In late March, Tennessee state representative Scotty Campbell, the vice-chairman of the state House Republican caucus, was reprimanded for sexually harassing two legislative interns. In one of those cases, Campbell’s behavior crossed the line into sexual assault. However, nobody outside the Tennessee State Capitol knew about it until April 20, when Phil Williams, the crack investigative reporter at Nashville CBS affiliate WTVF, confronted Campbell about it. By lunchtime, Campbell had resigned. Later that week, Williams reported that nobody inside the State Capitol had known about Campbell’s depravities either—at least, not until Williams broke the story. That included state house Speaker Cameron Sexton, who claimed that he wasn’t privy to any details of the investigation into Campbell because it was “protected information” that not even he could obtain. I covered this here.
This only added to the rank odor coming from the Tennessee General Assembly—an odor so rank that I can smell it at my home in Charlotte, five hours and a time zone east of Nashville. How could it be remotely possible for lawmakers to be kept in the dark about sexual harassment in their ranks? Clearly, something wasn’t adding up. Well, on Wednesday, Judd Legum of Popular Information unearthed evidence that strongly suggests Sexton is lying about being in the dark about Campbell’s potentially criminal misconduct—or, at best, didn’t make it his business to know. Either way, Sexton must resign.
Sexton’s account actually started unraveling last Wednesday. That morning, Legum reported that the Campaign for Accountability asked the U. S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee to investigate the voluminous evidence that Sexton actually lives in Nashville, not the exurban and rural district between Knoxville and Nashville that he claims to represent.
But in a side note, Legum revealed that based on his review of the General Assembly’s sexual harassment policy, it’s hard to believe Sexton didn’t know about Campbell.
Sexton claimed that he was in the dark about the allegations. "At no point during that time am I aware of the information about the details. The first time I learned about that was when you actually reported it," Sexton told News Channel 5. He also claimed that he was prohibited from requesting more information because he is not part of the investigation.
But Sexton's claims are belied by the legislature's policy on workplace discrimination and harassment, which Sexton created along with the Tennessee Senate President. According to the policy, a complaint can be filed with "any staff director," "the chief clerks," or the Speaker. Regardless of where a complaint is filed, the first step is for the complaint to be "reported to the…Speaker." The Speaker then assigns to the complaint to the Director of Legislative Administration "for immediate investigation." Upon conclusion of the staff investigation, the Speaker forwards the complaint and the investigation to the Subcommittee on Workplace Discrimination and Harassment. That committee considers the evidence and sends its findings to the Speaker.
The same policy allows details of the complaint to be shared with anyone who is either “directly involved in the investigation” or “the implementation of corrective action” in the event the complaint is found credible. In Sexton’s case, not only was he required to get a report about the complaint, but he was empowered to yank Campbell’s committee assignments. Legum also found it hard to believe Sexton didn’t know that taxpayer money was used to get one intern out of the lease of her apartment, move her stuff back to her hometown, and put her up in a hotel for the rest of her internship. After all, Sexton is responsible for how the state house spends taxpayer funds.
Sexton’s account took a further hit the following day. Cade Cothren, chief of staff to Sexton’s predecessor as speaker, fellow Republican Glen Casada, took to Twitter to call BS on Sexton’s claim that he couldn’t have known about just how depraved Campbell’s behavior was.
In a long Twitter thread, Cothren cited a 2019 investigation into sexual harassment allegations against then-state representative Rick Staples, a Democrat from Knoxville. He wrote that Casada’s office was “kept in the loop” throughout the course of the investigation.
Cothren gave Legum text messages between himself and Legislative Administration Director Connie Ridley regarding the Staples investigation. One message is telling. While Ridley and Cothren were setting up plans for a briefing on the investigation, Ridley told Cothren that she’d had a chance to speak with one of Staples’ assistants. Cothren was concerned enough to ask Ridley to have the assistant’s computer moved to another location “starting at the first of the week.” They held another briefing a few days later. According to Legum, this belies Sexton’s claim that the Speaker isn’t allowed to get detailed information about a sexual harassment investigation.
Casada and Cothren are currently facing federal charges related to a corruption investigation. But if Sexton wants to use that to knock Cothren’s credibility, Legum discovered that the sexual harassment policy implemented by Sexton is a carbon copy of the policy signed by Casada.
By the time Legum’s latest article on this situation went to press, Williams had discovered Tennessee taxpayers had to pay over $8,800 to clean up after Campbell—over $900 to get the intern out of her lease, over $2,400 to move her stuff back home, and over $5,000 to stay at a hotel near the Capitol.
Watch here (sorry, WTVF won’t let this video embed). Two things jump out. For one, the intern was given cash to get her out of the lease—and was told that the person providing the cash “would be reimbursed by the state.” Additionally, Ridley provided a credit card to move the intern’s stuff back home. The intern smelled a rat early on; she told officials at her college that she believed “they are trying to buy my silence,” and recalled that Ridley tried to swear her to secrecy. She also claimed that interns get harassed in this manner every year—and the few who come forward end up getting “silenced.” Fortunately, she and her parents didn’t go along.
Understandably, Williams wanted to know why taxpayers are on the hook for this. He’s not the only one who wants answers. Toni Venable, the Tennessee state director of Americans for Prosperity, told Williams in no uncertain terms that there was “no reason taxpayers should pay for this—none at all.” Venable also wondered if there was “some kind of legislative slush fund” to keep victims quiet.
Based on this evidence, Legum concluded that Sexton almost certainly knew what was happening, or at least should have made it his business to know. The sexual harassment policy requires any complaint must be sent to Sexton, who then refers it to Ridley for investigation. Moreover, Sexton is required to be kept abreast of the investigation, as he is the only person empowered to remove someone from committees or leadership posts. On top of that, Legum notes, Ridley would not have been able to spend thousands of dollars to relocate an intern on her own authority. Sexton would have to authorize it, since he controls the House budget.
All of this makes concerns about Sexton’s residency look minor league by comparison. Either way you slice it, this is an inexcusable failure of leadership. There is something very wrong if three Democratic lawmakers can face expulsion for leading a protest, and Sexton doesn’t face any blowback for abdicating his duty to ensure a safe environment in the people’s house. He must resign—and if he doesn’t have the decency to do so, we need to force the Republican supermajority on the record and press for his expulsion.
