Fulton County DA Willis Is Subject of Ethics Complaint Over Campaign Finances

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis speaks during a news conference at the Fulton County Government building in Atlanta on Aug. 14, 2023. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The Georgia State Ethics Commission has notified Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis of a complaint filed against her, alleging that she violated the Georgia Government Transparency and Finance Act.

The complaint was submitted last month by computer analyst Peter Bernegger, president of Election Watch, a grassroots national election integrity watchdog group.

Among other things, the complaint alleges that the Willis for DA committee was and continues to be the beneficiary of a campaign finance scam called “smurfing.”

Smurfing is a fund-transfer mechanism by which big money donors contribute large sums to a PAC or donation processing organization that, in turn, breaks down their legal, large-sum donations into hundreds and even thousands of small contributions and distributes them among favored political campaigns or ballot initiatives around the country.

Donations can range in size from $1 to $50 or more, and may be odd amounts such as $1.67 or $7.78. The funds are donated dozens of times per day over a series of consecutive days that go on for months and sometimes years.

Overseas credit cards, pre-paid credit cards, domestic credit cards, debit cards, virtual cards, and gift cards are purchased or otherwise acquired by the distributing organizations and then are used to make a myriad of tiny contributions to various campaigns.

Federal law doesn’t require organizations distributing campaign contributions to verify the three-digit CVV codes on the backs of the cards.

Unwitting Victims

Where required by state law, names and addresses are ascribed to the small donations, nearly always without the individual’s knowledge. Since the money does not come out of their accounts, the victims remain none the wiser until a citizen activist, private detective, or journalist calls or comes to their door and asks whether they made the contributions. Most people respond that they may have donated a few times to a candidate, but nowhere near the number of times or the high aggregate amounts recorded on campaign finance reports, according to the Election Watch complaint.

The names of scores of such unknowing contributors appear on Ms. Willis’s campaign finance reports and have been compiled and analyzed by Election Watch.

Ms. Willis could not be reached for comment.

Investigations by Election Watch found that the typical victim is elderly, retired, lives in a modest home, and has a history of donating to Democrats. Many are from outside Georgia.

According to the complaint, the Willis for DA campaign received 726 contributions from out of state, an unusually high number for a county candidate.

Ms. Willis gained national notoriety when on Aug. 14, 2023, she indicted former President Donald Trump on 13 criminal charges of interfering with the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. President Trump pleaded not guilty on all counts.

Booking photo of former President Donald Trump as he was booked and released on bond at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta on Aug. 24, 2023. Fulton County Sheriff's Office

The Election Watch team evaluated nearly 1,200 Willis donors who together gave her campaign more than $246,000.

A Florida woman who is listed on the contribution report as a Willis donor, even though she denies ever contributing to the campaign, told investigators that she “had no clue her name and address were being used,” according to the complaint.

Classic ‘Smurfs’

The complaint also presents evidence from the Federal Election Commission (FEC) database that one of the donors appearing on Ms. Willis’s local campaign finance report purportedly donated to various candidates across the nation 68,618 times over six years.

“That means that gentleman would have had to make over 30 campaign contributions per day, 365 days a year, for six years,” Mr. Bernegger told The Epoch Times.

Another Willis campaign donor made 19,617 contributions to candidates across the nation in just under six years, according to FEC data attached to the complaint.

“The FEC’s own study found that Americans who donated to political campaigns make an average of 1.4 contributions per year,” he said.

The Election Watch complaint also provided the Georgia State Ethics Commission with photographic evidence that some of the donors’ residential addresses listed on Ms. Willis’s campaign finance report turned out to be vacant lots or places of business.

“This matter needs to be investigated,” Mr. Bernegger said.

Other evidence presented in the complaint refers to entries from Ms. Willis’s state Campaign Contributions Disclosure Report, which show that at least three of her donors may have given money in excess of the $3,300 limit for an individual contributor, and some small donor entries in her report may lack the required names, addresses, and places of employment.

The Georgia State Ethics Commission gave Ms. Willis 30 days from Feb. 19 to respond to the allegations. It will then hold a preliminary hearing to determine whether there are reasonable grounds to believe that a violation has occurred and prosecution is warranted.