Joel Ebert, and Dave Boucher

The Tennessean

Andy Miller Jr., the prominent Republican donor who paid for a European trip for several lawmakers in 2011 and took business investments from disgraced lawmaker Jeremy Durham, among others, rented one of his Nashville homes to two GOP lawmakers during a recent legislative session.

Reps. Andy Holt, R-Dresden, and Jeremy Faison, R-Cosby, rented a house on Brook Hollow Road near Nashville West Shopping Center from Miller, the lawmakers told The Tennessean during separate interviews.

Miller did not respond to requests for comment.

The transaction underlines the cozy relationship between lawmakers and Miller, a wealthy politico who regularly tries to advance his agenda through interactions with public officials.

The exact timeline of when the lawmakers rented Miller's home is unclear — Faison said it was during the early part of 2013; Holt said it was 2014.

“We rented a house from him for what I would assume was fair market value. It was $1,200 or $1,500 a month and that was split,” Holt said.

The house has three bedrooms and two-and-a-half bathrooms, according to records maintained by the Davidson County Property Assessor.

Miller bought the home in 2012 for $290,000. He sold it in 2015 to his niece for $290,000.

Holt and Faison said their families may have visited from time to time when they rented the house, but it was largely occupied only by the two lawmakers.

Holt said in other years he’s stayed in apartments with Faison, but he decided to stay in the Miller-owned home “because it was available and because it was big enough to accommodate our families.”

When asked if Miller ever talked about legislation with the lawmakers while they rented the house, Holt and Faison said that never occurred.

“The guy has never lobbied me for a bill, never once,” said Faison, who was one of six lawmakers who went on a five-day “fact finding” trip to Europe in 2011 with Miller to learn about radical Islam. The expenses for the trip were paid by Miller.

The GOP donor, his wife, his brother and his sister-in-law gave Holt a total of $6,000 in October 2014 — just months after when Holt said he rented the home.

Faison received a total of $2,800 from Miller and his wife in 2011.

Holt said he didn’t think it was a problem for him to rent the home from Miller and take donations, admitting that there would only be an issue if he was staying at the home for free.

“I could see where that would be something that we could say that’s probably not something that looks like an arms-length transaction,” Holt said. “I could understand that.”

Lawmakers' housing has been scrutinized in the past. In 2013, Rep. Curry Todd, R-Collierville, was criticized for living rent-free in a nearly half-million-dollar home. But the practice was allowed because state ethics law allow gifts for nonbusiness purposes between lawmakers and close personal friends.

The depth of Miller's interactions with lawmakers is being scrutinized by The Tennessean as part of an ongoing investigation into Durham.

Durham, who was expelled from the legislature in September, invested some of his own campaign funds into one of Miller's companies. Since then, The Tennessean has found that Miller paid for the European trip and more recently was fined $7.75 million after facing allegations that he and his brother defrauded a federal military health care program through a pharmaceutical company they owned.

Earlier this week, the Associated Press reported that Sen. Mark Green, R-Clarksville, said he was rethinking his investment in a company Miller owns.

Reach Dave Boucher at 615-259-8892 and on Twitter @Dave_Boucher1. Reach Joel Ebert at 615-772-1681 and on Twitter @joelebert29.

This story has been updated to clarify Miller's contributions to Jeremy Faison.