Tennessee Democrat Katrina Robinson of Mempis was expelled from the state Senate after she was convicted of wire fraud last fall.
The Democratic state senator was convicted on charges of wire fraud over allegations of misuse of federal grant money, Tennessee’s state senate voted to expel one of its own from the chamber for what appears to be the first time in state history.
Tennessee Democrat expelled from state Senate over fraud convictionhttps://t.co/uwrYiSiLv5
— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 3, 2022
Democrat Katrina Robinson, one of three Black women in the Republican-dominated senate, called the vote a “procedural lynching” and premature, as many of the counts against her had been dropped and her sentencing hearing is still weeks away.
As she told senators on 2 February, “I feel beat up standing in front of you guys. There are no words for what this is.”
The Senate voted 27-5 along party lines.
According to the criminal complaint against her, the Memphis lawmaker embezzled $600,000 from a $2.2 million federal grant pool awarded to a nursing school she operated before running for office. The defendant has repeatedly maintained her innocence, citing shifting arguments among prosecutors and a lack of forensic evidence that would exonerate her.
During her trial in 2021, prosecutors’ case began to fall apart. Her initial 48 counts were reduced to five. She was convicted on four counts – two wire fraud charges and two charges of misleading financial reports – though a federal judge acquitted her on the latter two of those charges in January. Her request for a new trial has been denied.
The remaining charges against her relate to the use of $3,400 from wedding expenses in 2016. Republican senators previously denied her request to delay her expulsion hearing until after the sentencing hearing on 3 March.
Democrats renewed her request on Wednesday, but it was rejected by the GOP-dominated Senate.
