Gov. Brian Kemp signed a bill Wednesday that could allow President Donald Trump to recoup millions of dollars of legal costs from taxpayers in the Georgia election interference case.
Kemp’s signature on Senate Bill 244 is a potential boost to Trump, who records show has spent at least $2.7 million to defend himself against racketeering and other charges related to his efforts to overturn his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden in Georgia.
The Fulton County case is on hold while Georgia’s top court weighs whether to take up a pivotal appeal that could decide how the prosecution proceeds. If the court upholds the disqualification of District Attorney Fani Willis, as ordered by a lower court, Fulton County taxpayers could be on the hook for millions of dollars in defense fees under the new law.
Trump’s lead Atlanta attorney, Steve Sadow, praised the move.
“Governor Kemp signing SB 244 represents a turning point in holding unethical, opportunistic and deceitful prosecutors accountable for their misconduct,” he said in a statement.
In addition to compensating Trump and his co-defendants, SB 244 also will establish a new process for compensating people who have been wrongfully convicted in Georgia.
The bill originally focused solely on allowing criminal defendants to recover attorney fees and legal costs if the prosecutor of their case is disqualified for misconduct and the case is dismissed. any defendant in such circumstances and initially won unanimous support in the Senate.
After the bill passed the Senate, then-Sen. Brandon Beach, R-Alpharetta, made it clear he had Trump in mind when he sponsored the bill. Beach has since resigned to become Trump’s U.S. treasurer.
Trump was one of 19 defendants charged for their roles in the 2020 presidential election. Four defendants later pleaded guilty to various offenses, and the case appeared to be moving swiftly.
But in January 2024 defense attorneys upended the case with allegations that Willis had an improper romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor in the case. They said the relationship gave Willis a financial stake in the case because she hired Wade, who, in turn, paid for some trips they took together.
Last December the Georgia Court of Appeals disqualified Willis from the case. She has appealed that decision to the Georgia Supreme Court. Wade resigned from the case.
If the high court upholds Willis’ disqualification, Beach’s bill would allow Trump and other defendants to recover their legal costs from Fulton County coffers. Campaign records show Trump has paid his top attorneys in the case about $2.7 million. The Georgia Republican Party has paid at least $2 million in legal costs for some of the other defendants.
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
“If (the case) is dismissed completely because of her misconduct, then those who are indicted should have their reputations back and have an avenue to seek compensation for the money they spent in a case that was fraught with missteps,” Beach said Wednesday.
A spokesperson for Willis declined to comment because the case is still being litigated.
Once the intent of Beach’s bill became clear, most Democrats objected. They said it would be improper to reward people who attempted to overturn a valid election and to make county taxpayers pay for it.
Republicans in the House of Representatives made the bill more enticing to some by adding the compensation system for the wrongfully convicted.
Currently, once a judge or prosecutor has thrown out the charges — often because of DNA evidence — against someone who has been convicted, the General Assembly must approve each individual request for compensation. That’s often a hard sell for lawmakers who pride themselves on being tough on crime.
The General Assembly, specifically Republican members in the Senate, has declined to award money to anyone who has been wrongfully convicted in at least three years.
A bipartisan group of legislators has worked for years to craft a new system that seeks to remove politics from such decisions. Under SB 244, an exonerated person’s claim for compensation would have been evaluated by an administrative law judge.
State Rep. Scott Holcomb, an Atlanta Democrat, has spent several years working on changing the compensation mechanism only to have it stall in the Senate. This year, he said, he was thankful it made it across the finish line.
“This measure means the world to those who were wrongfully convicted and lost so much,” Holcomb said. “It gives them a way to be heard and to potentially receive compensation. I’m grateful to Gov. Kemp for enacting the new process into law.”
If the person released from prison can prove their innocence, they will be eligible to receive $75,000 in state funds per year of incarceration. Those who served time on death row will be eligible for more.
The Legislature will not be completely removed from the process. Lawmakers still must allocate and approve the payments through the budget process.
The combined bill later passed both houses with a handful of Democratic votes.
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