A federal appeals court is giving former state Sen. Brian Kelsey three months to request a hearing before the nation’s highest court as he makes a last-ditch effort to reverse a campaign finance conviction and avoid prison.
The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Kelsey’s request for another hearing to plead his case to rescind a November 2022 guilty plea but then issued an order Friday giving him a 90-day reprieve.
In a Friday order, the court allowed him to file a petition for a writ of certiorari before the Supreme Court but required him to report to prison immediately if the high court refuses to hear the case.
Initially, the three-judge panel upheld a 21-month prison sentence for breaking federal campaign laws and ordered him to report Oct. 1 to a federal facility in Ashland, Kentucky.
The panel also approved Kelsey’s request to replace his Nashville attorneys, Alex Little and Zachary Lawson, with Nashville attorney Joy Boyd Longnecker of Barnes & Thornburg. It marked the fourth change of legal counsel for Kelsey in the case.
Kelsey pleaded guilty in November 2022 to funneling more than $100,000 from his state campaign account through two political action committees to the American Conservative Union, which bought digital and radio advertising to bolster his failed bid for a congressional seat.
The former Germantown Republican, who has been living in Lexington, Kentucky, conspired with Josh Smith, owner of The Standard dinner club in downtown Nashville, former state Rep. Jeremy Durham and Republican supporter Andy Miller to run the money through The Standard political action committee and Citizens 4 Ethics in Government to cover up the movement of funds. The American Conservative Union then received the money and used it to buy radio and digital ads to back Kelsey’s campaign.
Federal campaign finance regulations prohibit money from state campaign accounts from being used for federal races, mainly because it is raised under different rules.
Smith pleaded guilty in connection with the case and was fined $250,000 and sentenced to five years of probation after agreeing to cooperate with federal prosecutors.
Durham, Miller and Amanda Bunning, a former American Conservative Union lobbyist who would later marry Kelsey, were not indicted but were mentioned either as unnamed conspirators or persons of interest in the federal indictment. Court documents show Bunning pushed the American Conservative Union to get involved in Kelsey’s campaign.
When Kelsey tried to renege on his plea in mid-2023, he claimed his judgment had been clouded by his slow father’s illness and the crying of his twin infants. In addition, he said he didn’t understand the criminal justice system even though he was an attorney and at one point chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Kelsey’s attorneys also contended that federal prosecutors erred at his sentencing hearing and violated the plea agreement, in part by seeking harsher punishment. Yet he received less time than he could have under federal law after U.S. District Court Judge Waverly Crenshaw took character witnesses into account.
Immediately after the indictment, Kelsey went to the Senate floor and denounced the charges, calling the case a “witch hunt” against him by the Biden administration. The investigation began during former President Donald Trump’s term.
Kelsey was a favorite of conservatives, sponsoring the bill that made it more complex to expand Medicaid for people without health insurance and carrying Gov. Bill Lee’s private-school voucher bill. He also passed a constitutional amendment to prohibit a state income tax.
As a House member early in his political career, Kelsey used bacon as a prop on the chamber floor to decry what he called “pork spending.”
Senate Republicans redrew his Shelby County district after he narrowly defeated Democratic candidate Gabby Salinas in 2018. He was backed by $300,000 in independent expenditures by Lt. Gov. Randy McNally.
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