Accountability File — The GA Files

September–October 2026Elections administration — ballot secrecyDocumented — no wrongdoing alleged

State Election Board asked federal agencies to force a voting-system fix he declined to make before the election

Brad Raffensperger →Secretary of State · Georgia A governance dispute, not an allegation of wrongdoing by anyone. The board wants a software update applied before Nov. 3; Raffensperger's office says the timing is the problem, not the fix — the update itself is free, but installing it statewide requires paid personnel, and the office says it previously sought funding without success. No federal agency has been reported to have acted on the request. The underlying privacy flaw is real but concerns whether a determined analyst could later infer how an individual voted; nothing in the record suggests votes can be altered.

In late September 2026 the State Election Board voted to urge Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to install a voting-system software update addressing a ballot-secrecy flaw — researchers showed that ballot images, cross-referenced against public voting records, can reveal how an individual voted. When he did not, the board's executive director wrote to the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice on Oct. 2, asking them to declare Georgia's system non-compliant and compel the update. Raffensperger's office pushed back: “People who are serious about election security don't inject chaos in the 11th hour.” The board also weighed, but did not adopt, a low-tech alternative of having precinct workers shuffle ballots before tabulation. Early voting begins Oct. 13, and the seat Raffensperger is leaving is on the ballot between Republican Tim Fleming and Democrat Penny Brown Reynolds.

Sources

September–October 2026Transparency — outside incomeDocumented — no wrongdoing alleged

Won't release her consulting firm's client list while demanding her opponent disclose his investments

Keisha Lance Bottoms →2026 candidate — Governor No allegation of illegality, and no finding against her. Georgia's personal financial disclosure requires officials to report income ranges and sources by entity, not the clients of a private firm — so withholding the list breaks no rule. What is documented is the asymmetry: she has made Jackson's undisclosed business interests a campaign issue while declining to say who pays hers. The sharpest framing of this has come from conservative outlets and an AJC opinion column rather than news reporting; the underlying numbers come from her own filing.

Keisha Lance Bottoms' April 2026 personal financial disclosure lists her consulting firm, KRLB LLC, as her main income source in both 2024 and 2025, at $250,000 to $500,000 each year. The filing reports the amounts but not who paid them, and Bottoms has declined to release the client list, calling the LLC “private” and saying she would disclose only if Rick Jackson disclosed his investments. Reporting puts the firm's total receipts above $1 million since she left the Biden administration. The exchange runs alongside her attacks on Jackson's Texas data-center and refinery stakes, which he likewise has not fully detailed.

Sources

September 2026Ethics — disclosure & unreported spendingFined / sanctioned

Fined ~$150,000 by the state Ethics Commission over $187,000 in undisclosed spending

Georgia Republican Assembly & GRA PACConservative activist group & its political action committee · Georgia Resolved at the commission level on Sept. 9, 2026: the State Ethics Commission fined the Georgia Republican Assembly and its PAC $74,875 each — about $150,000 — finding they failed to register as independent committees, failed to file required disclosure reports, and failed to disclose more than $187,000 spent supporting candidates. This is a civil campaign-finance penalty, not a criminal finding, and the groups can appeal to Superior Court; their attorney argued the penalties would have “a significant chilling effect on volunteer political groups.” An administrative law judge had earlier recommended clearing the groups; the commission overruled that recommendation in August before ruling in September.

The Georgia State Ethics Commission voted to overturn an administrative law judge who had recommended clearing the Georgia Republican Assembly and its political action committee, reviving a case alleging the groups failed to properly disclose campaign spending, failed to register as an independent committee, and failed to file required disclosure reports. On Sept. 9, 2026 the commission fined each group $74,875 — about $150,000 total — over more than $187,000 in undisclosed spending supporting candidates; the original ethics case accused the PAC of 61 violations involving more than $220,000 in unreported expenditures. The PAC was headed by Edwin Brant Frost V — son of Edwin Brant Frost IV, who pleaded guilty in May 2026 to running Newnan-based First Liberty Building & Loan as a Ponzi scheme that took at least $140 million from roughly 300 investors. The SEC alleged about $17 million went to the family's personal expenses, including more than $570,000 in political donations; Georgia Republicans moved to return First Liberty money after the collapse.

Sources

June–August 2026Ethics — business practices & immigrationSettled — no admission of wrongdoing

His company paid $3 million to settle claims it exploited immigrant nurses — while he campaigned on deportation

Rick Jackson →2026 candidate — Governor Settled, with no admission of wrongdoing. Avant denied the allegations throughout the litigation and says its nurses came to the United States lawfully, often after waiting years for visa approval — and that is accurate: these were legal, visa-sponsored workers, not undocumented hires, and this should not be confused with the separate April 2026 dispute over undocumented laborers. A settlement is not a finding of liability. “Stay-or-pay” contracts are also common across the nurse-recruiting industry, and Jackson has been criticized from the right for the same business — for recruiting foreign nurses rather than Americans. What is documented is the settlement itself, its timing, and that a federal magistrate let the forced-labor and racketeering claims proceed rather than dismissing them.

