Aide’s bribery case is latest fallout for state ag commissioner
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller and his staff have been at the center of a handful of ethics complaints and two Texas Rangers investigations since he first ran for statewide office eight years ago, including the case that led to the indictment Tuesday of Miller’s campaign spokesman and political consultant on bribery and theft charges.
Miller defended Todd M. Smith after his May 2021 arrest on charges he solicited $55,000 in bribes from farmers in exchange for $100 licenses to produce hemp, saying Smith had done nothing wrong. But reacting to the indictment on Wednesday, Miller announced that he and Smith had “mutually agreed to terminate his association with my campaign.”
“My campaign and the (Texas Department of Agriculture) will cooperate fully with any agency involved in this matter so it can be resolved openly, fairly and judiciously,” Miller went on to say.
Miller’s professional conduct and ethics have come under increased scrutiny of late as his political opponents — both Democrats and fellow Republicans — have focused their campaigns around it.
“Last week, Sid Miller lied in a church when he told an audience there was no investigation at all,” Rep. James White, a West Texas Republican running against Miller in the March 1 primary, wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. “Today, his consultant was indicted for theft and bribery in a scheme to shake down Texas farmers. We must restore integrity” to the Department of Agriculture.
And Carey Counsil, an economics professor and rancher running in the GOP primary, said Miller is “just not an ethical person.” Miller said his opponents are just trying to drum up headlines to gain ground in the polls, describing himself as “squeaky clean.”
Allegations of wrongdoing against Miller since he took office as agriculture commissioner in 2015 include using departmental funds for political and personal trips and hiring Smith’s wife for a $180,000 job in the department in 2015.
Mark Mccaig, an attorney from Katy who volunteered for a 2014 primary rival to Miller in the agriculture commissioner race, submitted four complaints to the Texas Ethics Commission against Miller for cavalier handling of campaign finances.
The commission spent years investigating, and Mccaig ultimately withdrew the complaints due to the slow pace, but the investigations went on, with two leading to fines and two dismissed.
The first said Miller lent his campaign fund $10,000 from his personal funds in 2000, applied a 10 percent interest rate to the loan, and repaid himself $31,000 in 2012. That's nearly $20,000 more than he would have made if he'd invested the $10,000 in the stock market over that time.
During the Texas Ethics Commission investigation, Miller said he applied the compounded 10 percent rate because he believed it was consistent with business loan rates at the time. The commission dismissed the complaint and said it found “credible evidence that no violations of a law or rule administered and enforced by the commission has occurred."
The second complaint alleged that Miller had invested $100,000 in campaign funds in the stock market while he was a state representative, then transferred some of the stocks to himself when he left office to settle loans he'd made to the campaign. The complaint accused Miller of filing false information.
Miller told the Dallas Morning News his conservative campaign donors would support the financial maneuver because “it's kind of a free-market entrepreneurial capitalist thing.”
That investigation was closed in 2014 due to insufficient evidence.
And the final two alleged that Miller had made mistakes in accounting for his campaign, with the totals being off by $84,000 in 2012 and $205,000 in 2014.
In June 2017, after years of investigation, the Ethics Commission fined Miller $2,750 for the accounting mistakes. Miller's spokesman described the fine as “nothing more than a politically motivated witch hunt” for “very minor technical issues."
That spokesman was Todd Smith, the aide indicted Tuesday for theft and commercial bribery.
Calf-roping, ‘Jesus Shot’
Miller was sworn in as agriculture commissioner in January 2015, and by the end of February he had used taxpayer funds to pay for two trips that appeared to be for personal or political purposes. The trips ultimately sparked an investigation from the Texas Rangers, although Miller agreed to refund the money and no charges were filed.
In February 2015, Miller flew to Oklahoma and booked a rental car, charging the state $1,120 and saying he was entitled to reimbursement from the state because he toured the
Oklahoma National Stockyards and met with Oklahoma lawmakers and the state's top agriculture official.
Instead, Hearst Newspapers reported then, the lawmakers Miller met with and their aides said they did not invite Miller or expect him in their state, and the president of the stockyards said Miller never took the tour.
One Oklahoma lawmaker said Miller told them he was in the state for a medical procedure. Miller, a former rodeo cowboy, suffers from chronic pain, and he acknowledged he had in the past received a “Jesus Shot” from an Oklahoma doctor, an injection that doctor claimed “takes away all pain for life.”
Miller would not say whether he'd received the injection on that trip, but using taxpayer funds to receive any medical treatment is against the law.
That same month, Miller used his Texas Department of Agriculture credit card for about $2,000 to book flights, hotel rooms and a rental car to attend the Dixie National Rodeo in Jackson, Miss.
“It was a personal trip so he could compete in a rodeo,” said Lucy Nashed, spokeswoman for the Department of Agriculture at the time. At the rodeo, he competed in calf-roping events and had no other scheduled meetings or events. He won $880 in the competition and ultimately repaid the charges.
The Texas Rangers announced in September 2016 they wouldn't be charging Miller in connection with the trips, saying the amount of money was small and the funds had been repaid.
License allegations
On May 7, Smith was arrested after an investigation by the Texas Rangers' public integrity unit and charged with theft of $55,000 and soliciting bribes from farmers in exchange for hemp production licenses, which normally cost $100. Smith planned to use the funds in part to pay for political polling on hemp, the arrest report said.
He was released on $10,000 bail, and the investigation continued for eight months until a Travis County Grand Jury indicted Smith on the charges Tuesday. The indictment notes that Smith told the farmers he was acting on behalf of Miller, but he was doing so without Miller's knowledge.
“We are disappointed that the Travis County District Attorney has obtained an indictment against Todd Smith. He was not invited to address the grand jury. He is not guilty of these charges and intends to vigorously defend himself against the allegations made by the Travis County District Attorney's Office,” said Sam Bassett, Smith's attorney.