Thursday, December 04, 2025

ANNALS OF DeSANTI$TAN: Resign or be removed: Paul Renner calls for Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, Cory Mills to exit House (A.G. Gancarski, Jacob Ogles & Peter Schorsch, Florida Politics, December 1, 2025)

In need of a charisma bypass, corporate defense lawyer PAUL MARVIN RENNER, formerly represented a Northeast Florida state legislative district, and was a languid member lof our St. Johns County Legislative Delegation.  He lost a Jacksonville legislative race and more to Palm Coast, a political tourist.  He's now running for Governor, on the basis of what, exactly?  You tell me. From Florida Politics

He wants Republicans to embrace a 'higher standard' than Democrats.

Two scandal-plagued members of Florida’s congressional delegation need to leave of their own accord or be removed, according to former Florida House Speaker Paul Renner.

Renner, a Palm Coast Republican who is running for Governor, says he wants Democratic U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick and Republican U.S. Rep. Cory Mills to resign immediately.

“When an elected official demonstrates an ongoing pattern of self-interest and low moral character, they should do what is right and step down,” Renner said in a prepared statement.

If they don’t leave of their own accord, Renner said the House should “expel them without delay.”

The House Ethics Committee is already probing Mills, a New Smyrna Beach Republican, over allegations of profiting from federal defense contracts while in Congress. More recently, the Committee expanded its work to review allegations that he assaulted one ex-girlfriend and threatened to share intimate photos of another.

Cherfilus-McCormick and her brother, Edwin Cherfilus, are accused of securing funding intended for COVID vaccination distribution and routing overpayments from the program through several accounts, which later donated the funds as campaign contributions. If found guilty on all counts, Cherfilus-McCormick faces up to 53 years in prison. She maintains her innocence regarding all allegations against her.

Renner contends the self-interest of delegation members has stopped them from treating these allegations with sufficient gravity and slowed down their enactment of what the White House wants.

“Stock trades, insider deals, and undisciplined personal misbehavior have damaged the reputation of Congress. We can only conclude that members of Congress will not spend the time to rein in spending or support President Donald Trump’s agenda because they are too busy chasing personal gratification,” he said.

He also argued that his own party shouldn’t descend to the depths of the Democrats, who rallied behind a flawed candidate during elections last month.

“We have witnessed Democrats look the other way to elect a VA Attorney General who fantasized about murdering the then Republican Speaker of the House and his children. Democrats will excuse anything to gain power and have lost faith with the American people. With a higher standard, Republicans will keep faith with America and maintain the strong leadership we need,” Renner said.


____

Jacob Ogles and Peter Schorsch of Florida Politics contributed to this report.

A.G. Gancarski

A.G. Gancarski has been the Northeast Florida correspondent for Florida Politics since 2014. His work also can be seen in the Washington Post, the New York Post, the Washington Times, and National Review, among other publications. He can be reached at AG@FloridaPolitics.com or on Twitter: @AGGancarski


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Former Rep. Robin Smith sentenced to 8 months in federal prison for role in corruption conspiracy (Sofia Saric, Chattanooga Times Free Press, October 24, 20250

Another corrupt Tennessee legislator, another federal prison sentence.  From Chattanooga Times Free Press:


Former Rep. Robin Smith sentenced to 8 months in federal prison for role in corruption conspiracy

BY: -OCTOBER 24, 2025 3:53 PM
Former state Rep. Robin Smith, center, arrives at the Fred D. Thompson Federal Courthouse in Nashville with attorney Ben Rose, left. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tenn

 Former state Rep. Robin Smith, center, arrives at the Fred D. Thompson Federal Courthouse in Nashville with attorney Ben Rose, left. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)

This story was originally published by the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

Former state Rep. Robin Smith, R-Hixson, was sentenced Friday to eight months in federal prison for her role in a corruption conspiracy described as a scheme to steal from Tennessee and its citizens through the General Assembly’s taxpayer-funded constituent mail program.

Smith, 62, “failed the trust of the public” and has “been a failure,” she said during her sentencing hearing in Nashville federal court.

“My mom and dad raised me to be much better than this,” Smith said. “I ask for the forgiveness of the public.”

Smith pleaded guilty in March 2022 to one count of honest services wire fraud, a charge regularly used in corruption prosecutions, and agreed to “full, complete and truthful” cooperation with the federal government.

