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Democratic, hopeful, hopeful Stacey Abrams’ voting rights nonprofit paid her close friend and campaign chairman’s law firm nearly $10 million in legal fees to settle a largely botched case of voter suppression in the state.
Politico took a deep dive On Monday, it reported that Abrams’ campaign chairman Allegra Lawrence-Hardy’s law firm earned $9.4 million in 2019 and 2020 from Democratic group Fair Fight Action, with dollar amounts not yet available for 2021 and 2022.
The report came on the heels of Find Fox News Channel that Fair Fight Action had paid thousands to the family and friends of the group’s director, Andre Fields, who appear to have no political experience — and the organization now says it has launched an investigation.
After losing the gubernatorial race to 2018 to now Governor Brian Kemp, Abrams is challenging him again, and so the group that raised its national profile and brought in millions of dollars over voter suppression claims is coming under closer scrutiny.
Democratic Governor of Georgia, hopeful Stacey Abrams’ voting rights nonprofit paid her close friend and campaign chairman’s law firm nearly $10 million in legal fees to settle a largely unsuccessful voter suppression case in the state.
Politico took a deep dive Monday, reporting that Abrams’ campaign chairman Allegra Lawrence-Hardy’s (right) law firm earned $9.4 million in 2019 and 2020 from the Democratic group Fair Fight Action, with dollar amounts not yet available for 2021 and 2022.
Abrams launched Fair Fight Action after her small loss to Kemp in 2018, which she refused to admit due to reports of long lines, voters being dropped from the electoral roll and other problems in predominantly black communities.
“This year, more than 200 years after Georgia’s democratic experiment, the state has failed its voters,” Abrams said in 2018, ten days after the election. “You see, despite a record number of residents in Georgia, more than a million citizens were stripped of their roles by the Secretary of State, including a 92-year-old civil rights activist who cast her vote in the same neighborhood. since 1968.’
“Tens of thousands were left in limbo, rejected because of human error and a system of oppression that had already proven its bias,” she continued.
Her comments — which Republicans pointed out when questioned about former President Donald Trump’s false claims about electoral fraud in 2020 — helped Fair Fight Action rake in millions of dollars.
Politico reported that the group raised more than $61 million in 2019 and 2020.
More than $25 million went towards legal costs, according to the website.
And $9.4 million of those legal fees went to Lawrence & Bundy, where Lawrence-Hardy, who has been friends with Abrams since college and chaired both of her gubernatorial bids, is a partner.
Lawrence-Hardy wouldn’t tell Politico how much in total has gone from Fair Fight Action to Lawrence & Bundy, as public records don’t account for the past two years.
The expenses were much higher than what is normally spent filing a voting lawsuit in federal court — leading to questions about whether it was being overcharged.
The main lawsuit filed was Fair Fight Action v. Raffensperger, which started as a sweeping case about problematic voting practices in Georgia but was sifted to just three claims — all of which were dismissed by a federal judge in September.
“While Georgia’s electoral system is not perfect,” wrote Federal Court Judge Steve C. Jones, “the practices challenged violate neither the Constitution nor the [Voting Rights Act].’
Abrams’ allies said it was fine for her group to contract with a close friend’s law firm.
Xakota Espinoza, Fair Fight Action’s communications director, argued. that Lawrence-Hardy was hired for her expertise.
Fair Fight Action, along with five other organizations, had the honor of being represented by Allegra Lawrence-Hardy in her role as lead counsel to the plaintiffs, as well as a number of esteemed attorneys from Lawrence & Bundy and the other seven firms involved in this case. case,” Espinoza told Politico.
Norm Eisen, an ethics adviser to the Obama White House and adviser to the Democrat-led House Judiciary Committee dealing with former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment, was asked by Fair Fight Action to respond to the Politico- story.
He suggested it was no surprise that a voting rights lawyer would also chair a prominent political campaign.
“It happens all the time. It’s the way our system is built, that the political leaders and the policy leaders are one,” he told Politico. “So this isn’t unique to Allegra.”
“You can say the same about Joe Biden or Nancy Pelosi or, or Chuck Schumer or Mitch McConnell or Kevin McCarthy,” he continued. ‘We don’t just tolerate it, we embrace it; that is the American political, legal and ethical system.”
The Public Citizen group, which a campaign finance and ethics expert quoted in the story as saying it was a “conflict of interest,” later ran that statement back say ‘the contractual arrangement described in the story is normal and not objectionable.’
Of course, Republicans previously found the financial relationship between the nonprofit and the law firm undesirable.
‘This is crazy. Fair Fight and Stacey Abrams’ organizations have had murky financial problems for YEARS. Anyone who has seen her oppo book knows that section is 200 pages long,” tweeted Matt Whitlocka former spokesperson for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Whitlock said Public Citizen “throws their own employee under the bus for daring to criticize an Abrams organization is WILD.”