Brian Kelsey

Brian Kelsey, a former Tennessee state senator accused of violating federal campaign finance laws in a case related to his failed 2016 congressional campaign, is seeking to withdraw his guilty plea, arguing that he initially did so with “unsure heart and confused mind.” Kelsey pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the Federal Election Commission as well as aiding and abetting the acceptance of excessive contributions on behalf of a federal campaign. He faces up to five years in prison for each count. In October 2021, a federal grand jury in Nashville indicted Kelsey and Joshua Smith, who owns The Standard club - alleging that Kelsey, Smith and others violated campaign finance laws by illegally concealing the transfer of $91,000 — $66,000 from Kelsey’s state Senate campaign committee and $25,000 from a nonprofit that advocated about legal justice issues — to a national political organization to fund advertisements urging support of Kelsey’s congressional campaign.. Kelsey, a 44-year-old attorney from Germantown, was first elected to the General Assembly in 2004 as a state representative. He was later elected to the state Senate in 2009.