(The Center Square) – A Senate committee could investigate organizations with ties to former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams.
Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, filed a resolution that would authorize the Senate Special Committee on Investigations to look into the New Georgia Project and Power Forward Communities. The committee was formed to investigate Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her prosecution of President Donald Trump.
The New Georgia Project received the largest fine in state history from the State Ethics Commission in January. The commission levied the $300,000 fine for failing to disclose it doled out money to canvassers to support Abrams’ 2018 run.
Lee Zeldin, Environmental Protection Agency administrator, said Power Forward Communities, another organization with ties to Abrams, received a $2 billion grant under the $891 billion Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
Senate Resolution 292 said an investigation by the committee is necessary “to determine if any link exists between organizations receiving federal funds and political activities occurring within the State of Georgia such as the alleged and admitted conduct by multiple organizations associated with Stacey Abrams and whether additional state law or enforcement tools are necessary to address such illegal coordination and misuse of public funds.”
Lt. Gov. Burt Jones posted a message of support for the resolution on social media.
“The people of Georgia were defrauded by Stacey Abrams. She’s now been forced to admit it and tried to get it to go away,” Jones said in the post. “But Georgians want real accountability. With these subpoena powers, my office is going to get to the truth. In Georgia, nobody is above the law, even if they were a darling of MSNBC. Anyone who broke the law and stole from taxpayers, including Stacey Abrams, should go to jail.”
The CEO of Power Forward said Abrams “did not make a penny” from the $2 billion grant.
“It was never the plan for her to receive any money from this grant,” Mayopoulos said in an interview with Politico. “Power Forward Communities has no relationship with Ms. Abrams, other than the fact that she’s one of the people who have advised one of our coalition members in the past.”
Abrams founded the New Georgia Project, but she was not working for the organization during her 2018 campaign.
The resolution is currently in the Senate hopper and not assigned to a committee.
The Senate Special Committee on Investigations is continuing its probe into Willis, who is fighting the committee’s subpoenas. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Shukura L. Ingram denied Willis’ request to quash a subpoena in an order issued Tuesday. The court asked for additional information in a second order regarding the committee’s request, according to the court records.
