The GA Files

Accountability

Scandals

A sourced record of reported controversies, criminal charges, lawsuits, and ethics matters involving the legislators and 2026 candidates tracked on this site — roughly the past decade, newest first. Each entry links back to the person's full page and to its sources.

July 2026Ethics — disclosure & lobbying

Fined $17,500 by the state ethics commission for unreported spending and unregistered lobbying

Frontline PolicyEvangelical policy & lobbying group · Atlanta Resolved by two consent orders dated June 24, 2026; the group corrected its filings. Founder Cole Muzio called the lapses “essentially a clerical error” and said Frontline’s goal “has and remains to always abide by the letter and spirit of the law.”

Frontline Policy — an influential Georgia Christian-conservative advocacy group founded in 2021 and led by founder-president Cole Muzio — agreed to pay the Georgia State Ethics Commission $17,500 to settle two consent orders. A $10,000 penalty covered its failure to disclose more than $380,000 in contributions during the 2024 election cycle and to file required disclosure reports in 2022 and 2024; a $7,500 penalty covered 24 instances of unregistered lobbying — social-media posts and mass emails urging people to contact legislators — while its 501(c)(4) arm, Frontline Policy Action, had no registered lobbyists in 2023 or 2024. Commission Executive Director David Emadi called it “one of the higher lobbying fines” the agency has “ever doled out,” following a 2025 complaint by attorney Bryan Sells. The group is a leading backer of a ban on transgender girls in girls’ school sports, a state Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and private-school vouchers. Muzio attributed the violations to a clerical error since corrected.

Sources
July 2026Extremism — family ties

Son-in-law revealed as a white-nationalist influencer broadcasting to 1.5M followers

Mike Collins →GA-10 · U.S. House (R) Reported by CNN's KFile (July 16, 2026). The conduct is the son-in-law's, not Collins's own, and no wrongdoing by Collins is alleged. Scheer did not respond to requests for comment; the campaign did not address the posts, saying Collins's “lifelong support for Israel is unquestionable.”

CNN's KFile reported that Collins's son-in-law, David Alan Scheer II — married to his daughter Summer — is a white-nationalist social-media influencer with more than 1.5 million followers across TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Telegram, posting Nazi imagery, antisemitic conspiracy theories, calls to deport Muslims, warnings that white people are “going extinct,” and promotion of Patriot Front, the white-supremacist group. The ties are close and documented: Scheer appears in family photos on the campaign's website, attended Collins's Senate-primary victory party, helped produce promotional videos for Collins Trucking, and is registered to vote at a Collins-owned property beside the congressman's home. It is the second report tying Collins's inner circle to white-nationalist figures, after the May 2026 group-chat story involving his chief of staff.

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June 2026Ethics — state contracts

“Pay-to-play” allegations over CENTEGIX school-safety contracts

Brian Kemp & Derek DooleyGovernor (R) & 2026 U.S. Senate candidate (R) Allegation, unproven. Raised by 35+ Democratic state lawmakers; Kemp's office denies wrongdoing and says Democrats are attacking school-security funding. Under pressure, Dooley said he would support an independent investigation.

CENTEGIX — a school-safety alert-system company owned by Derek Dooley's brother Daniel — won tens of millions of dollars in Georgia business after Gov. Brian Kemp championed school-safety grants sized to cover its system; by August 2025 roughly 90% of Georgia public schools used the product. Kemp's leadership PAC, Georgians First, then took six-figure money tied to the Dooley orbit and spent heavily to boost Dooley's U.S. Senate campaign. More than 35 Democratic state lawmakers called it “pay-to-play” and demanded an independent probe; Kemp's office rejected the allegations. Dooley went on to lose the June 2026 GOP Senate runoff to Mike Collins.

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June 2026Abortion — recorded remarks

Leaked audio: rape-exception abortion remarks

Rick Jackson →2026 candidate — Governor Comments controversy, not a criminal allegation. Jackson's campaign disputes the framing as “Democratic spin” and says he supports Georgia's current law unchanged; reproductive-rights groups and Democrats condemned the remarks.