CNN reported on August 20, 2026 that Avant Healthcare Professionals — a Jackson Healthcare company that recruits foreign nurses to staff U.S. hospitals — agreed to pay more than $3 million to settle a class action brought by immigrant nurses. The nurses alleged Avant lured them with promises of the American Dream, paid substandard wages, and locked them into multi-year contracts carrying five-figure penalties if they left early; the company sought $41,832 from one nurse who quit, payable within 30 days. They further alleged that Avant threatened to contact Immigration and Customs Enforcement when they tried to leave. Lawyers from the worker-rights nonprofit Towards Justice brought the claims under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act, and a federal magistrate found the forced-labor and racketeering allegations credible enough to proceed before the case became a Florida class action. The settlement was reached June 22, 2026 — six days after Jackson won the Republican runoff for governor — and covers more than 5,000 current and former workers, roughly $2 million to the nurses and about $1 million in attorneys' fees, with unpaid fees waived. The reporting draws a contrast with Jackson's campaign, which ran a “deported or departed” ad and pledges to make Georgia first in the nation for deportations: the company that built his fortune depends on the immigration system he runs against.

Sources

July–August 2026Ethics — conflicts of interestDocumented — no wrongdoing alleged

Signed a state contract extension 21 days before saying he would “never” do business with Georgia

Rick Jackson →2026 candidate — Governor Not alleged illegal, and not a finding of wrongdoing. This is a renewal of an existing contract, not a bid for a new one, and Jackson is not governor — his pledge is prospective, about what he would do in office. His campaign has said Jackson Healthcare will not bid on new state contracts and will “work to responsibly unwind” existing ones, and an orderly unwind of a contract supplying clinicians to state psychiatric facilities plausibly takes time. The overlap with a Jackson administration would be about six months, and only if he wins. 11Alive reported it sought comment from his campaign; we have seen no response and will publish one. What is not in dispute is the sequence and the signature.

LocumTenens, a subsidiary of Jackson Healthcare, supplies temporary clinicians to the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. State records show the agency has paid the company $17,903,044 since 2022. On July 22, 2026 — as the Republican nominee for governor — the company renewed that contract through June 30, 2027, and 11Alive reported that one of the renewal documents carries Rick Jackson's own signature. The next governor is sworn in in January 2027, so the contract runs roughly six months into the term Jackson is seeking. Twenty-one days after signing, asked at a campaign appearance about his business with the state, Jackson said: “I don't want even the appearance that there's ethics impropriety and all that,” and “I never will do business with the state of Georgia” as governor. His opponent, Keisha Lance Bottoms, told reporters in Cobb County: “He says he's going to dial back his business with the state, but my understanding is that just last week, he got another contract from the state. So don't just say it. Do it.” The renewal is separate from — and additional to — the roughly $1 billion in state payments to Jackson Healthcare and affiliates already documented since fiscal 2020.

Sources

2020–2024 (refund July 2025; Frost guilty plea May 2026)Ethics — campaign contributionsDocumented — no wrongdoing alleged

Two Georgia congressmen took money from the man the SEC calls a $140M Ponzi operator — one gave it back, one didn't

First Liberty money in Georgia politicsPonzi-linked campaign contributions · GA Files analysis of FEC records Not an allegation of wrongdoing by either member. Accepting these contributions was legal, and neither congressman is accused of any offense. Edwin Brant Frost IV pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud on May 12, 2026 and is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 14, 2026; prosecutors have recommended 14 years. Figures are The GA Files' own tally of primary FEC records (Schedules A and B) and are stated as filed. Both offices are welcome to respond and we will publish corrections.

A GA Files review of Federal Election Commission filings found that Edwin Brant Frost IV — who pleaded guilty in May 2026 to running Newnan-based First Liberty Building & Loan as a Ponzi scheme that took at least $140 million from roughly 300 investors — and members of his family contributed to two sitting Georgia Republicans the site covers. Rep. Andrew Clyde (GA-09) received $18,600 across seven contributions between August 2020 and December 2024, including five from Frost IV himself, $500 from Brant Frost V, and $3,300 from Krista Frost; FEC records show no refund to any Frost, so the full $18,600 was kept. Rep. Brian Jack (GA-03) received $6,600 on Dec. 31, 2024 — $3,300 from Frost IV and $3,300 from Katie Frost, whose listed employer is First Liberty and who chairs the Georgia Republican Party's 3rd District committee, Jack's own congressional district. Jack's committee refunded $3,300 to Frost IV on July 23, 2025, shortly after the SEC action became public, but the $3,300 from the donor employed by First Liberty does not appear as refunded, leaving $3,300 net. Federal officials say at least $570,000 of investor money went to political contributions. The Frost family's giving is separate from the state ethics case now pending against the Georgia Republican Assembly PAC, which Frost V led.

Sources

August 2026Ethics — business interests & policy conflictDocumented — no wrongdoing alleged

A $35 million loan, at 14% interest, to the bankrupt Alabama hospital that owed his company $10 million

Rick Jackson →2026 candidate — Governor Not alleged illegal, and not a finding of wrongdoing. Debtor-in-possession lending routinely carries high interest, senior repayment priority and lender control, because the borrower is insolvent and ordinary credit is unavailable; without the loan the hospital might have closed in early 2025, and Jackson declined to buy it outright. Jackson Hospital is not named for, owned by, or affiliated with Rick Jackson — his own company has said the two are “separately owned and operated” despite sharing the Jackson name. Critically, neither the AJC nor the public record states how much, if anything, Jackson's companies have actually collected in interest or fees; the hospital remains in financial distress and the loan does not appear to have been repaid. Claims that he “profits off hospital closures” go beyond what the reporting establishes. His campaign says “improving healthcare is personal for Rick.”

