Senate Resolution 292 would authorize a new investigation into the New Georgia Action Fund and the New Georgia Project, which Abrams founded in 2013. The New Georgia Project agreed to pay a $300,000 fine in January after admitting to 16 campaign finance law violations.
The groups, which were created to help register more black, Hispanic, Asian, and young voters, admitted to illegally raising $4.2 million in donations and spending “$3.2 million of dark money in support of Stacey Abrams’ 2018 campaign for Governor and the state-wide campaigns of other Democrats running in the 2018 general election.”
The bill would direct the Senate Special Committee on Investigations to look into the relationship between Abrams and the groups, despite her attempt to distance herself from them. Another Abrams-linked group, Power Forward Communities, would also be investigated over a $2 billion federal grant.
“The people of Georgia were defrauded by Stacey Abrams. She’s now been forced to admit it and tried to get it to go away,” Lt. Gov. Burt Jones (R-GA) said in a Friday statement obtained by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Jones, who is viewed as a likely candidate for next year’s gubernatorial race, suggested that Abrams should be sent to jail if found responsible for criminal wrongdoing.
“But Georgians want real accountability,” he said. “With these subpoena powers, my office is going to get to the truth. In Georgia, nobody is above the law, even if they were a darling of MSNBC. Anyone who broke the law and stole from taxpayers, including Stacey Abrams, should go to jail.”
Democrats were quick to condemn the investigation, denouncing it as politically and racially motivated.
“I find it ironic that the ‘cut the red tape’ Republicans, pushing for our government to take a backseat, are now okay with wasting time and taxpayer dollars on performing political prosecution theater, specifically, now on a second politically involved black woman,” Senate Minority Leader Harold Jones II (D-GA) said.
He sought to redirect attention to other matters.
“Working-class Georgians are asking for Medicaid expansion, lower cost of living, cheaper eggs, and reproductive freedom,” the Democrat said. “All the GOP knows how to do is waste tax dollars on something that could be handled in a court of law.”
Environmental Protection Administrator Lee Zeldin called attention to alleged wrongdoing by Power Forward Communities earlier this month, which received its $2 billion grant from the $20 billion “gold bar scheme” alleged by the Department of Government Efficiency.
$2 BILLION IN ‘GOLD BARS’ SENT FROM EPA TO ABRAMS-LINKED CLIMATE ORGANIZATION: LEE ZELDIN
The group was awarded a $2 billion grant from the EPA despite only reporting $100 in revenue during its first three months of operations after being founded in late 2023.
“I made a commitment to members of Congress and to the American people to be a good steward of tax dollars, and I’ve wasted no time in keeping my word,” Zeldin said. “When we learned about the Biden administration’s scheme to quickly park $20 billion outside the agency, we suspected that some organizations were created out of thin air just to take advantage of this.”
