Oh dear. Stacey Abrams and Rapahel Warnock. No evidence of their personal wrong-doing though.
A Democratic advocacy group founded by former Representative Stacey Abrams and once led by Senator Raphael Warnock were fined $300,000 on Wednesday for breaking Georgia’s campaign finance law.
Georgia’s ethics commission found that the New Georgia Project and its affiliated action fund raised $4.2 million and spent $3.2 million to support Abrams during the 2018 election cycle when she ran for governor. The groups failed to disclose those partisan contributions in violation of state campaign finance law. Abrams ultimately lost to Republican Brian Kemp, who defeated her again in 2022.
The two entities agreed to pay a $300,000 penalty, the largest fine in the commission’s 38-year history, in two $150,000 installments for 16 instances of illegal activity. The punishment is aimed at the groups, not Abrams and Warnock directly.
The New Georgia Project failed to register as an independent campaign committee and failed to file campaign finance reports of contributions and spending in 2018, showing their support for Abrams and other Democratic candidates.
In 2019, the groups committed the same offense without disclosing $646,000 in contributions and $174,000 in spending to support a voter referendum for Gwinnett County’s citizens to join the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority system. Despite the nonprofit’s efforts, voters rejected the referendum.
While this case was about state law, federal law allows tax-exempt charities to register voters but forbids them from telling voters who to support in an election.
The commission previously fined the advocacy group Gente for Abrams $50,000 in 2020 for failing to register and file reports on $240,000 in spending for Abrams during her 2018 gubernatorial run, the same illegal activity that the New Georgia Project was accused of committing. Gente for Abrams registered after receiving the fine and reported it spent an extra $685,000 to support Abrams in 2018.
In other news New York Mayor Eric Adams visited Trump at Mar-a-lago on Thursday.
New York Mayor Eric Adams, who was indicted on federal corruption charges last year, traveled to Mar-a-Lago on Thursday to meet with President-elect Donald Trump.
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