Jackson Hospital in Montgomery, Alabama — a facility unrelated to Rick Jackson despite the shared name — filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February 2025. Jackson's medical staffing company was already its second-largest creditor, with what the Atlanta Journal-Constitution described as “nearly $10 million in unpaid bills.” His Jackson Investment Group then became the hospital's bankruptcy lender: a debtor-in-possession loan that began at roughly $22 million and was later extended by the court to $35 million. The AJC reported the loan “comes with a 14% interest rate — that increases to 19% if payment is missed,” plus millions in additional fees, and “gives Jackson's company close control over the hospital and puts him first in line to be repaid.” Bankruptcy filings also provide that once $100 million in public grants is secured, the hospital's board is reconstituted with members acceptable to the lender — tying board control to the arrival of taxpayer money — and pledge the hospital's litigation against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama as collateral. Jackson weighed buying the hospital outright but told Gov. Kay Ivey the $250 million to $300 million turnaround cost was too steep: “There's no way anybody could justify — certainly not us — to do that.” A reorganization plan was confirmed April 28, 2026, but the hospital narrowly avoided closing on July 1 and has secured about $61 million of the $293 million it says it needs, including roughly $80 million pledged by the city, county and state. The relevance to Georgia is the policy underneath it: Alabama, like Georgia, is one of ten states that has not adopted full Medicaid expansion, and researchers consistently find expansion states experience fewer hospital closures. Jackson opposes full expansion, favoring block grants and work requirements — the approach Georgia already tried through Pathways, which had enrolled about 12,752 people as of late 2025.

Sources

July 2026Ethics — disclosure & lobbyingFined / sanctioned

Fined $17,500 by the state ethics commission for unreported spending and unregistered lobbying

Frontline PolicyEvangelical policy & lobbying group · Atlanta Resolved by two consent orders dated June 24, 2026; the group corrected its filings. Founder Cole Muzio called the lapses “essentially a clerical error” and said Frontline’s goal “has and remains to always abide by the letter and spirit of the law.”

Frontline Policy — an influential Georgia Christian-conservative advocacy group founded in 2021 and led by founder-president Cole Muzio — agreed to pay the Georgia State Ethics Commission $17,500 to settle two consent orders. A $10,000 penalty covered its failure to disclose more than $380,000 in contributions during the 2024 election cycle and to file required disclosure reports in 2022 and 2024; a $7,500 penalty covered 24 instances of unregistered lobbying — social-media posts and mass emails urging people to contact legislators — while its 501(c)(4) arm, Frontline Policy Action, had no registered lobbyists in 2023 or 2024. Commission Executive Director David Emadi called it “one of the higher lobbying fines” the agency has “ever doled out,” following a 2025 complaint by attorney Bryan Sells. The group is a leading backer of a ban on transgender girls in girls’ school sports, a state Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and private-school vouchers. Muzio attributed the violations to a clerical error since corrected.

Sources

GPB — Influential Georgia evangelical group fined for ethics violations

July 2026Extremism — family tiesDocumented — no wrongdoing alleged

Son-in-law revealed as a white-nationalist influencer broadcasting to 1.5M followers

Mike Collins →GA-10 · U.S. House (R) Reported by CNN's KFile (July 16, 2026). The conduct is the son-in-law's, not Collins's own, and no wrongdoing by Collins is alleged. Scheer did not respond to requests for comment; the campaign did not address the posts, saying Collins's “lifelong support for Israel is unquestionable.”

CNN's KFile reported that Collins's son-in-law, David Alan Scheer II — married to his daughter Summer — is a white-nationalist social-media influencer with more than 1.5 million followers across TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Telegram, posting Nazi imagery, antisemitic conspiracy theories, calls to deport Muslims, warnings that white people are “going extinct,” and promotion of Patriot Front, the white-supremacist group. The ties are close and documented: Scheer appears in family photos on the campaign's website, attended Collins's Senate-primary victory party, helped produce promotional videos for Collins Trucking, and is registered to vote at a Collins-owned property beside the congressman's home. It is the second report tying Collins's inner circle to white-nationalist figures, after the May 2026 group-chat story involving his chief of staff.

Sources

June 2026Ethics — state contractsAllegation — unproven

“Pay-to-play” allegations over CENTEGIX school-safety contracts

Brian Kemp & Derek DooleyGovernor (R) & 2026 U.S. Senate candidate (R) Allegation, unproven. Raised by 35+ Democratic state lawmakers; Kemp's office denies wrongdoing and says Democrats are attacking school-security funding. Under pressure, Dooley said he would support an independent investigation.

