The Georgia Republican Party since 2022 has paid more than $1 million in legal bills for current and former officials embroiled in the racketeering case against former President Donald Trump and those who helped him contest the 2020 election in the state.
Public records reveal the Georgia Republican Party has spent more than $1 million for the legal defense of State Senator Shawn Still (R-Johns Creek), former Georgia Republican Party Chairman David Shafer, and former Coffee County GOP Chair Cathy Latham since 2022. The three Republicans were indicted as part of Willis’ case against Trump for their role as alternative Republican electors during the 2020 election contest.
According to public filings with the Federal Elections Commission, the Georgia Republican Party spent $120,791.73 on legal fees in June, $183,459.70 in July, and $211,117.50 in August. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported the party spent more than $500,000 on legal fees in the first six months of 2023, and legal fees cost the party in July and August “than it did in all of 2022,” and the total now exceeding $1 million.
Georgia Republican Party Chair Josh McKoon told The Georgia Star News that “the process is the punishment” for Georgia Republicans, and said the party is proud to stand between the Republican electors “and financial ruin.”
“Part of the punishment for people [Willis] disagrees with politically is this process,” said McKoon, who said Still, Shafer, and Latham “would be facing bankruptcy and no representation, or certainly not the experienced defense attorneys that we were able to retain on their behalf” without the party’s financial backing.
“It’s all part of her game plan, which is to try to destroy her political enemies,” McKoon told The Star News. “That’s what this entire process is about.”
McKoon added that the indictments mean the Georgia Republican Party has to “fight a two front battle,” explaining that Republicans are “trying to fight the 2024 election, while also fighting DA Willis’ attempt to drag us into looking at the past.” He explained the party is “very aggressively raising funds” to let Republicans know it will “do what we need to do to make sure our electors exit this shame prosecution, while also making sure we fire Joe Biden.”
“It’s a challenge, but it’s a challenge that we’re meeting every day,” McKoon told The Star News, adding that the party will continue “until a judge or a jury puts this case in the garbage, which is where it belongs.”
Meanwhile, Willis’ office has seen a budget increase from $25.4 million in 2021 to a projected $36.9 million in 2023. Though it’s unclear exactly how much her investigation into the former president and his allies will cost Georgia taxpayers, it was reported in September that special prosecutor Nathan Wade, who was hired by Willis to investigate Trump, had received nearly $550,000 for his work prosecuting Trump.
Other attorneys associated with Wade’s office received more money, meaning private defense attorneys have received at least $740,126.51 from Fulton County in connection to the Trump case.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Georgia Star News and a reporter for the Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Fani Willis” by Fani Willis.
