Trump Allies Hit With Ethics Complaint for Pushing Election Conspiracy

The former chair of the Fulton County Board of Elections filed an ethics complaint Friday against three of the Georgia State Election Board’s members, accusing them of breaking the law in their efforts to help Donald Trump disrupt the presidential election. 

In the complaint addressed to Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, former Chair Cathy Woolard alleged that board members Rick Jeffares, Janice Johnston, and Janelle King had violated the ethics code by failing to follow state law and violating the public’s trust. Through their efforts to  make significant changes to the rules governing Georgia’s elections, they had “at minimum created the appearance that their actions are intended to further their own political preferences,” Woodlard wrote.

Woolard described an instance on July 12, when Jeffares, Johnston, and King had hurriedly organized a private meeting, away from the public and the two other board members, to pass two election rules pitched by Georgia Republican Party Chair Jeff Koons.The first rule required county election boards to post daily ballot counts online, and the second increased the number of partisan monitors during the vote-counting process. Woolard argued that their quorum-lacking rendezvous that day had violated the Open Meetings Act, which requires meetings to be open to the public and for all board members to be given due notice. 

Woolard noted that the same day, Cleta Mitchell, a Trump ally and staunch election denier, posted on X saying, “There are now 3 great members of the GA State Election Board—support them. They are fighting hard for us!!! The Dems + Kemp + Raffensperger + Carr are fighting our great SEB Members. Fight back!” 

Last week, the Georgia State Election board voted 3-2 in favor of a new rule, which required a “reasonable inquiry” before certifying election results, making it significantly easier for county election officials to delay or refuse certification of election results in November. 

“This type of regulation is unprecedented nationally, but it is consistent with a broader strategy among Trump allies to lay the groundwork for refusing to certify presidential election results if he loses in November,” wrote Woolard. 

The next day, Johnston moved to reopen a complaint into the administration of the 2020 election in Fulton County, which Woolard said had been closed in May, before Johnston had been appointed to the board. The state attorney general had advised them not to reopen the fully adjudicated case, but Johnston allegedly indicated she had received outside counsel on the legality of reopening the case. 

That day, Trump reposted a video of the board meeting on Truth Social and called for the attorney general to take action on the reopened complaint into Fulton County. Trump wrote, “We can’t let this happen again. WE MUST WIN GEORGIA IN 2024!!!”

Woolard noted that Trump named the three members specifically during his rally in Atlanta, Georgia, earlier this month. While speaking to the audience of thousands, Trump called the trio “pitbulls fighting for honesty, transparency, and victory.”

“The members have done nothing to dispel that appearance of impropriety, instead receiving a standing ovation at a Trump rally and openly discussing a position in the Trump administration,” Woolard wrote. “Taken together, these actions pose a serious risk of creating confusion about the rules governing the rapidly approaching election and undermining voter confidence in the integrity of Georgia’s elections.”

Woolard also alleged that Jeffares had stated that he was angling for a position in a potential Trump administration. Jeffares told The Guardian that, when speaking to a former Trump campaign adviser, he’d said, “[I]f y’all can’t figure out who you want to be the EPA director for the south-east, I’d like to have it.”

Woolard served as the election board chair from September 2021 to June 2023. When her replacement, Patrise Perkins-Hooker, resigned in April, Woolard stepped in as interim chair to assist with the Georgia primary elections. While some were hopeful she would hold the position until after the general election, Woolard submitted her own resignation on July 3, writing that “it is time for someone who can serve through the fall elections take the reins.”

Government ethics watchdog American Oversight filed a lawsuit against the board in July, similarly accusing the trio of violating Georgia’s Open Meetings Act. Since 2020, Georgia has had the highest number of certification refusals anywhere in the country—and remains the likely epicenter for Trump’s claims of election fraud in 2024. A report from American Doom found that Georgia had at least twenty-two people who’d pushed election denying conspiracy theorists employed as election officials—including two on its board of elections.