Text messages obtained by CNN show that the same Trump legal operatives who breached a Georgia county’s election systems in early 2021 considered using that data to flip U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff’s runoff win over former U.S. Sen. David Perdue. That’s in addition to challenging the election results for former President Donald Trump.
According to CNN, Jim Penrose, a former NSA official working with Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, wrote in a January 19 text to Doug Logan, CEO of Cyber Ninjas, a firm that purports to run security checks of voting systems, “Here’s the plan. Let’s keep this close hold.”
“We only have until Saturday to decide if we are going to use this report to try to decertify the Senate run-off election or if we hold it for a bigger moment,” Penrose wrote.
File photos
File photos
The AJC has not independently verified the text messages.
The “report” Penrose referred to is from the data obtained by Trump campaign operatives by copying Georgia’s statewide voting software from Coffee County.
The data collection, coordinated by Trump campaign attorney Sidney Powell, was highly unusual and potentially illegal. Logan, the Cyber Ninja CEO, was one of several Trump allies caught on surveillance video personally visiting the rural Georgia election office in January of 2021.
But as the AJC’s Mark Niesse reported last week, nobody involved in the incident has been charged, the FBI is not investigating, and the GBI investigation has been open for eight months.
Another key ongoing investigation is that of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. According to CNN, Willis and her team have evidence that Trump allies planned to use the Coffee County data to try to decertify the Ossoff election and keep the U.S. Senate in Republican control.
Georgia’s election results were affirmed by multiple recounts and audits. Ossoff and U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock were sworn into the U.S. Senate on Jan. 20, 2021, the day after the text exchange occurred, without incident.
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Natrice Miller/AJC
Natrice Miller/AJC
NO SHOW. We have word that Gov. Brian Kemp will skip the Georgia GOP convention in Columbus in June. While it’s no surprise — Kemp has had strained ties with the organization since former President Donald Trump began blaming him for his defeat — it’s still a significant break.
The Kemp news follows a weekend of district-level elections for the party. As we reported, several far-right activists were elected to key posts within the Georgia GOP, including Kandiss Taylor.
Ben Gray for the AJC
Ben Gray for the AJC
Taylor, a far-right Republican who waged a failed campaign for governor with the slogan “Jesus, Guns and Babies” and a promise to “stand up to the Luciferian Cabal” was elected this weekend to chair the 1st District for the GOP.
It’s all evidence of the ongoing friction between mainstream conservatives and the far-right ahead of the 2024 election.
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PENCE VISIT. Former Vice President Mike Pence visited the Church of the Apostles in Atlanta on Sunday, where he spoke of his journey to Christianity.
“Let’s have faith that the best days for this nation are yet to come, but let’s pray,” Pence told the congregation. “Let’s pray for the American people every day.”
Pence is a longtime friend of the church’s pastor, Dr. Michael Youssef, so the Atlanta venue was a natural for a stop on Pence’s current “church tour.” The former vice president is also one of several senior Republicans weighing a run for president next year, but he’d have his work cut out for him in Georgia.
A University of Georgia poll of likely GOP voters showed Pence mired in the single-digits, trailing his former political boss Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
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Steve Schaefer for the AJC
Steve Schaefer for the AJC
SENATE VISIT. Both of Georgia’s U.S. senators, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, will be in tiny McIntyre today (pop. 568) to break ground on Wilkinson County’s first public sewer system.
Ossoff and Warnock, both Democrats, worked last year to include $6.3 million for the project in last year’s appropriations to start construction on the system.
Wilkinson County officials have been working to finance a sewer system for more than three decades. County residents currently rely on individual septic tanks.
The funding is an example of the infrastructure upgrades in rural Georgia both senators have said they’re committed to delivering.
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TODAY IN WASHINGTON:
- The House and Senate are in pro forma session, with no votes scheduled. The Senate will gavel in for business at 3 p.m. tomorrow afternoon.
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Courtesy photo
Courtesy photo
NEW FRONT. Frontline Policy Action, the conservative lobby, endorsed legislation filed by state Rep. Tim Fleming, R-Covington, that aims to “protect children from obscene performances.” House Bill 840 would penalize anyone who allows children to watch “sexually explicit conduct.”
The definitions in Georgia’s HB 840 are far more general than those of Tennessee’s Senate Bill 3, which specifically bans minors from attending shows presented by exotic dancers and “male or female impersonators.” That bill garnered widespread attention and controversy.
Like all legislation not passed in this year’s session of the Georgia General Assembly, HB 840 can still be considered for passage next year.
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Natrice Miller/AJC
Natrice Miller/AJC
MORE HATE. Another round of antisemitic flyers were distributed to homes in Atlanta this weekend, this time in Democratic state Rep. Saira Draper’s intown Atlanta district. Unlike past antisemitic flyers we’ve reported on, the flyers distributed over the weekend also included anti-transgender messaging.
Draper posted an example of the flyers to Twitter and said that she is “appalled and disgusted” by the ongoing hate campaign that has now reached her HD 90 district.
She also connected the agenda in the state Legislature, which this year banned medical interventions for transgender minors, and the flyers.
“There is a direct line between these policy decisions and creating an environment that emboldens hate groups and normalizes discriminatory rhetoric,” she wrote. “It’s not enough for leaders to say they don’t tolerate hate; our policy agenda must do the same.”
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David Barnes/AJC
David Barnes/AJC
NO THANKS, ELON. Andrew Aydin was the man behind the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis’ Twitter feed for 13 years.
So Aydin was among the first to notice that in Twitter’s purge of “Blue checkmark” verified accounts, Lewis’ legacy account was among those to have its checkmark removed. That meant that anyone could put up a fake account pretending to represent the late congressman’s estate or interests.
“A little sad they even took @repjohnlewis blue check but there is no way he would have paid the $8. That man was frugal,” Aydin wrote last week. “I can hear him now: “Elon Musk can kiss my foot.”
When Twitter returned the checkmark to Lewis’ account over the weekend, Aydin quipped, “I know what his response would be: Elon Musk can still kiss my foot.”
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Arvin Temkar/AJC
Arvin Temkar/AJC
NEW ROLE. President Joe Biden tapped state Rep. Billy Mitchell to the Presidential Advisory Commission on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Black Americans. Mitchell, a Stone Mountain Democrat, will remain in office.
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(Courtesy photo)
(Courtesy photo)
DOG OF THE DAY. Today’s dog is V.I.P. (very important pup) Eddie Griffith-Girtz, the 17-year-old terrier mix who calls Athens-Clarke County mayor and loyal Jolt subscriber Kelly Girtz his person.
We’re told by a high ranking city official that Eddie is a member of Athens’ legendary music scene, adding his own rhythms and sounds from the edge of downtown for all of the Girtz neighbors to enjoy. You’re welcome, Athens!
Send us your pups of any political persuasion — and cats on a cat-by-cat basis, to patricia.murphy@ajc.com, or DM us on Twitter @MurphyAJC.
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AS ALWAYS, Jolt readers are some of our favorite tipsters. Send your best scoop, gossip and insider info to patricia.murphy@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com and greg.bluestein@ajc.com.
