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The Georgia Senate Special Committee on Investigations has issued subpoenas to former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and two associates in connection with campaign finance violations committed by the New Georgia Project and its affiliated Action Fund during the 2018 election cycle.
The subpoenas will require Abrams, Lauren Groh-Wargo, chief executive officer of Fair Fight Action and a top Abrams adviser, and Nsé Ufot, the former chief executive officer of the New Georgia Project, to appear before the panel at the State Capitol in Atlanta at 10 a.m. on Friday.
Both the Georgia Voting Project, along with its affiliated New Georgia Project Action Fund were founded to boost turnout among non-white voters to counter what Abrams, without evidence, described as “voter suppression.” The closures were largely linked to massive legal costs due to a massive fine that was levied against the network.
Last January, the Georgia Ethics Commission imposed a $300,000 fine on the Georgia Voting Project and its sister entity, for breaches of state campaign finance regulations during the 2018 elections.
These organizations were penalized for not registering as independent campaign committees and for failing to report around $4.2 million in contributions and $3.2 million in expenditures, primarily benefiting Abrams’ run for governor, according to a report from the Associated Press. The penalty stands as the largest in the history of the Georgia Ethics Commission.
Fair Fight Action, another organization founded by Abrams in 2018, has also been the subject of controversy due to allegations of financial mismanagement. Like the New Georgia Voting Project, Fair Fight Action was founded to combat alleged “voter suppression,” Abrams’ term for purging inactive voters from rolls, voter ID requirements and the state’s “exact match” voter registration system, which flagged applications for discrepancies.
Groups linked to Abrams later received tens-of-millions of dollars in funding ahead of the 2020 presidential election and runoff Senate races.
Fair Fight Action paid $9.4 million in 2019 and 2020 to Lawrence & Bundy, a law firm led by Allegra Lawrence-Hardy, Abrams’ close friend and campaign chairwoman, for a largely unsuccessful voting rights lawsuit against the state. Legal fees for the case topped $39 million in total between 2019 and 2021. By 2024, Fair Fight Action faced financial difficulties, with $2.5 million in debt and only $1.9 million cash on hand, leading to layoffs of 75 percent of its staff. The drain of finances followed significant spending on legal fees in a number of cases against the state and election integrity organizations.
Washington, DC/USA – November 15, 2019. Stacey Abrams speaks at a National Press Club luncheon.
The Senate committee, which previously conducted a two-year investigation into Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, expanded its inquiry to examine the New Georgia Project matter following the Ethics Commission settlement. Committee leaders have described the probe as an effort to determine responsibility for the violations and to assess whether additional reforms or enforcement mechanisms are needed.
“The integrity of our political process depends on the faithful enforcement of the law. The Ethics Commission uncovered what it described as one of the most significant campaign finance violations in state history,” committee Chair Bill Cowsert said in a statement. “Our committee intends to determine who was responsible and whether additional reforms or enforcement mechanisms are necessary to protect the public trust and prevent this from ever happening again.”
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