All eyes in Georgia are on Tuesday’s midterm elections. But documents released Wednesday show that Georgia was top-of-mind for former President Donald Trump and his legal team as they sought to overturn the 2020 election.
According to emails a federal judge in California recently released to the Jan. 6 committee, Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro believed Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was “our only chance to get a favorable judicial opinion by Jan. 6, which might hold up the Georgia count in Congress.”
Supreme Court rules dictate that Thomas would handle emergency appeals from Georgia.
Other emails showed Trump was warned by one of his top legal advisers that falsely swearing to a judge that he had evidence of voter fraud in Georgia could land him in hot water.
The New York Times reported that John Eastman, one of the architects of the plan to overturn Trump’s election defeat, warned fellow members of Trump’s legal team on Dec. 31, 2020, that he had “no doubt that an aggressive DA or US Atty someplace will go after” Trump and his lawyers.
From the Times:
The warning came at a time when some members of Mr. Trump's legal team were pushing for him to sign a verification document swearing under oath that information in a Georgia lawsuit he filed challenging the results of the 2020 election was true, even though his lawyers were aware the specific allegations were false.
But Mr. Trump ultimately did sign a new verification, which a federal judge in California has said could be evidence of a crime.
Thomas’ wife, Ginni Thomas, recently testified before the January 6 committee. In February, the Georgia state Senate voted to place a monument to Justice Thomas on the grounds of the state Capitol. The effort to honor the Pin Point, Georgia, native fizzled out in the state House.
***
Credit: Ben Gray/AP
Credit: Ben Gray/AP
FAMILY FEUD. One of Herschel Walker’s top consultants took a shot at Kelly Loeffler on Twitter Wednesday, insulting the former Republican senator and longtime GOP mega donor.
Walker strategist Chip Lake wrote the barb as a comment to a Loeffler tweet, where she wished Gov. Brian Kemp a happy birthday.
“He appointed you to the US Senate and you didn’t support him in his Primary Election in which he won by 51% points,” Lake wrote.
He appointed you to the US Senate and you didn’t support him in his Primary Election in which he won by 51% points #gapol https://t.co/bmE7Nb6YeN
— Red Zone (@LakeChip) November 2, 2022
There’s a long history there, of course. Lake was an adviser to then-U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, whom Kemp bypassed for the open Senate seat and Loeffler later defeated in the November 2020 special election. Loeffler ended up losing to Warnock in the runoff nine weeks later.
But Lake’s tweet served as a reminder that his current boss — Walker — also didn’t support Kemp in his primary election. Walker refused to say whether he voted for Kemp or former U.S. Sen. David Perdue — and said he was “mad at both” for the intraparty spat that led to the primary against Kemp.
Loeffler, by the way, has donated more than $350,000 to Kemp’s campaign and his leadership committee since August 2019. That includes about $60,000 in in-kind contributions and a $250,000 donation to Kemp’s reelection bid in September.
By our calculations, that makes Loeffler the second-largest Georgia-based donor to Kemp behind Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus.
Also of note to Lake: Loeffler has also given a hefty $250,000 to 34N22, the super PAC supporting Walker’s campaign, $50,000 to Republicans’ national Senate committee, and the maximum donation allowed to Walker’s own campaign, “Team Herschel, Inc.”
***
Credit: Courtesy photo
Credit: Courtesy photo
TROUBLE ON THE FARM. State Sen. Russ Goodman, a first-term Republican from Cogdell, is the subject of a lengthy USA Today article connecting Goodman’s family farm and a federal investigation into human trafficking called “Operation Blooming Onion.”
More:
Over the past nine years, Cogdell Berry Farm — Goodman's family farm — has hired Emilia Alvarez, her son Luis Antonio Alvarez and her husband, Jesus Alvarez, to bring workers up from south of the border on H-2A visas. The visas are designed to backfill agricultural jobs farms can't find locals to do.
Federal authorities searched the Alvarezes' home addresses and confiscated $16,460 during the Blooming Onion investigation, one of the largest criminal cases ever prosecuted concerning labor trafficking of foreign farmworkers. The family, which has provided workers to several farms, was not indicted in the case.
Goodman told USA TODAY in an email that he wasn't aware of the connection and had never witnessed or heard anything that would indicate there were any issues with the farm's labor contractors. He said he intended to investigate.
***
RATE HIKE. You could almost hear Democratic candidates groan Wednesday as Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell announced another major interest rate hike for American borrowers.
