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FIRST ON FOX: Georgia’s Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on private security from her campaign funds since the launch of her second run for governor, despite being on the board of a far-left foundation that has repeatedly called for the defunding of police.
Between December 2021 and June 2022, Abrams’ campaign has doled out over $814,000 to Executive Protection Agencies (EPA Security), an Atlanta-based private security firm, according to a new campaign filingreviewed by Fox News Digital. The company’s website says the group provides executive protection that comes with a “keen eye with a thorough knowledge of the venue through threat assessment” for its clients.
The 15 payments from the Abrams campaign to EPA Security range from $39,335 to $79,409 and have been increasing over the last couple months. The last four payments were $79,409 on June 15, $73,558 on June 1, $64,505 on May 18, and $76,633 on May 4. According to the Georgia Campaign Finance Commission, EPA Security is the fourth highest-paid vendor of the Abrams campaign.
BRIAN KEMP BLASTS STACEY ABRAMS AFTER PRIVATE SECURITY SPENDING REVEALED
Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams’ campaign has paid out over $800,000 through her gubernatorial campaign for private security since December 2021. (Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images)
Abrams’ campaign isn’t the only source of funds that Abrams has used for private security. Fox News Digital reported earlier this year that Fair Fight PAC, a committee that is part of a network launched by Abrams, doled out more than $1.2 million on private security services last year to the same security firm as the Abrams campaign, according to filings.
Abrams has attempted to distance herself from the movement to defund the police in recent weeks, telling Axios last month that if she is elected governor, then she would support increased police funding.
“When we make smart investments in our law enforcement, we get better officer recruitment, we get better retention, we get better interaction with the community and we get a safer Georgia,” Abrams said.
“I do not, and have never said, and have never supported defunding the police,” Abrams added.
However, Republicans in Georgia are skeptical of her support for law enforcement following multiple Fox News Digital reports about her ties to a radical Seattle-based foundation that has tweeted in support of defunding and abolishing the police.
OVER 100 GEORGIA SHERIFFS CONDEMN STACEY ABRAMS OVER ‘DEFUND THE POLICE’ FOUNDATION TIES
Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams, who is running for governor, is on the board of a radical Seattle-based foundation that has repeatedly called for police to be defunded and abolished. (Photo by Nathan Posner/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Abrams has been on the board of the Marguerite Casey Foundation since May 2021 and backed an expanded anti-police initiative from the foundation shortly after joining its board, Fox News Digital reported.
The Marguerite Casey Foundation has not only directed grants to left-wing groups that support defunding the police, including the Movement for Black Lives and Black Organizing Project, but they have also awarded $250,000 payments to far-left professors who support prison abolition and critical race theory, Fox News Digital previously reported.
Since Abrams’ ties to the Marguerite Casey Foundation were revealed in May, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and his supporters have slammed Abrams. Over 100 Georgia sheriffs joined Kemp in a press release a couple weeks ago to condemn Abrams’ ties to the Seattle-based foundation.
GEORGIA GOV. BRIAN KEMP CALLS ON STACEY ABRAMS TO RESIGN FROM RADICAL ‘DEFUND THE POLICE’ FOUNDATION
“Ms. Abrams actively serves on the governing board of – and has profited from – an anti-police organization which openly advocates for abolishing prisons and stripping local police departments of their funding,” the group of 102 sheriffs wrote.
“In stark contrast [to Kemp], Stacey Abrams has repeatedly shown complete disdain for law enforcement and the risk we take every day putting our lives on the line to serve our communities,” they continued.
Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp called on Stacey Abrams to step down from her board position at the Marguerite Casey Foundation. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
The Kemp campaign called on Abrams to resign her position from the board last month if she “truly supports law enforcement here in Georgia.”
“Abrams currently serves on the board of a foundation supporting the Defund the Police movement and has profited over $50,000 from the group,” Reagan McCarthy, deputy communications director for Kemp’s campaign, previously told Fox News Digital. “If she truly supports law enforcement here in Georgia, she should resign her position with the Marguerite Casey Foundation and disavow the radical Defund the Police policies that put officers at risk and families in danger.”
Abrams has also advocated for the “redistributive allocation of dollars” from police budgets so “we are not simply investing in public safety, but we’re building a safer public through education, through health care, through food security, through affordable housing, and that we not see these things as being in conflict, but they have to be part of a holistic vision of what America should look like, what law enforcement and what society should look like in the 21st century.”
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Abrams campaign spokesperson Alex Floyd previously told Fox News Digital that Abrams doesn’t agree with the foundation’s stance on defunding the police and that the grants don’t reflect or change her views.
“Foundation bylaws prohibit board members from approving, supporting or opposing any potential grants – all of which are determined by staff,” Floyd said. “No grant reflects or changes Stacey’s views.”
The Abrams campaign did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment regarding the campaign disbursements for private security.
Fox News’ Joe Schoffstall, Jessica Chasmar and Houston Keene contributed to this report.