CENTEGIX — a school-safety alert-system company owned by Derek Dooley's brother Daniel — won tens of millions of dollars in Georgia business after Gov. Brian Kemp championed school-safety grants sized to cover its system; by August 2025 roughly 90% of Georgia public schools used the product. Kemp's leadership PAC, Georgians First, then took six-figure money tied to the Dooley orbit and spent heavily to boost Dooley's U.S. Senate campaign. More than 35 Democratic state lawmakers called it “pay-to-play” and demanded an independent probe; Kemp's office rejected the allegations. Dooley went on to lose the June 2026 GOP Senate runoff to Mike Collins.

Sources

June 2026Abortion — recorded remarksDocumented — no wrongdoing alleged

Leaked audio: rape-exception abortion remarks

Rick Jackson →2026 candidate — Governor Comments controversy, not a criminal allegation. Jackson's campaign disputes the framing as “Democratic spin” and says he supports Georgia's current law unchanged; reproductive-rights groups and Democrats condemned the remarks.

An audio recording — taped at an April 2026 campaign barbecue in east Georgia and published in June by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and HuffPost the day after Jackson won the GOP gubernatorial runoff — captured him agreeing with a voter who said a woman alleging rape “needs to prove it” to qualify for Georgia's rape exception to the six-week abortion ban; Jackson added that a pregnancy from rape is “still a life.” The remarks drew scrutiny because a month earlier he had backed rape and incest exceptions on a Georgia Life Alliance questionnaire. Under current law, the rape/incest exception applies only up to 20 weeks and only with an official police report.

Sources

May 2026Extremism — staff tiesDocumented — no wrongdoing alleged

Chief of staff in white-nationalist group chat; vowed to use his office to free a Holocaust denier

Mike Collins →GA-10 · U.S. House (R) Reported by Slate; Collins himself was not in the chat. His chief of staff, Kip Talley, says he acted “in a personal capacity” for a mistreated acquaintance and remains in the role. Not adjudicated.

Slate reported in May 2026 that Collins's chief of staff, Kip Talley, took part in a group chat — titled “Research Group—Johnson '28?” and including white nationalists Nick Fuentes and Richard Spencer — in which he wrote that he wanted to “use the levers of the legislative branch” to help free Charles C. Johnson, a far-right activist and Holocaust denier jailed in late 2025 on a contempt charge. Talley, then Collins's deputy chief of staff (promoted to chief of staff in January 2026), said he was “reaching out to my people at FBI and DOJ” to get Johnson out. He called it a personal effort for a mistreated acquaintance and kept his job; the episode fueled Sen. Jon Ossoff's depiction of Collins as an “antisemite” and “extremist.”

Sources

March 2026Criminal — fraudConvicted / pleaded guilty

Pleaded guilty to pandemic unemployment fraud; resigned

Dexter Sharper →House D-177 (D) · former Pleaded guilty and resigned from office. Sentenced the week of Sept. 14, 2026 by U.S. District Judge Mark Cohen to time served, $10,096 in restitution and a $2,000 fine, payable at $500 a month plus 25% of income above $30,000 a year — prosecutors had asked for a $9,500 fine. Cohen called the conduct a “violation of the public trust.” No prison time.

Sharper resigned his House seat on March 9, 2026, days before pleading guilty to federal fraud charges. Prosecutors said he collected $13,825 in emergency pandemic unemployment assistance he was not entitled to, making false statements while still earning income from other work.

Sources

February 2026Securities — undisclosed commissionsFined / sanctioned

Fined $500,000 by the Secretary of State over First Liberty investor recruiting, referred for possible prosecution

Nathaniel DarnellPresident, Georgia Republican Assembly · Cobb County A civil securities penalty by the Secretary of State's office, not a criminal conviction. The office referred the matter to the Cobb County District Attorney for possible charges; a referral is not a charge, and no charges have been reported. Darnell denies the allegations: through his attorney he said the Secretary of State “rushed to judgment” and went to the press without giving him a chance to respond, and the Georgia Republican Assembly's chairman called the action misleading.

On Feb. 25, 2026 the Georgia Secretary of State's office fined Nathaniel Darnell, president of the Georgia Republican Assembly and a licensed financial advisor, $500,000 over his recruiting of investors into First Liberty Building & Loan — the Newnan lender federal regulators call a $140 million Ponzi scheme. The office found he directed at least 45 investors, who put in more than $6.6 million over about five years, without disclosing the commissions First Liberty paid him, and said he drew on investors' shared Christian faith and his political standing to win their trust. The matter was referred to the Cobb County District Attorney. The same group Darnell leads, and its PAC, were separately fined about $150,000 by the State Ethics Commission in September 2026 over undisclosed political spending; the PAC had taken roughly $162,000 from the Frost family behind First Liberty.

Sources

February 2026Ethics — state contractsDocumented — no wrongdoing alleged

~$1 billion in state contracts (conflict-of-interest questions)

Rick Jackson →2026 candidate — Governor Not alleged illegal; ethics experts flagged conflicts. Jackson pledged to “unwind” the contracts if elected; the state Senate passed HB 1374 to close the renewal loophole. Update, August 2026: rather than unwinding, a Jackson Healthcare subsidiary renewed a state contract on July 22, 2026 through June 30, 2027 — see the entry above.

Jackson Healthcare and affiliates have been paid nearly $1 billion by state agencies since fiscal 2020 — about $710 million from the Department of Community Health for staffing. Critics dubbed a contracting exception the “Rick Jackson loophole”; the Georgia Senate passed HB 1374 (46–0) to require competitive bidding on large contract renewals.