An audio recording — taped at an April 2026 campaign barbecue in east Georgia and published in June by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and HuffPost the day after Jackson won the GOP gubernatorial runoff — captured him agreeing with a voter who said a woman alleging rape “needs to prove it” to qualify for Georgia's rape exception to the six-week abortion ban; Jackson added that a pregnancy from rape is “still a life.” The remarks drew scrutiny because a month earlier he had backed rape and incest exceptions on a Georgia Life Alliance questionnaire. Under current law, the rape/incest exception applies only up to 20 weeks and only with an official police report.

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May 2026Extremism — staff ties

Chief of staff in white-nationalist group chat; vowed to use his office to free a Holocaust denier

Mike Collins →GA-10 · U.S. House (R) Reported by Slate; Collins himself was not in the chat. His chief of staff, Kip Talley, says he acted “in a personal capacity” for a mistreated acquaintance and remains in the role. Not adjudicated.

Slate reported in May 2026 that Collins's chief of staff, Kip Talley, took part in a group chat — titled “Research Group—Johnson '28?” and including white nationalists Nick Fuentes and Richard Spencer — in which he wrote that he wanted to “use the levers of the legislative branch” to help free Charles C. Johnson, a far-right activist and Holocaust denier jailed in late 2025 on a contempt charge. Talley, then Collins's deputy chief of staff (promoted to chief of staff in January 2026), said he was “reaching out to my people at FBI and DOJ” to get Johnson out. He called it a personal effort for a mistreated acquaintance and kept his job; the episode fueled Sen. Jon Ossoff's depiction of Collins as an “antisemite” and “extremist.”

Sources
March 2026Criminal — fraud

Pleaded guilty to pandemic unemployment fraud; resigned

Dexter Sharper →House D-177 (D) · former Pleaded guilty; resigned from office

Sharper resigned his House seat on March 9, 2026, days before pleading guilty to federal fraud charges. Prosecutors said he collected $13,825 in emergency pandemic unemployment assistance he was not entitled to, making false statements while still earning income from other work.

Sources
February 2026Ethics — state contracts

~$1 billion in state contracts (conflict-of-interest questions)

Rick Jackson →2026 candidate — Governor Not alleged illegal; ethics experts flagged conflicts. Jackson pledged to “unwind” the contracts if elected; the state Senate passed HB 1374 to close the renewal loophole.

Jackson Healthcare and affiliates have been paid nearly $1 billion by state agencies since fiscal 2020 — about $710 million from the Department of Community Health for staffing. Critics dubbed a contracting exception the “Rick Jackson loophole”; the Georgia Senate passed HB 1374 (46–0) to require competitive bidding on large contract renewals.

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February 2026Election integrity — recorded remarks

Said he submitted falsified mail-ballot applications to “test” election security

Greg Dolezal →2026 candidate — Lieutenant Governor His own public account, framed as a security “test” — no charges or investigation. Georgia's Secretary of State and the GBI audited more than 15,000 absentee envelopes and found no fraudulent ballots; in 2021 officials said they matched and approved his own application.

On the Charlie Kirk Show in February 2026 (a clip he posted to his own YouTube channel) and again on a March 2026 podcast, Dolezal — the GOP Lt. Governor nominee and a longtime election-fraud claimant — said he and “a number of friends” in Cherokee and Gwinnett counties deliberately submitted mail-ballot applications with altered signatures, including forms “signed” by children, and received a ballot every time. He had made a similar admission about disguising his own signature in 2021. He casts it as exposing weak signature verification; critics and election-law experts note that knowingly submitting falsified ballot applications can itself be a crime. No charges have been filed, and a state signature audit found no fraudulent ballots.

Sources
January 2026Financial / fraud

Resigned and pleaded guilty to pandemic unemployment fraud

Karen Bennett →House D-94 Pleaded guilty (Jan 2026); agreed to repay ~$13,900; prosecutors agreed to seek no prison time. Resigned her seat effective Jan 1, 2026.

