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Glen Casada and Cade Cothren’s alleged co-conspirator testified on Monday that the trio intentionally deceived the state legislature in an attempt to capture state funds.
Former Rep. Robin Smith pleaded guilty to honest services wire fraud in March 2022. The charge stemmed from the role she played in a scheme where she and Casada allegedly pressured House members to use Phoenix Solutions — a New Mexico-based consultancy set up by Cothren under a fake name — to purchase mailers using a $3,000 yearly stipend House members receive. In return, Smith and Casada allegedly received kickbacks. Smith’s testimony on Monday revealed details of how the scheme was orchestrated.
On Oct. 3, 2019, Smith, Cothren and Casada were sitting at a booth at The Ainsworth in Midtown. A few months prior, leaked racist and sexist text messages had led Cothren to resign from his role as chief of staff in the speaker of the House’s office. While Casada remained a representative, he stepped down from his role as speaker of the House just a couple of weeks later.
Glen Casada's attorney Ed Yarborough, April 28, 2025
“Because I had known Mr. Cothren and Mr. Casada outside of that scandal, it really bothered me,” Smith said. “In trying to be well-intentioned and a good influence, I came up with a name that I read in Isaiah.”
That’s how Phoenix Solutions was born.
“There was a discussion about working together to create Phoenix Solutions, what this would look like, as well as our roles, what we would do,” Smith said.
Smith explained that the goal was to create a political consultancy firm run by Cothren that could handle campaigns, caucus work and various political jobs. But in the meantime, they needed money to get the business going, and constituency mailers were seen as “low-hanging fruit.” Smith and Casada, who each had their own consultancy firms and relationships within the legislature, were tasked with bringing business to Cothren, who would run Phoenix Solutions under the alias Matthew Phoenix.
Former aide Cade Cothren was identified as the fictional ‘Matthew Phoenix’ at the center of the consulting scheme
“The way that I understood things was when you looked at the sum of money, you get a percent of money from business that you brought in,” Smith said.
It was quickly determined that Cothren and Casada were “radioactive” due to their scandal. Smith would take the lead in trying to direct people’s business toward Phoenix Solutions in an effort to prevent any questions. Text messages presented as evidence showed the trio discussing how to set the company up to remain anonymous.
“Using a registered agent is of course what allows us to mask our identities,” a text from Cothren read.
But as the business started ramping up, they encountered an issue. As she testified on Friday, director of legislative administration Connie Ridley did not immediately issue checks in response to invoices due to the lack of a W-9.
“I was the only individual who could interact with Ms. Ridley, and if there was a delay in payment, it was my job to put pressure on her,” Smith said.
The next hitch came when Speaker Sexton’s interim chief of staff at the time, Holt Whitt, noticed that Casada’s consultancy firm had used the same questions for a survey mailer that Smith had previously used. This was because they both got the questions from Phoenix Consulting, but Whitt alerted Smith, thinking Casada had copied the questions from her. In text messages to Cothren, Smith detailed a plan to falsely confront Casada about the supposed plagiarism on the House floor, so that Sexton would witness the interaction.
“We were already creating a series of lies, and this was going to be another one,” Smith said. “It was a matter of trying to be complicit and create an echo chamber of the same info.”
Due to a large number of objections and sidebars, the government did not complete questioning Smith on Monday, which means she will return Tuesday to finish being questioned before being cross-examined.
Notebook
CRAWFORD ON STAND: The only other witness of the day was Nick Crawford, a former aide to the House Republican Caucus. He testified to being introduced by Smith to the fake Matthew Phoenix (aka Cothren).
RULE 615: To start off the day prior to the jury entering the room, Cothren attorney Cynthia Sherwood invoked federal Rule of Evidence 615, which prohibits witnesses from sitting in the gallery during court proceedings.
NOTABLE OBSERVERS: Democratic Reps. Justin Jones, Gloria Johnson and Shaundelle Brooks were present in the gallery all day Monday watching the proceedings.
STILL NO SEXTON: Sexton, the most anticipated witness in the trial, has still not taken the stand, despite prosecutors stating on Thursday that he would testify on Friday.
This article first appeared on Nashville Banner and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
