NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A federal judge on Monday reduced a prison sentence to probation for a former Tennessee lawmaker whose testimony helped convict the former state House speaker and his onetime aide of public corruption.
Although her cohorts were pardoned by President Donald Trump, Republican Rep. Robin Smith had been slated to report to prison for an eight-month sentence. But U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson in Nashville on Monday reduced it to one year of probation.
Smith had been instrumental in helping prosecutors secure convictions against Republican ex-House Speaker Glen Casada and his former aide, Cade Cothren, who along with Smith created a shadowy company to win taxpayer-funded work to send mailings to constituents; she had cut a deal with prosecutors to cooperate in the trial and testify about the scheme.
But about two weeks after Smith was sentenced in late October, Trump pardoned Casada and Cothren, sparing them time behind bars. In September, the judge sentenced Casada to three years in prison and Cothren to 2 1/2 years.
Smith's attorneys had asked the judge to reduce her sentence to probation, saying it would be a “manifest injustice” if she alone went to prison for “collective criminal activity” alongside Casada and Cothren. The U.S. Attorney's Office also favored a change to probation in the case's “narrow circumstances,” saying it “has not identified another federal case in which a testifying conspirator reported to prison after an equally culpable conspirator was pardoned.”
Smith said she is still seeking a pardon from Trump and has "continued faith in this process.”
“I have been overwhelmed with kind words, prayers, and continued support of those whose friendships are literal treasures," Smith said in a statement Monday. “God’s goodness has been through people. Just amazing!”
Smith's attorney, Ben Rose, said a presidential pardon would resolve her probationary term and let her recover nearly $30,000 she's paid in restitution.
The judge’s reason for changing Smith’s sentence was filed under seal.
The corruption trial involved activities while Casada was a lawmaker but after he had resigned as speaker in 2019 following a no-confidence vote by fellow Republicans due to swirling scandals. Cothren had stepped down in 2019 from his job amid allegations.
Government prosecutors said that Cothren launched a company called Phoenix Solutions with the knowledge and support of Casada and Smith. The three claimed the company was run by a “Matthew Phoenix," and the companies controlled by Casada and Smith received roughly $52,000 in taxpayer money in 2020 from a program used by lawmakers to send mailings to constituents.
A “Matthew Phoenix” signature ended up on an IRS tax document. The goal was to use the state-funded work to launch into more lucrative business opportunities, according to prosecutors.
During the trial last year, defense attorneys tried to portray Smith as untrustworthy and driven by hopes for a lenient sentence.
Smith testified at the trial that the goal of the scheme was to hide who was behind Phoenix Solutions due to the “radioactive” scandal that pushed Casada and Cothren out of power.
Smith pleaded guilty to one count of honest services wire fraud. A jury found Casada and Cothren guilty of various charges, including use of a fictitious name to carry out fraud, honest services wire fraud and money laundering.
Smith, a former county and state GOP leader, was elected to the state House in 2018 to represent part of Hamilton County. She resigned her seat in early 2022 amid her plea deal.
FILE - Former state Rep. Robin Smith arrives at the federal courthouse April 29, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s opposition supporters have long hoped for the day when Nicolás Maduro is no longer in power — a dream that was fulfilled when the U.S. military whisked the authoritarian leader away. But while Maduro is in jail in New York on drug trafficking charges, the leaders of his repressive administration remain in charge.
The nation's opposition — backed by consecutive Republican and Democratic administrations in the U.S. — for years vowed to immediately replace Maduro with one of their own and restore democracy to the oil-rich country. But U.S. President Donald Trump delivered them a heavy blow by allowing Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, to assume control.
Meanwhile, most opposition leaders, including Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado, are in exile or prison.
“They were clearly unimpressed by the sort of ethereal magical realism of the opposition, about how if they just gave Maduro a push, it would just be this instant move toward democracy,” David Smilde, a Tulane University professor who has studied Venezuela for three decades, said of the Trump administration.
The U.S. seized Maduro and first lady Cilia Flores in a military operation Saturday, removing them both from their home on a military base in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas. Hours later, Trump said the U.S. would “run” Venezuela and expressed skepticism that Machado could ever be its leader.
