NEWNAN — Brant Frost V faces dozens of state ethics complaints accusing a political action committee he led of illegally influencing Georgia elections. His father, Brant Frost IV, has publicly apologized for orchestrating what authorities say was a $140 million Ponzi scheme.
Yet on Thursday evening, Frost V presided over a tense Coweta County GOP meeting without a word about the collapse of the family business, First Liberty Building & Loan — or the hundreds of investors regulators say were bilked out of their life savings.
By the end of the two-hour meeting, Frost V had stepped down as county party chair. But in a show of his continued influence, he was overwhelmingly elected as a district committee member — a post that keeps him tethered to a county Republican Party his family has long dominated.
“I would like to continue to serve a smaller way,” Frost said. “I’ve got less time. I just don’t have as much time as I used to. I’ve got a wife and a kid on the way.”
Frost V’s family is at the center of an expanding investigation that has roiled the upper reaches of Georgia Republican politics.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused Frost IV in a civil complaint of funneling investor money to enrich his family and bankroll conservative causes. Frost IV has apologized and urged victims to work with a court-ordered receiver and his efforts to recover money.
Frost V, who regularly promoted First Liberty on conservative media, isn’t named in the SEC complaint. But in separate civil probes, state investigators are circling.
The Georgia Republican Assembly PAC he led is accused of 61 violations by the state ethics commission, which says the group illegally influenced elections with more than $220,000 in unreported expenditures.
And Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office subpoenaed Frost V for documents tied to a new lending firm he sought to incorporate just before First Liberty’s collapse. Raffensperger has cited the probe to press for expanded powers to crack down on financial fraud.
Frost V declined repeated requests for comment after the vote, which was held at a church on the edge of downtown Newnan. “Sorry, can’t talk,” Frost V he said as he slipped out an emergency exit.
But his ongoing role in local politics has angered many community members, who packed the pews of the church and, at times, heckled him.
“It’s a joke,” said Marcy Westmoreland Walker, part of a “DeFrost Coweta” movement to oust the family from local politics.
“The Frosts have been manipulating people in the county for years. And now they’re staying in power — it’s a slap in the face to the victims of their scheme. This makes me want to throw up.”
Several of Frost V’s supporters declined to comment after the vote. Alan Brady, the party’s first vice chair and a Frost ally, said only he was glad the vote was over.
“We have quality leadership. It’s a tragedy that the original root cause of this happened,” he said, “but we have held it together because we are all on the same team in the end.”
The meeting was fraught from the get-go. As the proceedings took place, two local sheriff’s deputies patrolled the crowd, making sure there were no recordings.
Only members could vote, and Frost V’s allies — including his mother and other relatives — came out in force. But other critics crowded into the room, voicing their displeasure. When Frost V said he was stepping down, the room erupted in cheers.
“Bless your heart,” he responded.
His exit came shortly after he fended off activist Maxwell Britton, a former precinct chair and one-time Frost ally who cast himself as a consensus candidate to serve on the district committee.
“This whole meeting was a circus, and I’m very disappointed in the outcome,” he said in an interview. “There’s an old saying about power: Absolute power corrupts absolutely. And I think we’ve got a family that’s entrenched in politics, and that is their livelihood.”
After the meeting ended, Frost’s family and their supporters gathered in the church parking lot to celebrate. Their critics said they were appalled.
“This was more evidence why this party needs new leadership,” said state Rep. Josh Bonner, a Republican who represents parts of Coweta and Fayette counties.
“There was an opportunity to show some humility and bring this party together, and that was absolutely wasted tonight.”
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