Rep. Bennett, a Stone Mountain Democrat who served since 2013, resigned her House seat effective January 1, 2026 — days before being charged federally. Prosecutors said she improperly collected roughly $13,900 in federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance in 2020 by certifying she could not work due to the pandemic while concealing that she was drawing a steady weekly church paycheck and ran an administrative business from home. She pleaded guilty in January 2026 to making false statements to obtain the benefits and agreed to repay the money; her lawyers said prosecutors would seek no prison time. A special election was set to fill House District 94. She was the second Georgia House Democrat charged in the pandemic-fraud sweep.

Sources
December 2025Criminal — fraud

Suspended after a federal pandemic-unemployment fraud indictment

Sharon Henderson →House D-113 Indicted Dec 2025 (theft of government funds + false statements); pleaded not guilty; suspended from office by Gov. Kemp; case pending — no plea entered as of mid-2026.

Rep. Henderson was federally indicted on December 2, 2025 on two counts of theft of government funds and ten counts of making false statements, accused of collecting roughly $17,811 in pandemic unemployment assistance. Prosecutors said she began applying in June 2020 — while a candidate for the House — and certified she was working as a Henry County substitute teacher despite not having worked for the district since 2018. Governor Kemp suspended her from office pending the case; unlike two colleagues in the same pandemic-fraud sweep, she did not resign and pleaded not guilty. She separately qualified to run for a State Senate seat. The case remained pending in mid-2026.

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November 2025Ethics — congressional investigation

Under House Ethics Committee investigation over use of office resources

Mike Collins →GA-10 · U.S. House (R) Investigation ongoing; allegations unproven

The House Ethics Committee announced in November 2025 that it found “substantial reason to believe” Collins used congressional resources for unofficial or unauthorized purposes — including about $5,000 paid in 2023–24 to an intern, Caroline Craze, who allegedly performed no work and was the girlfriend of Collins's then-chief of staff, Brandon Phillips (now a senior adviser to his campaign). Investigators said Collins, Phillips and other staff did not cooperate and recommended subpoenas. The allegations have not been adjudicated.

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2025Ethics — campaign finance

Sanctioned for failing to file six campaign-finance reports

Derek Mallow →Senate D-2 (D) Fined $1,000

The State Ethics Commission sanctioned Mallow for failing to file six campaign-contribution reports between April 2024 and January 2025 plus a personal financial disclosure; he was fined $1,000 — the largest of the administrative penalties in the 2025 audit-driven sweep of legislators' filings.

Sources
June 2025Ethics — campaign finance

Fined for late and missing campaign and financial-disclosure filings

Colton Moore →Senate D-53 (R) · former Consent order — $500 fine

In a June 2025 consent order with the State Ethics Commission, Moore admitted failing to file a January 2025 campaign-finance report and his 2022 and 2023 personal financial disclosures, and paid a $500 fine — part of an audit-driven sweep of legislators' filings.

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June 2025Ethics — campaign finance

Fined for missing campaign and financial-disclosure filings

Freddie Powell Sims →Senate D-12 (D) · former Consent order — $375 fine

Sims admitted in a June 2025 State Ethics Commission consent order that she failed to file her December 2024 and January 2025 campaign-finance reports and her 2023 personal financial disclosure; she paid a $375 fine. The matter is administrative (failure to file), part of a 2025 audit-driven review of legislators' filings.

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2025Political — party censure

Censured by the Whitfield County and 14th District Republican parties

Chuck Payne →Senate D-54 (R) Censured by local/district GOP

Payne was formally censured in 2025 by both the Whitfield County GOP (March 22) and the 14th Congressional District GOP, which faulted votes they considered insufficiently conservative — including his support for tort reform and a vote against a “Freedom of Speech & Belief” bill. The county GOP chairman called it “a betrayal of the voters' trust.”

Sources
January 2025Conduct — arrest at the Capitol

Arrested trying to enter the House chamber after being banned

Colton Moore →Senate D-53 (R) · former Removed by police; ban later rescinded

After House leaders banned him from their chamber over remarks about the late Speaker David Ralston, Moore was arrested while attempting to enter during Gov. Kemp's State of the State address and was removed by police. The Speaker later rescinded the ban.