“She doesn’t have the support within, or the respect within, the country,” Trump told reporters. “She’s a very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect.”
Ironically, Machado's unending praise for the American president, including dedicating her Nobel Peace Prize to Trump and her backing of U.S. campaigns to deport Venezuelan migrants and attack alleged drug traffickers in international waters, has lost her some support at home.
Machado rose to become Maduro's strongest opponent in recent years, but his government barred her from running for office to prevent her from challenging — and likely beating — him in the 2024 presidential election. She chose retired ambassador Edmundo González Urrutia to represent her on the ballot.
Officials loyal to the ruling party declared Maduro the winner mere hours after the polls closed, but Machado's well-organized campaign stunned the nation by collecting detailed tally sheets showing González had defeated Maduro by a 2-to-1 margin.
The U.S. and other nations recognized González as the legitimate winner.
However, Venezuelans identify Machado, not González, as the winner, and the charismatic opposition leader has remained the voice of the campaign, pushing for international support and insisting her movement will replace Maduro.
In her first televised interview since Maduro's capture, Machado effusively praised Trump and failed to acknowledge his snub of her opposition movement in the latest transition of power.
“I spoke with President Trump on Oct. 10, the same day the prize was announced, not since then,” she told Fox News on Monday. “What he has done as I said is historic, and it’s a huge step toward a democratic transition.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday seemed to walk back Trump's assertion that the U.S. would “run” Venezuela. In interviews, Rubio insisted that Washington will use control of Venezuela’s oil industry to force policy changes, and called its current government illegitimate. The country is home to the world’s largest proven crude oil reserves.
Neither Trump nor Rodríguez have said when, or if, elections might take place in Venezuela.
Venezuela’s constitution requires an election within 30 days whenever a president becomes “permanently unavailable” to serve. Reasons listed include death, resignation, removal from office or “abandonment” of duties as declared by the National Assembly. That electoral timeline was rigorously followed when Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez, died of cancer in 2013.
On Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a close Trump ally who traveled with the president on Air Force One on Sunday, said he believes an election will happen but did not specify when or how.
“We’re going to build the country up – infrastructure wise – crescendoing with an election that will be free,” the South Carolina Republican told reporters.
But Maduro loyalists in the high court Saturday, citing another provision of the constitution, declared Maduro's absence “temporary” meaning there is no election requirement. Instead, the vice president — which is not an elected position — takes over for up to 90 days, with a provision to extend to six months if approved by the National Assembly, which is controlled by the ruling party.
In its ruling, Venezuela’s Supreme Court made no mention of the 180-day limit, leading to speculation that Rodríguez could try to cling to power as she seeks to unite ruling party factions and shield it from what would certainly be a stiff electoral challenge.
Machado on Monday criticized Rodríguez as “one the main architects of torture, persecution, corruption, narco-trafficking … certainly not an individual that can be trusted by international investors.”
Even if an election takes place, Machado and González would first have to find a way back into Venezuela.
González has been in exile in Spain since September 2024 and Machado left Venezuela last month when she appeared in public for the first time in 11 months to receive her Nobel Prize in Norway.
Ronal Rodríguez, a researcher at the Venezuela Observatory in Colombia’s Universidad del Rosario, said the Trump administration's decision to work with Rodríguez could harm the nation's “democratic spirit.”
“What the opposition did in the 2024 election was to unite with a desire to transform the situation in Venezuela through democratic means, and that is embodied by María Corina Machado and, obviously, Edmundo González Urrutia,” he said. “To disregard that is to belittle, almost to humiliate, Venezuelans.”
A government supporter holds an image of President Nicolas Maduro during a women's march to demand his return in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026, three days after U.S. forces captured him and his wife. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
In this courtroom sketch, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, left, and his wife, Cilia Flores, second from right, appear in Manhattan federal court with their defense attorneys Mark Donnelly, second from left, and Andres Sanchez, Monday, Jan. 5, 2026, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
FILE - Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez smiles during a press conference at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas Venezuela, Nov. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)
