State Rep. Robin Smith has resigned from her House seat after being charged with wire fraud in federal court in Nashville.

In a letter to House Speaker Cameron Sexton, Smith said that she is “resigning from House 26 effective immediately.” District 26 is in Hamilton County.

The charge against Smith was filed on Friday in the Middle District of Tennessee.

According to documents filed on Monday, Smith has reached a plea agreement to resolve the charges, and she is ready to change her plea. The plea hearing will be held on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. at the federal courthouse in Nashville.

According to the charging document, Smith helped others, including two unnamed individuals believed to be former Speaker of the House Glen Casada and his former chief of staff Cade Cothren, devised and intended to devise the citizens of the Middle District of Tennessee and the government of Tennessee of their right to the honest services of a public official, namely the honest services of Smith and Casada, members of the Tennessee House of Representatives, through kickbacks.

According to the charging document, the unnamed Individual 1 was a member of the Tennessee House, first elected in 2003 and served as Speaker of the Tennessee House from around January 2019 until around August 2019 when he resigned as Speaker after a scandal became public. The unnamed individual 2 was a businessman and former Chief of Staff to Individual 1 when he was Tennessee House Speaker.

Cothren set up Phoenix Solutions, LLC, with Smith and Casada’s knowledge, according to court records, for the purpose of offering mail and consulting services for legislative members facing primary challengers and was later expanded to offer constituents mail services to members of the Tennessee General Assembly. Smith, Casada and Cothren told others, including members of the Tennessee General Assembly and the House Speaker’s Office that the company was run by Matthew Phoenix. They claimed that “Phoenix” was an experienced political consultant who had worked for a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm. The charging document says that Cothren ran Phoenix Solutions and Smith, Casada and Cothren all profited from it.

The charging document alleges that Smith and Casada concealed Cothren’s involvement in the company from the state and legislators due to the expectation that Phoenix Solutions would not be approved by the Tennessee House Speaker’s Office, acting on behalf of the State, or hired as a vendor by individual members if Cothren’s involvement was disclosed. Smith, Casada and Cothren also concealed the fact that Cothren kicked back a portion of the profits from the state and members of the General Assembly to Smith and Casada due to the expectation that Phoenix Solutions would not be approved by the Tennessee House Speaker’s Office or hired by individual members if Cothren’s operational involvement and financial interests in the business and the kickbacks to Smith and Casada were disclosed.