Sources

February 2026Election integrity — recorded remarksDocumented — no wrongdoing alleged

Said he submitted falsified mail-ballot applications to “test” election security

Greg Dolezal →2026 candidate — Lieutenant Governor His own public account, framed as a security “test” — no charges or investigation. Georgia's Secretary of State and the GBI audited more than 15,000 absentee envelopes and found no fraudulent ballots; in 2021 officials said they matched and approved his own application.

On the Charlie Kirk Show in February 2026 (a clip he posted to his own YouTube channel) and again on a March 2026 podcast, Dolezal — the GOP Lt. Governor nominee and a longtime election-fraud claimant — said he and “a number of friends” in Cherokee and Gwinnett counties deliberately submitted mail-ballot applications with altered signatures, including forms “signed” by children, and received a ballot every time. He had made a similar admission about disguising his own signature in 2021. He casts it as exposing weak signature verification; critics and election-law experts note that knowingly submitting falsified ballot applications can itself be a crime. No charges have been filed, and a state signature audit found no fraudulent ballots.

Sources

January 2026Financial / fraudConvicted / pleaded guilty

Resigned and pleaded guilty to pandemic unemployment fraud

Karen Bennett →House D-94 Pleaded guilty (Jan 2026); agreed to repay ~$13,900; prosecutors agreed to seek no prison time. Resigned her seat effective Jan 1, 2026. Sentenced in April 2026 under a deal similar to Sharper's; she did not receive prison time.

Rep. Bennett, a Stone Mountain Democrat who served since 2013, resigned her House seat effective January 1, 2026 — days before being charged federally. Prosecutors said she improperly collected roughly $13,900 in federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance in 2020 by certifying she could not work due to the pandemic while concealing that she was drawing a steady weekly church paycheck and ran an administrative business from home. She pleaded guilty in January 2026 to making false statements to obtain the benefits and agreed to repay the money; her lawyers said prosecutors would seek no prison time. A special election was set to fill House District 94. She was the second Georgia House Democrat charged in the pandemic-fraud sweep.

Sources

December 2025Criminal — fraudConvicted / pleaded guilty

Pleaded guilty in a federal pandemic-unemployment fraud case

Sharon Henderson →House D-113 Indicted Dec 2025; suspended from office by Gov. Kemp (Jan 2026); pleaded guilty July 30, 2026 to making false statements to obtain pandemic unemployment benefits; sentencing set for Nov 3, 2026.

Rep. Henderson was federally indicted on December 2, 2025 on two counts of theft of government funds and ten counts of making false statements, accused of collecting roughly $17,811 in pandemic unemployment assistance. Prosecutors said she began applying in June 2020 — while a candidate for the House — and certified she was working as a Henry County substitute teacher despite not having worked for the district since 2018. Governor Kemp suspended her from office in January 2026; unlike two colleagues in the same pandemic-fraud sweep, she did not resign. She ran for state Senate District 43 and lost the May primary. On July 30, 2026 she pleaded guilty to making false statements to obtain $17,811 in emergency pandemic unemployment benefits; sentencing is set for November 3, 2026.

Sources

November 2025Ethics — congressional investigationUnder investigation

Under House Ethics Committee investigation over use of office resources

Mike Collins →GA-10 · U.S. House (R) Investigation ongoing; allegations unproven and not adjudicated. Collins denies them: his office called the matter “a bogus complaint” and “a sad attempt to derail one of Georgia's most effective conservative legislators in Congress,” saying he “looks forward to providing the House Ethics Committee all factual information and putting these meritless allegations to rest.” His attorney, Russell Duncan, told the committee the allegations came from “two disgruntled, former members of Congressman Collins staff,” said hiring the intern was within the chief of staff's discretion, and that she “provided valuable assistance to the Office.” The committee can impose penalties ranging from a private letter of admonition to, rarely, a recommendation of expulsion.

The House Ethics Committee announced in November 2025 that it found “substantial reason to believe” Collins used congressional resources for unofficial or unauthorized purposes — including about $5,000 paid in 2023–24 to an intern, Caroline Craze, who allegedly performed no work and was the girlfriend of Collins's then-chief of staff, Brandon Phillips (now a senior adviser to his campaign). Investigators said Collins, Phillips and other staff did not cooperate and recommended subpoenas. The allegations have not been adjudicated.

Sources

2025Ethics — campaign financeFined / sanctioned

Sanctioned for failing to file six campaign-finance reports

Derek Mallow →Senate D-2 (D) Fined $1,000

The State Ethics Commission sanctioned Mallow for failing to file six campaign-contribution reports between April 2024 and January 2025 plus a personal financial disclosure; he was fined $1,000 — the largest of the administrative penalties in the 2025 audit-driven sweep of legislators' filings.

Sources

September 2025Ethics — campaign financeFined / sanctioned

Fined for failing to file a campaign-contribution report

Kenya Wicks →Senate D-34 (D) Fined $325

The State Ethics Commission fined Wicks $325 for failing to file a campaign-contribution report — an administrative (failure-to-file) matter that was part of a 2025 audit-driven review of legislators' filings.

