The St. Louis Democrat and former Washington University instructor received 12 months and one day in prison for each of two counts of conspiracy to obstruct justice. The sentences will run concurrently. He was also ordered to pay a $50,000 fine.

Law school graduate Steve Brown, a former Democratic state representative from Clayton, was sentenced to two years of probation on one conspiracy count and fined $40,000. University graduate Nick Adams, who was Smith’s campaign treasurer, was sentenced to two years of probation for each of two conspiracy counts and fined $5,000. His sentences are also concurrent.

Brown and Adams avoided receiving prison time largely because they assisted an FBI investigation in 2009.

The three pleaded guilty in the same courthouse on Aug. 25, following weeks of speculation in the Missouri political system about the futures of Smith and Brown, who also resigned their legislative seats that day.

Judge Carol Jackson told all three defendants that their crimes were “very serious.” The more she learned about the defendants and the case, the less she was able to figure out “how a bunch of smart guys like you could have done something so boneheaded,” she said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith told reporters afterward that all of the sentences were appropriate. He also hoped that the case would send a message to other politicians.

“We’re not going to tolerate this kind of corruption,” Goldsmith said. “The people deserve better—the people in this city, the people in this state, the people in this country.”

In court, Smith acknowledged lying about his role in producing illegal campaign literature in his 2004 bid: “With the postcards I left a piece of my honor in that campaign.” All three defendants apologized, with Smith saying, “I should have owned up to my mistakes.”

In a brief statement afterward, Smith said, “This has been a difficult chapter in my life, but it will not be the last one and it will definitely not be the defining one.”

The sentences were lighter than those suggested in the plea agreement guidelines, which recommended 15-21 months for each count. The plea agreement suggested prison terms below the guidelines for Brown and Adams because the two helped the FBI’s investigation.

Jackson, who was responsible for the sentencing, said she would have been tempted to send Brown to prison, were it not for the U.S. attorney’s office’s mention of Brown’s cooperation.

“This was a very stupid thing for you to do,” she told Brown, adding that he had been a lawyer who was now himself being prosecuted. Brown lost his law license after pleading guilty.

Goldsmith told Jackson during Brown’s sentencing that he has “never been involved in a case where I’ve had this kind of cooperation.”

Smith’s lawyers had sought home confinement and community service for Smith as an alternative to prison time, citing his lifelong commitment to service. Richard Greenberg, one of Smith’s lawyers, pointed out the St. Louis charter schools that Smith founded in 2002, his annual three-on-three basketball tournament, and the students he has tutored.

But Goldsmith argued that home confinement would not have been enough of a punishment, because of Smith’s pattern of lying to investigators.
“Citizens have a right to his honest services and his integrity, and he abused them of that right,” Goldsmith told reporters.

Jackson agreed but said it was “not inappropriate” to take Smith’s community service into account as grounds for sentencing him below the guidelines. She also said she had  “no doubt” that Smith’s remorse was real, and she noted that more than 100 people, including Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster, had sent her letters urging her to be lenient in sentencing Smith.

Adams received a light sentence in part due to his cooperation with investigators. Goldsmith said he supported a light sentence because he saw “the light go off” in Adams’ head after Adams initially refused to cooperate. But Goldsmith also said he did not see a light go off in Smith’s head.

The charges against the three men stemmed from an FBI investigation over the summer that revisited a 2004 inquiry by the Federal Election Commission into Smith’s congressional run. The FBI found that all three men had lied by hiding their involvement in the creation of anonymous postcards that attacked Smith’s main Democratic primary opponent, now U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-St. Louis.

Carnahan had filed a complaint with the FEC in July 2004 alleging Smith violated federal law by helping make campaign materials—the postcards, in this case—without disclosing that he was involved. Smith submitted an affidavit denying the claims. The FEC closed its investigation in 2007, clearing Smith and his campaign. Carnahan defeated Smith in the 2004 primary by a 23 percent to 21 percent vote, and Smith was elected to the Missouri Senate in 2006.

