Image Credit: Diana Harshbarger for Congress / Facebook
The Center Square [By Kim Jarrett] –
The husband of U.S. Rep. Diana Harshbarger, R-Tenn., is among the recipients of a flurry of pardons issued by President Donald Trump on Friday.
Robert Harshbarger Jr. was convicted in 2013 on one charge each of health care fraud and distributing a misbranded drug, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice. He was sentenced to 48 months in a federal prison and ordered to pay $848,504 in restitution, a $25,000 criminal fine and forfeit $425,000 in cash, according to the pardon.
The Justice Department said he substituted a cheaper drug imported from China for the iron sucrose that was approved for kidney dialysis patients.
The Center Square reached out to Diana Harshbarger for a statement but did not receive a response before publication. Diana Harshbarger, who is also a pharmacist, issued a statement to WJHL in Johnson City that said: “My husband paid his debt both personally and financially to society. We are thrilled and grateful that the President looked kindly upon Bob’s application.”
Other Tennesseans pardoned by Trump include former Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada and his former chief of staff, Cade Cothren, who were convicted by a jury in May on charges of honest services wire fraud, conspiracy, bribery, theft and money laundering.
Casada, a Republican, was given a sentence of 36 months in prison and one year of supervised release.
Cothren was sentenced to 30 months in prison and ordered to pay a $25,000 fine.
The two were charged along with former Tennessee House Rep. Robin Smith, R-Hixson, who testified against Casada and Cothren. Smith was sentenced to eight months in prison and was not pardoned.
The Justice Department accused the trio of creating a company called Phoenix Solutions to handle constituent mailer services to the House of Representatives. Cothren created a phony identity, “Matthew Phoenix,” because of Cothren’s tarnished reputation, the Justice Department said in a news release.
Phoenix Solutions received more than $159,000 in revenue from caucus and campaign work, the Justice Department said.
