a copy of the subpoena and a cover letter from one lawmaker who spoke on condition of anonymity. Lawmakers said about 20 lawmakers had been summoned.

The Federal Former S subpoenaed lawmakers on the second day of the 114th General Assembly session, at the request of Nashville Attorney Joy Boyd Longnecker and Koren Attorney Cynthia Sherwood. He and Casada face an April 22 trial on federal bribery and kickback fees, including state-funded constituent mailers run by a secret vendor called Phoenix Solutions.

“In addition to the surrounded subpoena seeking your testimony in a defense case, you may be summoned to the United States to testify in a government case,” Longnecker’s letter says.

Former Hixon state MP Robin Smith pleaded guilty to federal charges in the case and has worked with prosecutors.

Cothren and Casada are accused of implementing a kickback scheme to support the former Chief of Staff after being fired in 2019 for some racist and sexist text messages. Months later, Casada resigned after an unconfident vote by the House Republican Caucus.

According to federal documents, Koslen secretly ran a vendor and his identity is unknown, so Casada and Smith turned business to him from Republican House members. Cothren was paid nearly $52,000 to do component mailers for Congressmen.

The House Republican Caucus also hired Phoenix Solutions, which is said to be run by the fake “Matthew Phoenix,” and paid about $140,000 to do the Caucus work.

Koslen denied the misconduct and said that the job he was hired had been accomplished. However, the indictment says he signed the W-4 federal tax form as Matthew Phoenix after the legislative administration requested House vendors to fill out their tax forms.

Koslen also claimed that Rep. Cameron Sexton helped him beat House Speaker in 2019 before being paid tens of thousands of dollars through his business. He summoned Verizon Communications’ phone records, encrypted messaging service Confide Inc., and showed numerous communications between him and Sexton in 2019 and 2020, and the Crossville Republican Party was the first to be found. He said he was a best friend and worked on a speakership campaign. It was abandoned.

Casada resigned from posting as a speaker in August 2019, less than a year into his job. In addition to the text messaging scandal, Koslen has allowed drug use in the legislative plaza office, disrupting several House members.