Stacey Abrams Makes History as Largest Ever Election Ethics Fine of Its Kind Imposed on Activist Groups She Founded
Two political advocacy groups founded by Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams were fined by a Georgia ethics panel for failing to disclose millions in contributions and spending during Abrams’ failed 2018 campaign for governor of Georgia.
“Today the State Ethics Commission entered into a consent agreement with the New Georgia Project and the New Georgia Project Action Fund for a total of $300,000,” the Georgia State Ethics Commission posted in a statement on Wednesday, according to Fox News.
“This certainly represents the largest fine imposed in the history of Georgia’s Ethics Commission, but it also appears to be the largest ethics fine ever imposed by any state ethics commission in the country related to an election and campaign finance case,” the statement said.
“This represents the largest and most significant instance of an organization illegally influencing our statewide elections in Georgia that we have ever discovered, and I believe this sends a clear message to both the public and potential bad actors moving forward that we will hold you accountable,” the statement added.
The New Georgia Project was founded by Abrams in 2013 as a charity; the New Georgia Project Action Fund was the fund-raising part of the organization.
The groups were found to have committed 16 violations involving $4.2 million in contributions and $3.2 million in spending related to the 2018 campaign.
In 2019, the groups allegedly failed to report $646,000 in donations and $174,000 in spending.
The amount involved vastly exceeds the amount involved in the trial of former President Donald Trump, who was convicted in New York state of falsifying business records concerning a $130,000 payment, according to The Associated Press.
(For the mathematicians, Trump’s $130,000 represents less than two percent of the total $7.4 million Abrams’ groups are alleged to have improperly reported.)
According to the AP Abrams was not the CEO of the group after stepping down in 2017, and said she had no involvement in the group, even though much of the money raised and spent in 2018 supported her campaign.
Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock was the CEO of the group during the years covered by the fine. A representative of Warnock said he had no knowledge of any violations.
Michael Brewer, a Warnock representative, said “compliance decisions were not a part of that work”
The New Georgia Project said in a statement that it is “glad to finally put this matter behind us” so the group can “fully devote its time and attention to its efforts to civically engage and register black, brown, and young voters in Georgia,” according to Fox News.
A consent order in the case said that money spent “included, but were not limited to, canvassing activities, literature expressly advocating for the election of candidates, social media engagement, and operating field offices with paid staff where those electioneering activities were organized,” according to NBC.
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