Sources

AJC — Ethics Commission sanctions senators & legislators (Sept 2025)

September 2025Ethics — financial disclosureFined / sanctioned

Fined for failing to file financial-disclosure reports

Miriam Paris →House D-142 (D) Fined $500

The State Ethics Commission fined Paris $500 for failing to file two personal financial-disclosure reports — an administrative (failure-to-file) matter, part of a 2025 audit-driven review of legislators' filings.

Sources

AJC — Ethics Commission sanctions senators & legislators (Sept 2025)

2021 and 2025Ethics — financial disclosureDocumented — no wrongdoing alleged

Twice failed to disclose his wife’s stock trades on time under the STOCK Act

Austin Scott →2026 candidate — U.S. House — District 8 Not a finding of insider trading, and no fine has been reported in either instance. Both episodes involve trades in his wife’s accounts, and the 2025 sales came from an inherited retirement account. Scott says he proactively notified the House Ethics Committee about the 2025 sales and disclosed them “within 48 hours of the time that I was made aware of them,” and he has said he supports stricter disclosure rules. Late STOCK Act filings are common in Congress and have never been criminally prosecuted since the law took effect in 2012. His office is welcome to respond and we will publish corrections.

Rep. Austin Scott has been late to disclose his wife’s stock transactions under the STOCK Act on two separate occasions four years apart. In October 2021, Business Insider’s “Conflicted Congress” investigation reported that Scott had failed to properly disclose up to $165,000 in his wife’s trades involving AT&T, Berkshire Hathaway, Ford Motor Co. and Johnson & Johnson. In August 2025, NOTUS reported that Scott had not disclosed 17 of his wife’s stock sales made between May 2024 and June 2025 until that month; the sales came from an inherited retirement account. Scott said he alerted the House Ethics Committee himself and filed once he learned of the trades, and argued for tougher rules: “At a minimum, there needs to be additional disclosure including the actual number of shares and the actual price in the transaction, which is what I did in the disclosure of these sales.” The STOCK Act requires members to report trades by themselves, their spouses and dependent children within 45 days.

Sources

June 2025Ethics — campaign financeFined / sanctioned

Fined for late and missing campaign and financial-disclosure filings

Colton Moore →Senate D-53 (R) · former Consent order — $500 fine

In a June 2025 consent order with the State Ethics Commission, Moore admitted failing to file a January 2025 campaign-finance report and his 2022 and 2023 personal financial disclosures, and paid a $500 fine — part of an audit-driven sweep of legislators' filings.

Sources

AJC — Georgia senators admit campaign-finance violations (June 2025)

June 2025Ethics — campaign financeFined / sanctioned

Fined for missing campaign and financial-disclosure filings

Freddie Powell Sims →Senate D-12 (D) · former Consent order — $375 fine

Sims admitted in a June 2025 State Ethics Commission consent order that she failed to file her December 2024 and January 2025 campaign-finance reports and her 2023 personal financial disclosure; she paid a $375 fine. The matter is administrative (failure to file), part of a 2025 audit-driven review of legislators' filings.

Sources

AJC — Georgia senators admit campaign-finance violations (June 2025)

2025Political — party censureDocumented — no wrongdoing alleged

Censured by the Whitfield County and 14th District Republican parties

Chuck Payne →Senate D-54 (R) Censured by local/district GOP

Payne was formally censured in 2025 by both the Whitfield County GOP (March 22) and the 14th Congressional District GOP, which faulted votes they considered insufficiently conservative — including his support for tort reform and a vote against a “Freedom of Speech & Belief” bill. The county GOP chairman called it “a betrayal of the voters' trust.”

Sources

January 2025Conduct — arrest at the CapitolDocumented — no wrongdoing alleged

Arrested trying to enter the House chamber after being banned

Colton Moore →Senate D-53 (R) · former Removed by police; ban later rescinded

After House leaders banned him from their chamber over remarks about the late Speaker David Ralston, Moore was arrested while attempting to enter during Gov. Kemp's State of the State address and was removed by police. The Speaker later rescinded the ban.

Sources

Sept. 2024Elections — 2020 fake electorsDocumented — no wrongdoing alleged

One of Georgia's 2020 “fake electors”; named an unindicted co-conspirator

Burt Jones →Lieutenant Governor (R) Established conduct; no charges filed. Jones signed the false elector certificate and was named unindicted “co-conspirator #8” in the 2023 Fulton County RICO case. A judge had disqualified DA Fani Willis from investigating him in 2022 after she held a fundraiser for his opponent. In September 2024, court-appointed special prosecutor Pete Skandalakis declined to bring charges, concluding Jones acted on attorney advice without criminal intent. Jones was never indicted or convicted.

After the 2020 election, Burt Jones — then a state senator, now lieutenant governor — was one of 16 Georgia Republicans who signed an unofficial certificate falsely declaring themselves Donald Trump's presidential electors. He was named as unindicted “co-conspirator #8” in the 2023 Fulton County election-interference indictment, but a Fulton judge barred DA Fani Willis from pursuing him after she headlined a fundraiser for his Democratic opponent. The matter was handed to special prosecutor Pete Skandalakis, who announced in September 2024 that he would not charge Jones, finding he had relied on lawyers' advice and lacked criminal intent.

