Georgia Officials Target Bail Fund in Crackdown on ‘Cop City’ Protests
The three have been accused, according to arrest warrants, of misleading donors by spending money to support Defend the Atlanta Forest, a group that has been blamed by local authorities for the arson and vandalism of buildings and heavy equipment during protests, and for throwing Molotov cocktails, rocks and fireworks at uniformed police officers.
The warrants listed specific reimbursements to the three from Mr. Kautz’s charity, registered as the Network for Strong Communities, which runs the Atlanta Solidarity Fund: $298.54 to Mr. Kautz for mesh communications equipment to monitor the forest, $115.80 to Ms. Patterson for camping supplies, and $29.72 to Ms. McLean for a safe bought from Amazon, among other expenses.
The authorities also noted that $48,000 had been transferred by the Network for Strong Communities to another organization, which then returned the money — actions that prosecutors said constituted money laundering.
During the hearing, prosecutors said that the defendants’ work might appear lawful, even laudable, but that their money had helped fund destructive acts, including violent protests related to the training facility and vandalizing Ebenezer Baptist Church, the storied Atlanta congregation led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Senator Raphael Warnock.
John Fowler, a deputy attorney general, also said that they “harbor extremist anti-government and anti-establishment views.” (The case is being prosecuted by the Georgia attorney general’s office and the district attorney for DeKalb County.)
But Donald Samuel, a lawyer for the three defendants, said they had done nothing wrong. “The notion that the solidarity fund should be somehow responsible for everything that goes over the line seems unbelievably unjust to me,” he said on Friday.
Source: The New York Times
