U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde opened a new front in the pro-Donald Trump offensive meant to undercut Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ indictment of the former president and his allies.
The Athens Republican wants to use an upcoming appropriations bill to slash federal funding for Willis, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and federal special counsel Jack Smith. All three prosecutors have brought criminal charges against Trump.
It’s unclear how much federal funding Willis’ office receives. Last week, the chairman of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee launched an investigation that, among other things, asked Willis to specify the federal dollars going to her office.
It’s also unknown how much support Clyde has from other Republicans in the House Appropriations Committee, where the second-term lawmaker serves as a member.
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Clyde’s stance could create trouble for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. With a thin majority and a Sept. 30 government shutdown deadline looming, McCarthy needs to keep his GOP coalition together to pass funding legislation or hope for across-the-aisle support from Democrats.
Even if Clyde’s plan goes nowhere, it’s another GOP attack against Willis. U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Rome, is among the members who urged the House Judiciary Committee to launch its probe.
At the state level, Republican officials vow to use a newly created state oversight commission to seek sanctions against Willis. Then there’s the doomed effort to call a special legislative session. The petition has no traction with lawmakers but has already soaked up attention from the far right.
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Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
PUSHBACK. We told you yesterday about state Sen. Colton Moore’s interview calling his fellow GOP senators “buzzard cowards” for not signing his letter to call a special legislative session to remove Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from office.
On Monday, two of Moore’s fellow GOP state senators wrote a scathing letter of their own. Sens. Shelly Echols, R-Alto, and Bo Hatchett, R-Cornelia, ripped Moore for what they said was a dishonest, self-serving, and unconstitutional effort to advance a plan that can’t work anyway.
“The TRUTH is that we do not have a sufficient majority to call a special session,” wrote Echols and Hatchett, pointing out that Democrats would need to sign on to the effort, which they won’t.
The senators also noted that Moore was the only Republican to vote against the DA oversight commission law, which creates a GOP-appointed panel that can sanction and even remove local prosecutors.
“Colton has spent weeks now ‘calling out’ legislators for ‘not signing his letter’ (even though he’s never asked us to sign it), and even though he knows his letter was political grandstanding,” they wrote. “We guess for him, the fundraising opportunity was just too attractive.”
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Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
DANGER. The head of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation encouraged state lawmakers to report threatening messages and suspicious activity targeting them to authorities.
That’s because several legislators, including state Sen. Jason Esteves, D-Atlanta, have recently reported contact from activists amid the tumult of the Fulton County indictments against former President Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants.
We imagine state Sen. Colton Moore’s public berating of his GOP colleagues as “buzzard cowards” and phony Republicans to far-right outlets hasn’t cooled the temperature of the pro-Trump activists.
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Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
PASS THE BUCKS. Former President Donald Trump may have turned the latest indictments against him into a fundraising bonanza, but the legal bills are quickly piling up for his 18 co-defendants, who don’t have fans to buy T-shirts with their mug shots on them.
At least one of the 18, former Georgia GOP Chairman David Shafer, is getting a little help from his friends.
On Monday, Trump supporter Jenny Beth Martin circulated a link for an online fundraising petition she created for a Shafer-focused legal defense fund. The petition calls Shafer “a rockstar conservative” and “one of the heroes of 2020.”
“We must stand with patriots like David because it could be you or me next,” Martin wrote.
Shafter will likely need the financial support. Legal fees for all of the defendants could soar well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on how long their prosecutions lasts.
As of Tuesday morning, Shafer’s fund had raised $11,348.
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Credit: File photos
Credit: File photos
KEEP UP. The surrenders are done, but the court system journey is just beginning for former President Donald Trump and the 18 others indicted in the Georgia election interference case.
With all the moving parts, we’ll keep you updated every morning with the latest developments. Our AJC colleagues filed these stories Monday:
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POLLING. A new Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll shows that former President Donald Trump has a whopping lead over his Republican rivals in Georgia despite his unprecedented legal peril.
Trump led the GOP field with 57% support of likely Republican voters, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis trailed far behind at 15%. Every other contender was mired in single digits.
Meanwhile, Republicans remain divided over the Fulton County indictment against Trump and 18 allies. About half consider the charges serious, while 44% dismiss them as insignificant. Read more here.
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Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
TODAY IN WASHINGTON:
- President Joe Biden will deliver remarks from the White House timed to coincide with the naming of the first 10 drugs subject to Medicare negotiations, an effort to lower the costs of commonly used prescription medications.
- In the afternoon, Biden will host Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves Robles for a bilateral meeting.
- The August recesses in the U.S. House and Senate continue.
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Credit: Nicole Craine/The New York Times
Credit: Nicole Craine/The New York Times
ERIC FOR ACCURACY? Georgia election officials have stood by a national voter accuracy organization known as ERIC in spite of conservative-led criticism of the group’s work in tracking voter registrations.
ERIC collects data on voters who have moved or died and shares it with participating states. According to reporting by the AJC’s Mark Niesse, ERIC data resulted in 432,000 Georgia voter registrations canceled or made inactive during the past two years.
Nine states have quit ERIC in recent years citing ERIC’s bylaws and perceived biases. Georgia is one of 25 states that remain as clients.
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ELECTION BOARD CHAIR. The leader of Georgia’s State Election Board resigned on Monday, saying it is time for new leadership ahead of the 2024 elections, the AJC’s Mark Niesse writes.
Chairman Bill Duffey submitted his resignation to Gov. Brian Kemp in July. Duffey, a former federal judge and U.S. attorney, was appointed to lead the board in June 2022.
The board is comprised of four Republicans, including Duffey, and one Democrat.
Duffey submitted his resignation prior to the controversy-laden August board meeting. Duffey opened the session with a prayer recognizing Christian, Jewish and Muslim beliefs in God, drawing criticism from conservatives.
Columnist Bill Torpy wrote that the meeting, like many others since the 2020 election, was packed with people who falsely believed that former President Donald Trump had defeated Joe Biden in Georgia.
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NO LIMITS MEETUP. Upstart political party No Labels will stage its first presidential nominating convention next April in Dallas.
The centrist party’s chairman, former Sen. Joe Lieberman, announced the plans over the weekend on “Fox News Sunday” billing the event as a “bipartisan convention.”
Lieberman is best known for his 2000 vice presidential bid, when he joined presidential nominee Al Gore on the Democratic ticket.
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Credit: Courtesy photo
Credit: Courtesy photo
DOG OF THE DAY. They say dogs look like their people, but we have noticed they often act like their people, too. Let’s take Ginger Walsh, for example, the treeing Walker coonhound who calls Decatur City Commissioner Kelly Walsh her person.
Like Commissioner Walsh, Ginger takes weekly walks with Decatur Mayor Patti Garrett, does the annual Run with the Dogs at Decatur High School, and shops at Fleet Feet on West Ponce (seen here.) She even has a near 100% approval rating from her constituents, except for the cats.
Send us your dogs of any political persuasion and location, and cats on a cat-by-cat basis, to patricia.murphy@ajc.com, or DM us at @MurphyAJC.
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AS ALWAYS, Jolt readers are some of our favorite tipsters. Send your best scoop, gossip and insider info to adam.vanbrimmer@ajc.com, patricia.murphy@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com and greg.bluestein@ajc.com.