Sources

2024–2025Criminal — DUI (charges dropped)Convicted / pleaded guilty

Arrested on DUI charges after striking a cyclist; pleaded to lesser traffic counts

Devan Seabaugh →House D-34 (R) DUI charges dropped; pleaded guilty to two traffic violations

In August 2024, Seabaugh was arrested by a State Patrol DUI task force after his vehicle struck a bicyclist in an Atlanta bike lane on Memorial Drive; he was cited on multiple counts including DUI (drugs and alcohol). Seabaugh denied being intoxicated, saying he hadn't realized the lane had recently been converted to a bike lane. In April 2025 he took a plea deal — the DUI charges were dropped and he pleaded guilty to two lesser traffic violations (failing to yield to a cyclist in a bike lane and disobeying a traffic-control device).

Sources

June 2024Ethics — campaign financeFined / sanctioned

Fined ~$47,000 by the State Ethics Commission over campaign-spending violations

Carl Gilliard →House D-162 (D) Consent decree — $17,000 fine + $30,000 repayment

In one of the costliest state ethics cases involving a Georgia lawmaker, Gilliard agreed to a consent decree over what the State Ethics Commission called “egregious” violations — failing to file six campaign-finance disclosures, filing three late, and leaving 110 expenditures totaling about $54,000 off his reports. He was fined $17,000 and required to repay $30,000 to his campaign account.

Sources

June 2024MisrepresentationAllegation — unproven

Accused of fabricating biographical credentials — sorority, medical, and veteran claims

Angela Moore →House D-91 Apologized for the confusion but maintained innocence; faced no formal sanction and was re-elected.

A June 2024 WSB-TV investigation reported that Rep. Moore had misrepresented several biographical claims. Delta Sigma Theta Sorority's executive director stated she “is not, and has not ever been, a member.” Colleagues said she had presented herself as an OB-GYN — she later clarified she “worked in the OB-GYN field of medicine” — and as a military veteran, to which she responded that she is a “family veteran” because her relatives served. A separate State House floor video appeared to show a physical exchange with another member; Moore said she pushed the colleague only after being struck in the ankle. Moore apologized for the confusion while disputing wrongdoing, attributing the missing sorority records to a former married name, and won re-election unopposed.

Sources

September 2023Political — caucus suspensionDocumented — no wrongdoing alleged

Suspended from the Senate Republican Caucus

Colton Moore →Senate D-53 (R) · former Indefinitely suspended from caucus

The Senate Republican Caucus indefinitely suspended Moore after he attacked fellow Republicans while pushing for a special session to investigate and defund Fulton DA Fani Willis over the Trump indictment. The caucus said Moore had “knowingly misled people” and put colleagues “at risk of personal harm.”

Sources

August 2023Criminal — RICO / electionsCharges dismissed — not tried

Indicted in the Fulton County 2020 election-interference case

Shawn Still →Senate D-48 (R) Charges dismissed Nov. 26, 2025 — case dropped, not tried

A Fulton County grand jury indicted Still in August 2023 in the racketeering (RICO) case over the effort to overturn Georgia's 2020 presidential result. He was one of 16 Georgia Republicans who signed a certificate falsely declaring themselves the state's “duly elected” presidential electors, and was charged with counts including forgery and false statements. He pleaded not guilty and won re-election in 2024 while under indictment. On November 26, 2025, Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee dismissed the case in its entirety after Pete Skandalakis — who took over the prosecution after District Attorney Fani Willis was disqualified — moved to drop it, writing that Georgians are not served “by pursuing this case in full for another five to ten years.” The charges were dropped without a trial, so there was no finding of guilt or innocence.

Sources

2023Ethics — conflict of interestAllegation — unproven

Conflict-of-interest complaint over HB 520 and his monitoring-tech company

Todd Jones →House D-25 (R) Ethics complaint filed; no public finding — allegation unproven

Jones is the founder and chairman of Talitrix, which makes electronic-monitoring wristbands. After he sponsored HB 520 — a broad 2023 mental-health bill that also touched data-sharing and monitoring — a critic filed an ethics complaint alleging he used his office to benefit his own company, citing Georgia's conflict-of-interest statute. The bill's core mental-health provisions passed committee unanimously; the complaint was not publicly adjudicated and the allegation is unproven.

Sources

2022Controversy — Jan. 6 scrutinyCleared — no charges

Scrutinized over a Capitol tour the day before January 6

Barry Loudermilk →GA-11 · U.S. House (R) Denied wrongdoing; not charged

The House January 6 committee released footage of a Capitol-complex tour Loudermilk led on January 5, 2021, saying members of the group photographed hallways, stairwells, and security checkpoints and that one later joined the crowd outside the Capitol. Loudermilk denied any wrongdoing, said no one on the tour entered the Capitol during the breach, and was not charged; the Capitol Police had earlier said they found no problem with the tour.

Sources

2019–2021Criminal — reckless conduct (dismissed)Cleared — no charges

Charged over a constituent's fatal hit-and-run; stepped down as Majority Whip

Trey Kelley →House D-16 (R) Charge dismissed (Dec. 2021)

Kelley was charged with misdemeanor reckless conduct after a 2019 incident in which a friend fatally struck bicyclist Eric Keais and called Kelley — an attorney — instead of 911; Keais lay in a ditch before help arrived and later died. Kelley stepped down as House Majority Whip in July 2021 ahead of the case, and a judge dismissed the reckless-conduct charge in December 2021, ruling he had no legal duty to call 911.