“The inflation picture has become more and more challenging over the course of this year, without question,” he said, according to the Wall Street Journal. “To the extent rates have to go higher and stay higher for longer, it becomes harder to see the path” that avoids a recession.
The 0.75 percent increase announced yesterday is the Fed’s fourth in a row. And it’s a sign that inflation, which is top of mind for voters in Georgia, isn’t going anywhere any time soon.
***
Credit: Christina Matacotta for the AJC
Credit: Christina Matacotta for the AJC
TRAIL MIX. Statewide candidates were back on the trail Wednesday, with just six days left until Election Day. Among the highlights from across the state:
- Gov. Brian Kemp hit the campaign trail with his counterpart in Arizona, Gov. Doug Ducey.
- Herschel Walker delivered a “pre-buttal” to President Joe Biden’s Wednesday night speech on threats to democracy.
- Stacey Abrams had another famous face — actress America Ferrera — boost her campaign for governor on Twitter.
- Early voting continued to break records in Georgia, with more than 2 million Georgians having cast their ballots so far.
Be sure to check AJC.com each afternoon through Election Day for our “On the Georgia Trail” feature, where we’ll recap the news and notes from the day on the campaign trail in Georgia.
***
TODAY ON THE TRAIL:
- Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will join Gov. Brian Kemp for a campaign event in Buckhead this evening. Before that, Kemp will make stops in Canton, Acworth and Marietta.
- U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock will be out with U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff for events in Stockbridge, Monroe, Clarkston and Decatur.
- Herschel Walker’s bus tour makes an evening visit to Smyrna.
- U.S. Rep. Rick Allen will address the Sandersville Rotary Club then tour Battle Lumber Company in Wadley — the same lumber yard where Herschel Walker appeared .
***
Credit: AJC
Credit: AJC
GOP LEADERSHIP. Republicans in the U.S. House will move quickly after the midterms to elect their new leaders. If they pick up five seats in the chamber, as is widely expected, control of the chamber will flip to Republicans. The vote for House Speaker and other leadership positions will happen less than a week after that.
Punchbowl News reports that the House Republican Conference has tentatively scheduled its candidate forum for Nov. 14, with leadership elections the day after.
Georgia’s U.S. Rep. Drew Ferguson, R-West Point, is one of three candidates running for GOP whip, the third-highest position for a majority party.
Democrats have not announced a time frame for their leadership elections, but are expected to wait until after Thanksgiving.
***
YOU AGAIN? Campaign ads can push the bounds of accuracy, but the left-leaning American Independent spotted the same woman in the same kitchen in nearly identical attack ads against U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock and Nevada’s U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto.
The actress, who is identified as, “Jennifer from Madison” in a separate anti-Warnock spot, is wearing ski goggles and carrying a bag of groceries in the twin ads, speaking from the same kitchen.
A spokeswoman from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee said “Every second and every frame” of the spots are false. The ads come from U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell’s Senate Leadership Fund PAC.
***
Credit: Kent D. Johnson/AJC
Credit: Kent D. Johnson/AJC
GUILTY. Former DeKalb County Commissioner Sharon Barnes Sutton has been found guilty of extorting a county subcontractor in connection with a $1.8 million contract. She was also acquitted on a bribery charge.
She is scheduled for sentencing on Jan. 6 and faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, the AJC’s Tyler Estep reports.
***
Credit: John Spink/AJC
Credit: John Spink/AJC
YIKES. Gabriel Sterling, the Georgia election official who made national headlines in 2020 when he pleaded for public officials to dial back incendiary rhetoric, got some push back of his own Wednesday night after he posted an image of elderly man hitting his own head with a hammer.
We are up to 339 Georgians that are 101+ who have cast a ballot in Georgia. #gapol #PlanYourVote pic.twitter.com/WDs7NtvQ0Z
— Gabriel Sterling (@GabrielSterling) November 3, 2022
The image was part of a message about the high number of older voters who have cast their ballots. But more than a few Georgia politicos reached out to us saying it was too close to the hammer attack on Paul Pelosi to be acceptable.
Sterling responded to the criticism on Twitter, saying, “This is about celebrating those 101 and up. So it isn’t coming down.”
***
AS ALWAYS, Jolt readers are some of our favorite tipsters. Send your best scoop, gossip and insider info to patricia.murphy@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com and greg.bluestein@ajc.com.
