Top Fulton County Prosecutors Repeatedly Donated To Democrats, Records Show

Top Fulton County Prosecutors Repeatedly Donated To Democrats, Records Show

Arjun Singh on August 15, 2023

Top officials at the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, which is prosecuting former President Donald Trump, donated thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates, according to a review of campaign finance records by The Daily Caller News Foundation.

Trump was indicted on 13 felony counts in the Fulton County Superior Court on Monday night related to his efforts to change the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Members of District Attorney Fani Willis’ executive team, many of whom have participated in the proceedings, have made frequent donations to Democratic candidates in the past to candidates who have been highly critical of Trump.

One of the more prolific contributors in Willis’ office was Kevin Armstrong, the interim legal counsel for the District Attorney, who advises Willis on her legal powers. Between 2019 and 2022, Armstrong made over a dozen contributions to the political campaigns of top Democrats such as Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Democratic Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock of Georgia, as well as Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota — many of whom ran on anti-Trump political platforms — according to Federal Election Commission campaign finance records.

Armstrong’s total federal donations amounted to $653.50, with $350 being given directly to Warnock’s two campaigns in 2020 and 2022 and $100 to Buttigieg’s presidential campaign in 2020. He also donated $35 to Klochubar’s 2020 presidential campaign and $60 to the Senate campaign of former Democratic Mayor Teresa Thomlinson of Columbus, Georgia.

At the state level, Armstong donated almost $2,500, much of which went to several Democratic candidates, according to contribution records from the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission. $250 of Armstrong’s state donations were to Stacey Abrams, the two-time Democratic gubernatorial nominee whose campaigns were critical of Trump.

Armstrong also made donations to Democratic candidates Charles Curtis Bailey, who ran for lieutenant governor in 2022, and Adriane Love, who unsuccessfully ran for District Attorney of Dublin County in 2020. Love, herself, is currently employed in the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office as the Chief Deputy District Attorney for High Profile Cases.

The remainder of Armstrong’s donations were to his boss, Willis, and to several judges on the Fulton County Superior Court, who are elected to office in non-partisan races. He did not donate to a Republican.

Additionally, George Jenkins, the Executive District Attorney for the Trial Division, who will likely be involved in Trump’s trial, made several donations to Democrats. Between 2012 and 2022, Jenkins donated over $8,000 to state candidates, most of them Democrats, including a $1,500 donation to Bailey’s campaign and $1,000 to Willis’ predecessor, former Democratic District Attorney Paul Howard, Jr., according to state campaign finance records.

The largest donation Jenkins made was to his boss, Willis, giving $2,549 to her campaigns. He also donated to the campaigns of judges on the Fulton County Superior Court.

Only one of Jenkins’ donations was made to a Republican, State Rep. Lillian “Penny” Houston, who has represented the 170th district in southern Georgia since 2005, before which she was a Democrat, according to Ballotpedia.

Willis, herself, made a handful of state contributions to Democratic State Rep. William K. Boddie, Jr. of Georgia’s 62nd House District, as well as to state judges and her own campaign, records show.

None of the attorneys on Willis’ executive team made donations to Scott McAfee, the judge who will preside over the case against Trump and his 18 co-defendants. The charges against Trump constitute his fourth criminal indictment, with three others being on state charges in New York and federal charges in Miami and Washington, D.C., respectively.

The Trump campaign, the District Attorney’s office and all of its attorneys named in this story did not immediately respond to a request for comment.