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Sept. 2024Elections — 2020 fake electors

One of Georgia's 2020 “fake electors”; named an unindicted co-conspirator

Burt Jones →Lieutenant Governor (R) Established conduct; no charges filed. Jones signed the false elector certificate and was named unindicted “co-conspirator #8” in the 2023 Fulton County RICO case. A judge had disqualified DA Fani Willis from investigating him in 2022 after she held a fundraiser for his opponent. In September 2024, court-appointed special prosecutor Pete Skandalakis declined to bring charges, concluding Jones acted on attorney advice without criminal intent. Jones was never indicted or convicted.

After the 2020 election, Burt Jones — then a state senator, now lieutenant governor — was one of 16 Georgia Republicans who signed an unofficial certificate falsely declaring themselves Donald Trump's presidential electors. He was named as unindicted “co-conspirator #8” in the 2023 Fulton County election-interference indictment, but a Fulton judge barred DA Fani Willis from pursuing him after she headlined a fundraiser for his Democratic opponent. The matter was handed to special prosecutor Pete Skandalakis, who announced in September 2024 that he would not charge Jones, finding he had relied on lawyers' advice and lacked criminal intent.

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2024–2025Criminal — DUI (charges dropped)

Arrested on DUI charges after striking a cyclist; pleaded to lesser traffic counts

Devan Seabaugh →House D-34 (R) DUI charges dropped; pleaded guilty to two traffic violations

In August 2024, Seabaugh was arrested by a State Patrol DUI task force after his vehicle struck a bicyclist in an Atlanta bike lane on Memorial Drive; he was cited on multiple counts including DUI (drugs and alcohol). Seabaugh denied being intoxicated, saying he hadn't realized the lane had recently been converted to a bike lane. In April 2025 he took a plea deal — the DUI charges were dropped and he pleaded guilty to two lesser traffic violations (failing to yield to a cyclist in a bike lane and disobeying a traffic-control device).

Sources
June 2024Ethics — campaign finance

Fined ~$47,000 by the State Ethics Commission over campaign-spending violations

Carl Gilliard →House D-162 (D) Consent decree — $17,000 fine + $30,000 repayment

In one of the costliest state ethics cases involving a Georgia lawmaker, Gilliard agreed to a consent decree over what the State Ethics Commission called “egregious” violations — failing to file six campaign-finance disclosures, filing three late, and leaving 110 expenditures totaling about $54,000 off his reports. He was fined $17,000 and required to repay $30,000 to his campaign account.

Sources
June 2024Misrepresentation

Accused of fabricating biographical credentials — sorority, medical, and veteran claims

Angela Moore →House D-91 Apologized for the confusion but maintained innocence; faced no formal sanction and was re-elected.

A June 2024 WSB-TV investigation reported that Rep. Moore had misrepresented several biographical claims. Delta Sigma Theta Sorority's executive director stated she “is not, and has not ever been, a member.” Colleagues said she had presented herself as an OB-GYN — she later clarified she “worked in the OB-GYN field of medicine” — and as a military veteran, to which she responded that she is a “family veteran” because her relatives served. A separate State House floor video appeared to show a physical exchange with another member; Moore said she pushed the colleague only after being struck in the ankle. Moore apologized for the confusion while disputing wrongdoing, attributing the missing sorority records to a former married name, and won re-election unopposed.

Sources
September 2023Political — caucus suspension

Suspended from the Senate Republican Caucus

Colton Moore →Senate D-53 (R) · former Indefinitely suspended from caucus

The Senate Republican Caucus indefinitely suspended Moore after he attacked fellow Republicans while pushing for a special session to investigate and defund Fulton DA Fani Willis over the Trump indictment. The caucus said Moore had “knowingly misled people” and put colleagues “at risk of personal harm.”