Sources

May 2021Controversy — public remarksDocumented — no wrongdoing alleged

Described January 6 as resembling a “normal tourist visit”

Andrew Clyde →GA-09 · U.S. House (R) Stood by the remark

At a May 2021 House hearing, Clyde said footage of people entering the Capitol on January 6 looked, in parts, like “a normal tourist visit” — a characterization widely criticized as downplaying the attack. He stood by the statement, though photographs from that day showed him helping barricade a House chamber door as rioters approached.

Sources

January 2021Ethics — campaign financeFined / sanctioned

$37,000 state ethics fine (campaign finance)

Keisha Lance Bottoms →2026 candidate — Governor Fined by the state campaign-finance commission; resolved.

Georgia's campaign-finance commission fined Bottoms $37,000 over violations tied to her earlier campaigns — accepting roughly $6,900 over contribution limits and $110,797 over debt limits, and using an incorrect accounting method.

Sources

FOX 5 Atlanta

2020Conduct / controversyDocumented — no wrongdoing alleged

Removed from the House chamber for refusing a required COVID-19 test

David Clark →House D-100 Barred from the House floor for the day; no legal charge. Part of a broader pattern of clashes with his own party's leadership.

Rep. Clark, a Gwinnett Republican, was removed from the House chamber in 2020 after refusing to take a COVID-19 test that leadership had required for floor access during the pandemic session — a widely covered standoff. It fit a broader pattern of public conflict with his own party's leadership: in 2019 Speaker David Ralston stripped Clark of his committee chairmanship and relocated his office after Clark introduced a resolution calling for Ralston's resignation over reporting on Ralston's use of legislative leave to delay client criminal cases.

Sources

2018Ethics — use of public fundsCleared — no charges

Improper city credit-card charges as mayor (Super Bowl airfare, luxury car service)

Keisha Lance Bottoms →2026 candidate — Governor Repaid; no charges filed and no finding of illegality. The airfare was charged to the city COO's card — he said he was unaware it had been used — and Bottoms reimbursed the city once she learned of it. The car-service spending was disclosed city expense; she stopped charging rides to the city card after the reporting.

Open-records reporting by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2018 showed a city-issued credit card belonging to then-Chief Operating Officer Dan Gordon was used to buy $2,610 in first-class airfare so Bottoms's husband, Derek Bottoms — a Home Depot executive, not a city employee — could attend the Super Bowl. Gordon said he did not know his card had been used and did not make the trip; Bottoms said she repaid the city once she found out. Separate records showed she spent $11,651 across more than 27 rides with a luxury limousine service in under five months, outpacing her predecessor, and stopped charging car service to the city card after the reporting. Republican nominee Rick Jackson revived both in the first ad of his $87 million buy in July 2026.

Sources

2007–2011 (reported September 2026)Business practices — real estate & foreclosureDocumented — no wrongdoing alleged

His real-estate company sued to keep a family's home after the foreclosure sale was called off — and lost at the Georgia Supreme Court

Rick Jackson →2026 candidate — Governor Documented by a published Georgia Supreme Court opinion, which JIG lost. Nothing here was criminal, and buying at a foreclosure auction is lawful; what the record shows is that the company refused a refund and litigated for four years over a sale the lender had already cancelled. The claims about the Garlands' health and deaths come from their lawyers' filings as reported by The Daily Beast — they are the family's assertions, no court ruled on whether the litigation caused their illnesses, and we have not reviewed those filings ourselves. We also found no other Georgia appellate or federal case with JIG as a party, so this is one documented case, not a demonstrated pattern; county trial-court records are not searchable online. Jackson's campaign did not respond to The Daily Beast.

On March 6, 2007, JIG Real Estate, LLC was the high bidder at a foreclosure auction on James and Tammi Garland's home in Canton, paying $239,500. Georgia's corporate registry lists Richard L. Jackson — the candidate — as a member and the registered agent of JIG, at Jackson Healthcare's Alpharetta address. The sale should never have happened: the Garlands had already reached an agreement with Countrywide to cure the default, but the law firm running the auction was not notified in time, something a judge later called an “email snafu.” Two days later, before the deed was delivered, Countrywide rescinded the sale and returned JIG's money with interest. JIG refused the refund, demanded the deed, and sued Countrywide and the Garlands, arguing that Georgia's rescission statute was unconstitutional. It lost at trial and again on appeal: on July 5, 2011, the Georgia Supreme Court affirmed, upholding OCGA § 9-13-172.1 and Countrywide's authority to undo the sale. The ruling is now settled Georgia law and has been cited 27 times. The Daily Beast reported on September 23, 2026 that both Garlands died during the litigation — Tammi in 2008 of an accidental overdose of prescription medication, and James in 2012, after a 2011 suicide attempt left him in a coma for a month — and that their lawyers' filings attributed their health crises, including seizures and a heart attack, to the stress of the fight over the house. Jackson is campaigning for governor on his business record and on housing affordability.

Sources