New evidence emerged in 2009 that prompted the FBI to revisit the matter. FBI wiretaps revealed that the three men had known all along about the postcards and that they had helped an unnamed Democratic operative produce them. The FBI also found that the three continued lying in 2009 in an effort to cover up the crimes. Goldsmith said the help Brown and Adams eventually provided was critical in building a case.

Art Margulis, Brown’s lawyer, said he appreciated that Jackson took Brown’s cooperation into account in determining his sentence.

“Clearly this is no time for celebration,” Margulis said. “There’s been a lot lost here—more than one career damaged—and we’re grateful for the judge’s consideration.”

During my 2004 Congressional race, I became aware of an independent effort to produce two mailers to benefit my campaign. Federal campaign finance law prohibits specific coordination between a campaign and anyone preparing an independent expenditure.

When the independent operator requested funding, I authorized a close friend to raise money for the effort, and my press secretary provided public information about my opponent’s voting record. I withheld my knowledge of these facts during the Federal Election Commission’s 2004 investigation, misleading investigators and filing a false affidavit.

The FEC cleared our campaign of wrongdoing. But in 2009, the government received new information and reopened its investigation. When questioned, I stood by our 2004 account and encouraged my close friend to do so, misleading the authorities. Today I am taking full responsibility for my mistakes, and have pled guilty to obstructing justice.

This event has humbled me. I have done some significant introspection and that has been the hardest part: coming to terms with my own poor judgments and mistakes.

I apologize to my constituents, my staff, my Senate colleagues, my supporters, and to Congressman Carnahan. I am sorry to be leaving an institution I dearly love and the chance to represent a City with so much potential. Most importantly, I apologize to my family for not living up to what you expect of me, or what I expect of myself.

But I’m proud of my work in the Senate. With the help of my legislative staff, colleagues, and issue advocates, I believe I positively impacted several policy areas. I worked to create the Missouri Teaching Fellows Program to bring top-notch teachers to struggling school districts, expanded early childhood education for impoverished City children, and helped add $5M in bonuses to the salaries of City teachers whose students make exceptional academic progress.

My office spent many hours working with advocates for eco-friendly policies. I led the drive to pass a Green Sales Tax Holiday for energy-efficient appliances, a tax deduction for home energy audits, and a mandate that Missouri increase its energy efficiency standard for state buildings.

Working with the Fathers Support Center of St. Louis, I sponsored and passed two bills that will transform our child-support system. One will help fathers struggling to pay child support avoid felony convictions and jail time by creating “fathering courts” to help non-violent offenders find jobs and resume support payments, saving the state millions in incarceration costs. The second will reduce erroneous paternity judgments and ensure that men with DNA tests showing non-paternity will no longer have to pay for children who are not theirs.

Finally, I helped successfully defend Missouri’s Historic Preservation Tax Credit, which has done more than any other program to revitalize formerly dilapidated urban neighborhoods, creating jobs and putting abandoned buildings back onto the tax rolls.

I hope that my Senate tenure, albeit brief, is remembered as productive and beneficial to those I served. I thank my colleagues with whom I worked on the above as well as my trusted and loyal aides: Stacy Morse, Christine Brauner, Johnny Little, and Kailey Burger.

I am saddened by the thought that some may give up on politics because I let them down. I was blessed to have so many amazing volunteers who worked to support me with no political experience and developed a passion for activism through their work. Today I fear that some of them – some of you – may feel as if your efforts were in vain. But they were not.

If you helped in my election to office, my 3-on-3 basketball tournament and community fair, my MLK Jr. Blvd. cleanup, or other programs I promoted, please don’t let my mistakes sour you on active civic involvement. There are no perfect people and no perfect candidates, but I hope you’ll find a candidate or a cause in which you believe and fight for it with the same zeal you fought for me. Because the real tragedy of my lapses would be if they discouraged people like you from civic engagement.

Mary Pickford once said that failure is not falling down but staying down. I won’t run for office again, but I’ll stay active in the causes that animate me – from urban education to preserving historic neighborhoods to providing health care for all – to try and help the City I love continue its return to the glory of its past.

Thank you for being a part of my life the last few years. I deeply regret the mistakes that have forced my resignation, but I hope you will balance them against the totality of my service, and that we can work together again in the future.

Best,

Jeffstate