She was fined $7,500 and will be on supervised release for one year after incarceration. Smith cried while addressing the court Friday morning, frequently referencing her Christianity and the debt she said she owes to her family, friends, God and the public.

“There isn’t a day that goes by where that reality doesn’t confront me in a real way,” she said.

Smith, ex-Speaker Glen Casada, R-Franklin, and his one-time chief of staff, Cade Cothren, all played a part in a scheme to illegally profit off the General Assembly’s taxpayer-funded constituent mail program from October 2019 to early January 2021.

As part of Smith’s plea deal, she testified against Casada and Cothren during their May federal trial. It was the right thing to do, and she was simultaneously hoping for leniency in her sentence, she said at the time.

A Nashville jury ultimately found Casada guilty of 17 counts and Cothren guilty of all 19 counts of bribery, conspiracy, fraud, money laundering and theft, according to federal court records.

Both men were sentenced in September.

Casada is expected to serve 36 months in federal prison, one year of probation and pay a $30,000 fine, court records show. Cothren was sentenced to 30 months in prison, one year of probation and a $25,000 fine.

Casada, Cothren and Smith allegedly all helped to create a fake company called Phoenix Solutions, which designed and sent mailers to constituents on behalf of politicians through the use of taxpayer funds.

The group intended to do the work they were hired to do, Smith testified, but they also intended to profit.

The group received nearly $52,000 from the state in payments related to the postage and printing allowance over the course of 2020, according to a trial brief, which stated that Cothren paid Casada and Smith more than $35,000 in bribes and kickbacks during that time.

The scheme allegedly went on into early January 2021.

FBI agents raided Smith’s home that same month.

District Judge Eli J. Richardson said at sentencing that Smith was more involved than Casada in really propping up Phoenix Solutions, pressuring public officials and “spinning a web of fabrications.”

“We have these public officials,” he said. “We elect them to do the right thing.”

And then, in this case, they turn around, lie and deceive, according to Richardson.

“It’s pretty callous stuff, and it’s not a great look,” he said.

Smith led the Hamilton County Republican Party from 1998 until 2002 and was unanimously elected to lead the state GOP in 2007.

She was elected in 2018 to represent state House District 26, which includes parts of central Chattanooga and extends north along Chickamauga Lake, encompassing, among other communities, Hixson, Lakesite, Middle Valley and Sale Creek.

Smith resigned from her seat in March 2022 amid her plea deal.

Her life has been defined by doing good things for others besides this one “stain on her life,” her attorney William David Bridgers said.

She’s dedicated time to nonprofits and the public, has a strong presence within her religious community and cares for her sick mother, he said.

Their crimes began after Cothren resigned in 2019. He allegedly sent sexually explicit and racist text messages and admitted to using cocaine in a legislative office on one occasion, according to reporting by the Associated Press. Casada, who allegedly received some of those messages and sent his own lewd remarks, resigned shortly after.

Smith was part of this scheme to help both men rehabilitate their lives after their “really bad scandal” rather than to scam legislators, Bridgers said.

She knew her actions were morally wrong but didn’t know she committed a crime until the FBI came knocking at her door, he said. She quickly began cooperating with the federal government once she realized the gravity of her actions.

“She had sinned against her God,” Bridgers said. “She had sinned against her family. She had sinned against her government.”

Richardson, apparently in response to Bridger’s arguments, said Smith wouldn’t have taken 25% of the profits if she only wanted to help Casada and Cothren.

“The one way I don’t help out other people is by taking a cut of what they have,” Richardson said.

Creative Commons License

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Sofia Saric
SOFIA SARIC

Sofia Saric is a criminal justice reporter with a focus on the courts system for the Chattanooga Times Free Press. She joined the newspaper in January 2024. She previously worked as a crime and breaking news reporter at the Casper Star-Tribune in Wyoming and as a metro correspondent at the Boston Globe. Contact Sofia Saric at ssaric@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6476.

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ANNALS OF TRUMPI$TAN: New York Times Sues Pentagon Over First Amendment Rights. (Erik Wemple, NY Times, December 4, 2025)

Three cheers for The New York Times and the Bill of Rights and the Rule of Law.  From The New York Times:


New York Times Sues Pentagon Over First Amendment Rights

The lawsuit said the Defense Department’s new set of rules for journalists “violates the Constitution’s guarantees of due process, freedom of speech and freedom of the press.”

