Texans are facing a new reality as the AG Commissioner’s political consultant, Todd Smith, is arrested on felony theft charges.
As wonderful of a state that Texas is, even the proudest of Texans must come to reality with the mountain of examples of widespread corruption that has become embedded in the state’s politics. From pay-to-play extortion to blatant examples of nepotism from public officials, even the state’s own Attorney General Ken Paxton has been under indictment for over six years due to securities fraud.
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While not totally immune from public criticism and controversy, Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller has aspired to run a hemp industry free from this nepotism that all too often defines Texas politics. Saying he wanted a thriving hemp industry that would include any Texan interested in growing the multi-useful crop regardless of how wealthy or interconnected they were, it appears that not all of the staff members were on the same ethical page as him. Instead, one appointed consultant has allegedly used the many dollars surrounding the Texas hemp industry to enrich himself by deception and false promises not backed up by actual governmental action.
Todd Smith, the head political consultant to the AG Commissioner and partner of the lobbying group Impact Texas Communications, was arrested this past Thursday on third-degree felony theft charges of $30,000 to $150,000. According to the arrest warrant issued by Travis County in response to an investigation by Texas Rangers’ Public Integrity Unit investigator Brad Weatherford, Smith engaged in a wild conspiracy of financial quid pro quos and lies completed in the most bizarre and cinematic of ways.
Miller told the Texas Tribune that he “had no idea” about the alleged scheme.
Ultimately, the conspiracy that the arrest warrant details comes down to a simple “pay to play” scheme concocted by a career political consultant. Concocted for a new agricultural option in a state with one of the strongest agricultural backbones in the nation; a type of corruption and personal greed that’s far from uncommon in American politics’ intertwined relationship with business.
“Todd Smith created by words and his conduct, a false impression of fact that affected the judgment of others in the transactions to obtain a hemp license and/or conduct a survey that was never attempted by Todd Smith,” the warrant alleges.
Using an associate named Keenan Williams who falsely claimed to be “working directly with senior leadership at the Texas Department of Agriculture” to bait a man named Andre Vinson who was interested in obtaining hemp licenses to fork over thousands of unnecessary dollars from August to November of 2019, Smith authorized a conspiracy of theft that involves multiple money handover exchanges that sounds more reminiscent of a scene from a mobster movie.
Originally requesting $150,000 for some money to go toward “campaign contributions”, Williams then met an associate of Vinson in the parking lot of a Legacy Bank in Dallas County and was given $25,000 in cash under the assumption that the money would be used for “a hemp survey and to obtain a hemp license. Unsurprisingly, Vinson never received “any information, agreement, invoice or results of this hemp survey.
Brazenly, Williams then informed Vinson that another $25,000 was necessary to secure the license. However, Vinson’s associate was hesitant to hand over that amount in cash again. Therefore, the associate gave a $15,000 check to Williams and a $10,000 check to Williams’ connection at the TDA, consultant Todd Smith. For example of how involved in the TDA’s affairs of hemp he supposedly was, Smith had become so comfortable with his access at the TDA’s office that he requested that letters sent to his paid lobbying clients should be sent on TDA letterhead.
Vinson and his associate then traveled down to Austin for a supposed meeting inside the TDA offices possessing another $10,000 requested in cash from Williams and withdrew another $20,000 at a bank in Travis County. For reference, all the transactions listed above, including the transfer of money from Vinson’s accounts into Smith and Williams’ respective accounts, has been verified by the Texas Rangers agent who conducted this investigation.
As opposed to meeting in an office for this now third transfer of money conducted on absolute fraud, Vinson and Williams met in a parking lot of the popular Tex Mex restaurant El Mercado located a block from the TDA offices. During this strange meeting, Williams informed Vinson that he (Vinson) shouldn’t come with him to take the money directly to the TDA offices, instead going down alley alone and mysteriously returned 20 minutes later to gather Vinson and his associates to walk them over to the TDA offices. Their presence at the TDA office is confirmed, but how the meeting went isn’t stated.
In interviews with Weatherford, Williams claimed that Smith told him that getting a hemp license would cost $150,000 and stressed the importance of these $25,000 hemp survey funds. When pressed, Smith said he was unaware of any conspiracy, but admitted to receiving $5,000 as a “gift” from Williams.
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The affidavit and arrest warrant is quite a read, but it details a series of actions confirmed by social media posts, bank transactions and documented communications that shows a level of deception and corruption even towards Williams conducted by Smith that is multi-layered.
In fact, the story above with Vinson isn’t the only example of how deep the theft committed by Smith truly had become. While immediately posting a personal recognizance $10,000 bond only hours after his Thursday arrest, it’s clear from previous reports and the affidavit that the allegations aren’t isolated, and that Smith’s corruption behind the hemp licenses goes back to at least 2018 and even involves getting Commissioner Miller to create an assistant commissioner position for Smith’s wife.
The Texas hemp industry will undoubtedly be problematic if corruption and unguaranteed quid pro quos run rampant in the future operations of the flourishing industry.