Brian Kelsey, the former Tennessee state senator who was pardoned by President Donald Trump on Tuesday, joined Thursday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show to reflect on his two-week experience in federal prison and how he felt after being pardoned by the president.
On Tuesday, after serving just short of two weeks of the nearly two-year sentence imposed under the Biden administration’s Department of Justice, Kelsey exited federal prison after being officially pardoned by President Donald Trump, as first reported at the time by The Star.
Kelsey was indicted in October 2021 by a federal grand jury in Nashville on five charges related to a conspiracy to violate federal campaign finance laws. He was accused of conspiring with several individuals to move money from his state senate campaign committee through various political action committees to benefit his 2016 campaign for Congress.
After initially maintaining his innocence and claiming he was the target of a political witch hunt, in November 2022, Kelsey pleaded guilty to the charges and admitted to the crimes. In 2023, Kelsey was repeatedly unsuccessful in his attempt to withdraw his guilty plea.
Kelsey said he served his 13 days inside the minimum security satellite camp at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Ashland, Kentucky where he was among other nonviolent offenders, including a couple individuals of which Kelsey said were also targets of “the Biden Department of Justice weaponization.”
“I would say 90 percent of them were drug addicts…and then 10 percent were white collar criminals like myself and at least one or two other victims of the Biden DOJ weaponization,” Kelsey explained.
Kelsey said the moment he received news that he had been pardoned by the president was when he was outside exercising; however, noted how the particular day had been tense at the prison and he was unsure whether or not he was summoned at the time by the assistant warden for a good or bad reason.
“It was a particularly tense day at the prison that day. They had found drugs in the chapel and they had sent someone to the shoe. Unfortunately, I’ve got a whole new lingo now. The shoe is what they call solitary confinement. Initially, the guard that was with the assistant warden, I guess he was trying to make a joke said, ‘You got a shot,’ which means you’ve got something deficient on your record. So he was trying to make a joke and he did actually scare me for a second, but very quickly it became clear that they were there for [the pardon],” Kelsey said.
“The assistant warden very rarely came down, certainly into the exercise yard of our camp. So I knew something interesting was happening, but I didn’t know whether it was good or bad. I knew it was either really good or really bad,” Kelsey added.
Kelsey said once he received word of the pardon, he called his wife immediately for her to start the two-hour drive from Tennessee to Ashland to pick him up.
“I went straight to the phone and called my wife…She started crying. It took her about an hour and 45 minutes to get there…I ran out the door as I saw the car pull up and gave her a big hug and a kiss. My mom came with her, so I gave her a big hug and a kiss, too,” Kelsey said.
With regard to the legal battle he fought to avoid prison time, Kelsey said he believes the case against him was part of an attempt by the Biden administration to take down Matt Schlapp, who is the chairman of the American Conservative Union.
“Matt’s a big Trump supporter. I’m a big Trump supporter as well, but he’s more vocal about it and has a bigger voice to be able to get that message out there than I did. That’s who they really wanted,” Kelsey said.
Speaking to the plea agreement he attempted to withdraw, Kelsey said he fell victim to “terrible legal advice” from his counsel who advised him that defeating the federal government in court was extremely difficult.
“They bleed you dry. Your lawyer’s telling you, ‘Oh just plead guilty, you’ll get probation.’ I had six-week old twin sons, a three year old daughter, and my dad was dying of cancer,” Kelsey explained.
Kelsey said he believes his case “resonated” with Trump, given that the president had been the target of the previous Biden administration in multiple lawfare cases.
“It’s the pressure that they put on you financially and emotionally and mentally. I’m sure that President Trump has felt a little bit of that. I’m sure that he’s had some of the same sleepless nights that I’ve had. He could relate to it personally. They attacked him personally in four different cases. He knows weaponization when he sees it, and he clearly recognized it immediately,” Kelsey said.
“I’ve suffered a lot here but thank you to President Trump for coming through when we really needed him to come through,” Kelsey added.
Moving forward, Kelsey said that while he does not have any future political ambitions, he is going to attempt to restore his license to practice law.
“That’s the project to start for next week…Right now I’m just basking in my freedom and thanking President Trump and others,” Kelsey said.
Tune in now to The Michael Patrick Leahy Show – your AMERICA FIRST news talk with guest Former State Senator Brian Kelsey
– Watch LIVE here on X
– Listen on Spotify
– Listen on WENO AM760 in Nashville
– Read more at @TheTNStar https://t.co/oTM5mESmVw— MichaelPatrick Leahy (@michaelpleahy) March 13, 2025
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
