Embattled Tennessee Lawmaker Faces A New Investigation — This Time Over Campaign Finances

State Rep. Jeremy Durham is facing yet another investigation, this time from the state’s watchdog over campaign spending.

The Tennessee Registry of Election Finance decided Wednesday to look into whether Durham misappropriated money meant for his elections. The move comes at the request of the Tennessee attorney general.

The claim is that Durham diverted $2,000 from his campaign account last year and used it to pay the bills for his struggling title company, Battleground Title and Escrow. Durham is also accused of trying to cover up the transaction by reporting the money had been paid to an aide named Benton Smith for political work.

But Smith says in an affidavit that’s not true. He quit working for Durham and took his concerns to Attorney General Herbert Slatery.

The attorney general also obtained a screenshot of text messages between Durham and Smith that seemed to confirm the transaction took place. After looking at the evidence, the attorney general handed it over this week to the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance, which has jurisdiction over campaign finance violations.

Registry members voted unanimously to open an investigation immediately. The Registry plans to subpoena records going back to 2013 to see if there are other such transactions.

Chairman Tom Lawless says the claim campaign money was used for private business is serious.

“That’s something that shouldn’t be happening,” he says. “But there may be a perfectly good explanation. We only have an affidavit of one person. Representative Durham — again, as I said — he’s presumed innocent.”

For his part, Durham calls the story “complete garbage” and says no campaign money ever went into his title company.

Durham was previously
investigated for prescription fraud by the state’s Drug Task Force. He was accused of altering the date on an expired prescription and submitting it to a Franklin pharmacy, but a grand jury declined to indict him.

More recently, the attorney general has been looking into claims that Durham sexually harassed staffers and lobbyists. Investigators hope to complete their work this summer.

Lawless says the registry doesn’t intend to pile onto the attorney general’s investigation, but he says voters deserve to know if Durham is misusing funds.

He adds that delaying action — until after the August primary, in which Durham faces two challengers, and the general election in November — was not an option.

“Then it looks like we are playing politics, and that really is not what we do,” says Lawless. “I’m not going to do that, and I don’t think any of the members of the commission would’ve agreed to do that either.”

Lawless says the investigation will likely take until September or October to complete.