Sources
August 2023Criminal — RICO / elections

Indicted in the Fulton County 2020 election-interference case

Shawn Still →Senate D-48 (R) Pleaded not guilty; case pending

A Fulton County grand jury indicted Still in the racketeering (RICO) case over the effort to overturn Georgia's 2020 presidential result. He was one of 16 Georgia Republicans who signed a certificate falsely declaring themselves the state's “duly elected” presidential electors, and was charged with counts including forgery and false statements. He has pleaded not guilty, is contesting the charges, and won re-election in 2024 while under indictment.

Sources
2023Ethics — conflict of interest

Conflict-of-interest complaint over HB 520 and his monitoring-tech company

Todd Jones →House D-25 (R) Ethics complaint filed; no public finding — allegation unproven

Jones is the founder and chairman of Talitrix, which makes electronic-monitoring wristbands. After he sponsored HB 520 — a broad 2023 mental-health bill that also touched data-sharing and monitoring — a critic filed an ethics complaint alleging he used his office to benefit his own company, citing Georgia's conflict-of-interest statute. The bill's core mental-health provisions passed committee unanimously; the complaint was not publicly adjudicated and the allegation is unproven.

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2022Controversy — Jan. 6 scrutiny

Scrutinized over a Capitol tour the day before January 6

Barry Loudermilk →GA-11 · U.S. House (R) Denied wrongdoing; not charged

The House January 6 committee released footage of a Capitol-complex tour Loudermilk led on January 5, 2021, saying members of the group photographed hallways, stairwells, and security checkpoints and that one later joined the crowd outside the Capitol. Loudermilk denied any wrongdoing, said no one on the tour entered the Capitol during the breach, and was not charged; the Capitol Police had earlier said they found no problem with the tour.

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2019–2021Criminal — reckless conduct (dismissed)

Charged over a constituent's fatal hit-and-run; stepped down as Majority Whip

Trey Kelley →House D-16 (R) Charge dismissed (Dec. 2021)

Kelley was charged with misdemeanor reckless conduct after a 2019 incident in which a friend fatally struck bicyclist Eric Keais and called Kelley — an attorney — instead of 911; Keais lay in a ditch before help arrived and later died. Kelley stepped down as House Majority Whip in July 2021 ahead of the case, and a judge dismissed the reckless-conduct charge in December 2021, ruling he had no legal duty to call 911.

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May 2021Controversy — public remarks

Described January 6 as resembling a “normal tourist visit”

Andrew Clyde →GA-09 · U.S. House (R) Stood by the remark

At a May 2021 House hearing, Clyde said footage of people entering the Capitol on January 6 looked, in parts, like “a normal tourist visit” — a characterization widely criticized as downplaying the attack. He stood by the statement, though photographs from that day showed him helping barricade a House chamber door as rioters approached.

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January 2021Ethics — campaign finance

$37,000 state ethics fine (campaign finance)

Keisha Lance Bottoms →2026 candidate — Governor Fined by the state campaign-finance commission; resolved.

Georgia's campaign-finance commission fined Bottoms $37,000 over violations tied to her earlier campaigns — accepting roughly $6,900 over contribution limits and $110,797 over debt limits, and using an incorrect accounting method.

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2020Conduct / controversy

Removed from the House chamber for refusing a required COVID-19 test

David Clark →House D-100 Barred from the House floor for the day; no legal charge. Part of a broader pattern of clashes with his own party's leadership.

Rep. Clark, a Gwinnett Republican, was removed from the House chamber in 2020 after refusing to take a COVID-19 test that leadership had required for floor access during the pandemic session — a widely covered standoff. It fit a broader pattern of public conflict with his own party's leadership: in 2019 Speaker David Ralston stripped Clark of his committee chairmanship and relocated his office after Clark introduced a resolution calling for Ralston's resignation over reporting on Ralston's use of legislative leave to delay client criminal cases.

Sources

Every item is drawn from published reporting or official records, with sources listed on each entry. Where a matter was dismissed, settled, withdrawn, or remains pending, that disposition is stated; allegations are identified as such, and inclusion here does not imply a finding of guilt. This record is being expanded as the site's legislator coverage grows. Spotted an error or omission? Corrections are welcome via the contact link in the footer.