Fair Fight Action, a voting rights group started by Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, paid $9.4 million to a law firm at which her campaign chairwoman serves as a partner.
The group paid about $25 million in legal fees over two years, mostly on a single case which they eventually lost, and the law firm Lawrence & Bundy received the largest amount from 2019-2020 among a handful of attorneys, Politico first reported, citing tax filings. Allegra Lawrence-Hardy, a partner at the firm, chaired Abrams’ 2018 campaign and her current campaign for Georgia governor and is a close friend of hers.
“It is a very clear conflict of interest because with that kind of close link to the litigation and her friend that provides an opportunity where the friend gets particularly enriched from this litigation … The outcome of that litigation can directly affect her campaign itself,” Craig Holman, a lobbyist at the nonpartisan consumer advocacy group Public Citizen who focuses on ethics and campaign finance, told Politico.
Brian Kemp is the chief architect of modern day voter-suppression.pic.twitter.com/7XbFlRWBkm
— Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) October 17, 2022
Lawrence-Hardy’s firm was the lead counsel in Fair Fight Action v. Raffensperger, the lawsuit that used up the largest portion of Fair Fight’s $25 million in legal spending in 2019 and 2020, according to Politico. The case challenged various voting-related issues including long poll lines and the training of poll workers, but a judge narrowed their case and eventually ruled that the practices in question didn’t violate the Constitution or the Voting Rights Act. (RELATED: VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Who Denies Election Results?)
“Although Georgia’s election system is not perfect, the challenged practices violate neither the constitution nor the [Voting Rights Act],” Federal District Court Judge Steve C. Jones wrote.
Abrams’ campaign denied that the lawsuit had the potential to boost her campaign.
“What is the boon to the campaign?” Nina Smith, a senior adviser to the Abrams campaign, told Politico. “We reject that premise. Ideally the remedies sought in this case would currently be in place and voters in Georgia would not have their government working against their right to vote. That benefits democracy.”
Abrams lost the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial race to Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, refused to concede and claimed the election was illegitimate.
Fair Fight Action, Abrams and Lawrence & Bundy did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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