Free Republic

John Ford wasn’t expected. In spring 2004, an undercover FBI agent posing as a corrupt businessman bribed state Rep. Kathryn Bower to arrange a "leadership dinner" with elected officials in Nashville, said FBI agent Brian Burns, the first prosecution witness called this morning on the third day of the former state senator’s bribery trial. The FBI agent, going by the name L.C. McNeil, wanted to meet lawmakers who would be willing to draft and change legislation in the Tennessee General Assembly in exchange for cash payments. The federal government was investigating "systemic corruption" in state government. Acting as executives of...

CHATTANOOGA — A federal judge sentenced the first government official convicted at trial in the FBI’s Tennessee Waltz bribery sting to three years in prison Tuesday. Former Hamilton County Commissioner William Cotton, 58, was ordered to report to jail by June 5. A jury convicted Cotton in February of conspiring with a lobbyist to take bribes totaling $4,750. Cotton faced a maximum possible penalty of 40 years in prison and a $500,000 fine. Republican state Rep. Chris Newton of Cleveland reported to prison three weeks ago to serve his one-year sentence. Newton pleaded guilty to accepting a bribe in the...