By Canadian Press

Tennessee Senate debates expelling a convicted colleague

Feb 2, 2022 | 11:14 AM

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Republican-led Tennessee Senate voted Wednesday to remove Democratic Sen. Katrina Robinson from office because of her recent wire fraud conviction, the first time the chamber has removed a senator since at least the Civil War.

The criminal case against Robinson, a Memphis lawmaker, involves federal grant money at a school for health care school workers she operated in the city before she was elected to the Senate. Robinson and other Democrats called her expulsion premature, noting that many of the original charges were dropped and she hasn’t been sentenced yet on the two remaining counts.

Robinson, who is Black, argued before the 27-5 vote to expel her that she had been unfairly judged by the white-majority chamber. She called it a “procedural lynching,” prompting cheers of support that the Republican speaker gaveled down. Some of her supporters in the gallery were in tears.

“I feel beat up standing in front of you guys,” Robinson said. “And really I didn’t prepare any words because there are no words for what this is.”

Sen. John Stevens, a Republican from Huntington, said Robinson had been judged in a courtroom by her fellow citizens.

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“They determined she violated a criminal statute. A federal judge did not disagree with that determination. How can we demand that citizens respect the integrity and reputation of the Senate if we disrespect them by ignoring their determinations?”

Prosecutors accused the Memphis lawmaker of paying personal expenses from more than $600,000 in federal grant money awarded to a school for health care workers she operated. She was ultimately convicted of two of the 20 counts, involving $3,400 in wedding expenses in 2016.

Robinson, one of three Black women in the Senate, all of them Democrats, was elected in 2018. She has maintained her innocence.

GOP senators, who outnumber Democrats 27-6, previously declined Robinson’s request to delay removal proceedings until after her sentencing in March. Robinson’s Democratic colleagues renewed the request on Wednesday, but it failed on a tie vote.

If the senators do vote to expel her, it would be the first time the chamber has removed a senator since at least the Civil War.

Kimberlee Kruesi And Jonathan Mattise, The Associated Press