DeKalb County Commissioner Sharon Barnes Sutton has been using the state’s open records law to seek documents from four other county elected officials in an effort to find out whether they’ve been pursuing investigations of her.
Channel 2 Action News reported Tuesday that Sutton has requested records from Commissioner Kathie Gannon, Commissioner Jeff Rader, Interim DeKalb CEO Lee May and District Attorney Robert James.
Her records requests ask for correspondence with the FBI, Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens, private investigators and any attorneys hired to investigate her.
Sutton said in a statement that her motivation was to stop Commissioners Gannon and Rader from using taxpayer money to investigate her official actions. She said she has asked James to launch his own investigation of $10,000 in fees paid by Gannon and Rader to an outside attorney.
“It is improper to use county funds and resources for what can only be described as a political witch hunt,” Sutton said. “If there were legitimate complaints, the Ethics Board would have been notified.”
Gannon said Sutton is the one on a “witch hunt.”
“She just wants to make sure she’s not the only one being investigated,” Gannon told Channel 2.
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