The employee had been an FBI informant and advocate for stricter campaign finance laws.
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by Sarah Grace Taylor [The Nashville Banner, Creative Commons] –
A former state employee is suing Tennessee, the state Legislature and House Speaker Cameron Sexton for retaliation, claiming that he was fired from his research job for raising concerns about campaign finance and corruption, a violation of whistleblower protections.
Ted Boyatt was fired from his job as a committee research analyst for the legislature in June 2024 after repeatedly advocating for more transparency around campaign finance reporting requirements and stricter anti-corruption laws.
In the lawsuit filed late Tuesday, Boyatt alleges that he was dismissed as a result of filing requests for advisory opinions from the Tennessee Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance, but was also harassed during his employment for being a “snitch” after becoming an informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Last year, the Banner reported on Boyatt’s requests for advisory opinions, which were presented weeks before any discipline, and his subsequent firing. When he was fired, the state told Boyatt it was for failing to adhere to office hours, a complaint he said no supervisor ever discussed with him before cutting off his keycard access in May 2024, weeks before formally terminating his employment.
According to the lawsuit, Boyatt’s “unapologetic advocacy for more robust anti-corruption laws and stricter enforcement of those laws is informed by his own firsthand experiences and observations as a professional working for over a decade in the fields of political campaigning, grassroots advocacy, lobbying, and state public policymaking.”
Boyatt claims that Sexton and others were aware that he had been feeding information to the FBI and journalists about legislators and their associates who conducted unlawful activity since at least 2019, resulting in harassment when he began working for the state.
In his complaint, Boyatt describes lobbying against several recently passed campaign finance bills, which he previously told the Banner loosened restrictions and made way for more opaque contributions to PACs and campaigns.
He also says Sexton — and a number of other legislative staff named as defendants — had reason to believe Boyatt was the unnamed source in numerous news stories that painted the speaker and his associates in a bad light.
“Several of these stories sourced and caused by Plaintiff implicated Speaker Sexton or his political allies and were met with a great deal of contempt, anger, and heightened suspicion against suspected leakers by certain officials and advocates, particularly those who had engaged in or were aware of unlawful activities in support of school voucher legislation and pro-school voucher candidates for public office,” the complaint reads.
Boyatt’s complaint does not describe the exact stories or federal investigations he participated in. Still, his employment and political involvement overlap with the timeline of kickback investigations into former Speaker Glen Casada and former staffer Cade Cothren, culminating in their recent criminal convictions.
The complaint also references a comment made by Rep. Todd Warner (R-Chapel Hill) before the Casada trial to indicate how lawmakers viewed those who cooperated with federal investigations.
“It’s going to be interesting to see tomorrow, or as this thing plays out over the next few weeks, who the snitches were, who were the rats that wore wires,” Warner says in an online video cited in the lawsuit.
A spokesperson for Sexton declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Boyatt deferred questions to his attorney, Patrick Barrett, who offered limited comment.
“I’m proud to represent Ted Boyatt as he seeks judicial relief for the claims raised in the complaint. At this time, however, we’ll be speaking through our court filings,” Barrett said. “We’re looking forward to the opportunity to vindicate Mr. Boyatt’s claims in court.”
One Response
Me? I’m a nobody, but I personally know the old saying….’what goes around, comes around’ and we all know Sexton has been the ‘snitch’ in our state’s recent history, but now the tables are turned. Let’s hope that this employee has a squeaky ‘clean nose’ on his employment record so Sexton can’t get away with this one. Some people never learn from other’s mistakes.