Trump's Georgia trial has cost local GOP $1.3M in past year: report
Georgia's Republican Party spent more than $1.3 million on legal fees last year — or 15 times more than it spent in 2021 — with most of that money going to represent fake electors for Donald Trump.
Three of those electors were indicted in August along with the former president in a sprawling racketeering case, and at least eight Trump electors from 2020 accepted immunity deals with the Fulton County district attorney's office to testify about efforts to overturn the presidential election results, reported the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“When I ran for chairman, I committed myself to making sure the Georgia Republican Party put our presidential nominee and other Republicans in the best position to win in 2024 and to defend our electors until the case against them was dismissed," said current state GOP chair Josh McKoon.
“The news this week that suggests there may have been ulterior financial motives for prosecuting our electors and that it was done potentially at the behest of Joe Biden only confirms the wisdom of our position to defend the electors.”
The state GOP raised $530,000 during the final six months of 2023, according to newly filed campaign disclosures, and spent $1.34 million. About $850,000 of that was for legal fees, with another $520,000 going to lawyers in the first six months of the year.
The law firm Strickland Debrow was paid about $329,000 last year to represent GOP electors, while attorney Holly Pierson of Pierson Law was paid at least $125,000 in 2023.
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Pierson represents former state GOP chair David Shafer, who was among those indicted in the case, along with attorney Craig Gillen, who was paid nearly $400,000 last year by the Republican Party.
The state GOP also paid the law firm Smith, Gambrell & Russell, which represents state Sen. Shawn Still in the case, about $250,000 last year.