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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has spent years following infighting, funding lapses and legal challenges plaguing the state’s ethics commission. To see an interactive timeline detailing that coverage, go to MyAJC.com.
A Fulton County judge on Monday will hold the first hearing on former state ethics commission director Stacey Kalberman’s request that he sanction the Attorney General’s Office, the commission and its current director.
Kalberman says they withheld evidence in her whistleblower lawsuit.
She contends that someone — although it's unclear who — purposely kept evidence from her attorneys that showed top aides to Gov. Nathan Deal called and texted current commission director Holly LaBerge in the week before the commission was to consider complaints against Deal's 2010 campaign.
Those texts and calls from Deal Chief of Staff Chris Riley and chief counsel Ryan Teague became public knowledge when Attorney General Sam Olens’ office, responding to a request from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, released a memo LaBerge wrote detailing her contact with Deal’s aides.
LaBerge said in the memo that she felt threatened and pressured by the texts and calls.
The commission, formally known as the Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission, cleared Deal of major violations. He paid $3,350 in fees for technical defects in his campaign disclosures.
In her suit, Kalberman claimed — and a jury agreed — that she was forced from office for investigating the governor’s campaign too aggressively.
Judge Ural Glanville will convene the hearing at 9 a.m. Monday at the Fulton County Courthouse. It’s unclear what will happen Monday, as none of those accused of withholding evidence have filed briefs responding to Kalberman’s motion.
A Fulton County jury in April awarded Kalberman $700,000 in damages and an additional $450,000 in attorneys fees after a weeklong trial. The verdict led the state to settle three other related whistleblower claims for an additional $1.8 million, all of which was paid with taxpayer dollars.
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