Abrams’ nonprofit paid her close friend nearly $10 million in legal fees

Georgia’s Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams’ nonprofit has paid her close friend and campaign chairman’s law firm nearly $10 million in legal fees to handle a near-miss voter suppression case in the state.

Politico did an in-depth analysis It was reported Monday that Abrams campaign chairman Allegra Lawrence-Hardy’s law firm earned $9.4 million in 2019 and 2020 from a democratgroup Fair Fight Action with a dollar amount for 2021 and 2022.

The report followed Finding the Fox News Channel that was in the Fair Fight promotion paid thousands to the family and friends of the group’s director, Andre Fields, who appear to have no political experience – the organization now says it has launched an investigation.

After losing the 2018 gubernatorial race to incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp, Abrams is challenging him again, and the group, which has raised its national profile and brought in millions of dollars for voter suppression claims, is under increased scrutiny.

On Monday, Politico did an in-depth analysis, reporting that the law firm of Abrams campaign chairman Allegra Lawrence-Hardy (R) earned $9.4 million in 2019 and 2020 from the Democratic group Fair Fight Action, and the dollar amounts for 2021 and 2022 not yet available.

Abrams launched Fair Fight Action after her narrow loss to Kemp in 2018, which she refused to concede amid reports of long lines, voters being left off the voter rolls and other problems in predominantly black communities.

“This year, more than 200 years into Georgia’s democratic experiment, the state has failed its voters,” Abrams said in 2018, ten days after the election. “You see, despite Georgia’s record population, more than a million citizens found their names on the Secretary of State’s rolls, including a 92-year-old civil rights activist who voted in the same district. since 1968″.

“Tens of thousands hung in limbo, rejected because of human error and a system of suppression that had already proven itself biased,” she continued.

Her comments, which Republicans pointed to when asked about former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was rigged, helped raise millions of dollars for Fair Fight Action.

Politico reported that the group raised more than $61 million in 2019 and 2020.

More than $25 million, according to the website, went to legal fees.

And $9.4 million of those legal fees went to Lawrence & Bundy, whose partner is Lawrence-Hardy, who has been friends with Abrams since college and chaired both of her gubernatorial runs.

Lawrence-Hardy declined to tell Politico how much total went from Fair Fight Action to Lawrence & Bundy because public records don’t include the past two years.

The costs were far higher than those typically incurred in a suffrage case in federal court, leading to questions about whether the case was overpriced.

The main case at issue was Fair Fight v. Raffensperger, which began as a broad case about problematic voting practices in Georgia but was reduced to just three claims — all of which a federal judge ruled against in September.

“While Georgia’s election system is not perfect,” wrote Federal District Court Judge Steve S. Jones, “the challenged practice violates neither the Constitution nor [Voting Rights Act].’

Abrams allies said that was fine, her group contracted with a close friend’s law firm.

Hakota Espinosa, director of communications for Fair Fight Action, argued. that Lawrence-Hardy was hired for her experience.

“Fair Fight Action, along with five other organizations, was honored to be represented by Allegra Lawrence-Hardy as lead counsel for the plaintiffs, along with a number of respected attorneys from Lawrence & Bundy and the seven other firms participating in this case,” Espinosa told Politico.

Norm Eisen, Obama’s White House ethics adviser and counsel to the Democratic-led House Judiciary Committee handling the first impeachment inquiry against former President Donald Trump, was contacted by Fair Fight Action to respond to Politico’s story.

He suggested that it was not surprising that a voting rights lawyer would also be chairman of a prominent political campaign.

“It happens all the time. The way our system is built is that political leaders and political leaders are the same,” he told Politico. “So it’s not just Allegra.”

“You could say the same thing about Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Mitch McConnell or Kevin McCarthy,” he continued. “Not only do we support it, we embrace it; it is the American political, legal and ethical system.’

The group Public Citizen, an expert on campaign finance and ethics, was quoted in the story as saying it was a “conflict of interest,” later took this statement back saying that “the contractual arrangement described in the story is normal and unobjectionable.”

Of course, Republicans were more likely to view the financial relationship between a nonprofit and a law firm as unfavorable.

“It’s crazy. The Fair Fight and Stacey Abrams organizations have been facing sad financial problems for YEARS. Anyone who has seen her Oppo book knows that this section is 200 pages long.’ written by Matt Whitlockformer spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Whitlock said that Public Citizen “throwing their staffer under the bus for daring to criticize the Abrams organization is WILD.”