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Presidential Clemency Record

Cade Cothren

Pardon

  /   2025–Present

Record at a Glance

Clemency type
Pardon
Presidential term
2025–Present
Federal district
Middle Tennessee
Offense
Conspiracy to defraud the United States; honest services wire fraud (six counts); use of fictitious name to carry out unlawful business; conspiracy to commit money laundering; money laundering (seven counts)
Sentence
30 months' imprisonment; one year's imprisonment; $25,000 fine (September 16, 2025)
Current status
On February 5, 2026, after the full and unconditional pardon, the district court vacated Cothren’s convictions, sentence, and criminal judgment and directed the clerk to close the case. This is case-specific post-pardon court relief.

Original Case

In United States v. Cothren, M.D. Tennessee No. 3:22-cr-00282, the court acquitted defendants on Counts 2–4, and Cothren then stood convicted of conspiracy, honest-services fraud, a fictitious-name offense, and money-laundering offenses. He received concurrent 30-month prison terms, one year of supervised release, and a $25,000 fine September 16, 2025. The clemency index’s apparent ‘one year imprisonment’ entry conflicts with the sentencing release and judgment; the one-year term was supervised release.

Clemency

Trump granted Cothren a full and unconditional pardon on November 7, 2025 after his 30-month sentence had been imposed. The grant relieved the federal punishment; in February 2026, the district court separately vacated the convictions, sentence, and judgment and closed the case.

Trump Connection

Cothren, a former senior aide to Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada, was pardoned alongside Casada after the same public-corruption prosecution. No reliable personal or campaign relationship with Trump or named advocate was identified. An unnamed White House official said the Biden Justice Department had significantly over-prosecuted both men; that is the administration’s reported rationale, not a court’s conclusion.

Since Clemency

Sources

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