Listen to this article · 5:24 min Learn more
An aerial view of the Pentagon.
A new set of press restrictions at the Pentagon took effect in October. Credit...Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times

By Erik Wemple

Reporting from Washington

The New York Times accused the Pentagon in a lawsuit on Thursday of infringing on the constitutional rights of journalists by imposing a set of new restrictions on reporting about the military.

In the suit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington, The Times argued that the Defense Department’s new policy violated the First Amendment and “seeks to restrict journalists’ ability to do what journalists have always done — ask questions of government employees and gather information to report stories that take the public beyond official pronouncements.”

The rules, which went into effect in October, are a stark departurefrom the previous ones, in both length and scope. They require reporters to sign a 21-page form that sets restrictions on journalistic activities, including requests for story tips and inquiries to Pentagon sources. Reporters who don’t comply could lose their press passes, and the Pentagon has accorded itself “unbridled discretion” to enforce the policy as it sees fit, according to the lawsuit.

The suit said that “reporting any information not approved by department officials” could lead to punishment, “regardless of whether such news gathering occurs on or off Pentagon grounds, and regardless of whether the information at issue is classified or unclassified.”

The complaint sought a court order halting enforcement of the rules and a declaration that the provisions “targeting the exercise of First Amendment rights” were unlawful. The Times has retained Theodore J. Boutrous, a First Amendment lawyer who has argued major media access cases in federal court. Julian Barnes, a Pentagon reporter for The Times, is listed as a plaintiff alongside the company.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The new rules are the latest step in a monthslong effort by Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, to curtail the access and privileges of the Pentagon press corps.

Mr. Hegseth arrived at the Pentagon in January after a bruising confirmation process that surfaced allegations of excessive drinking and sexual assault, which he said were untrue. Early in his tenure, Mr. Hegseth proposed evicting from the Pentagon a veteran reporter at NBC News who had contributed to some of the coverage.

The department later stripped several national news outlets of their workspaces in the Pentagon, offering them mostly to conservative outlets. Mr. Hegseth has also added limits on where reporters can roam in the complex.

Image
Pete Hegseth gestures while speaking at table set for a formal luncheon.
The rules are part of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s effort to curtail press access and privileges at the Pentagon.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times

A draft of the new restrictions first emerged in September, and was revised after pushback from lawyers representing news organizations. The final rules were released on Oct. 6, and more than a week later, dozens of credentialed journalists — including six from The Times — surrendered their badges instead of signing the document. The departing outlets have continued reporting on the military despite the access limits.

Many major news organizations released statements in October condemning the Pentagon policy as an incursion on the First Amendment. “The policy is without precedent and threatens core journalistic protections,” said a statement from ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News Media and NBC News.

In a press briefing on Wednesday, a senior Times lawyer said that there had been discussions with other news organizations about joining the suit but that the newspaper had decided to proceed alone.

The suit took issue with multiple provisions of the new policy, including one that empowered the Pentagon to deem a journalist “a security or safety risk.” Such a determination could hinge on whether the journalist engaged in unauthorized disclosure of classified information or certain unclassified information, among other considerations.

The policy’s wording on “solicitation” has been a particular worry of media lawyers. It asserts that the First Amendment does not protect reporters when they “solicit government employees to violate the law by providing confidential government information” and could apply to “calls for tips” that encourage Defense Department employees to share “nonpublic” agency information.

Providing channels for sources to send information, the suit said, was a “routine” practice for journalists.

Image
Three people with passes around their necks carry belongings down a hallway.
Members of the Pentagon press corps leaving the Pentagon in October after turning in their credentials.Credit...Kevin Wolf/Associated Press

Legal clashes between journalists and the government over access to federal buildings have arisen repeatedly across President Trump’s two terms.

During his first administration, the White House pulled the press passes of two White House correspondents. The journalists regained those passes after litigation. This year, The Associated Press sued the government after being excluded from White House press pool events in cramped spaces such as the Oval Office; litigation challenging that move is ongoing.

In each of those cases, the government targeted one journalist or outlet for punishment. The Pentagon restrictions, on the other hand, seek to bind an entire press corps. And those restrictions, the suit argued, would suppress the work of news organizations “with perceived viewpoints the department disfavors.”

After the departure of the legacy press corps, the Pentagon announced that a new group of outlets had agreed to the restrictions and would work from the press space in the building. The new arrivals feature an array of pro-Trump outlets that have echoed administration talking points and show little inclination to investigate its actions.

See more on: U.S. Department of Defense, The New York Times, Donald Trump
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