Tag: georgia

Georgia’s Democrat Governor-Elect Keisha Lance Bottoms Names Tyler Perry for Transition Team as He Faces Sexual Assault Lawsuit

The transition team for Georgia’s Democrat governor-elect, Keisha Lance Bottoms, includes media mogul Tyler Perry who in recent years was accused of sexual assault and harassment.

Georgia elected Bottoms on Tuesday as its first Democrat governor in over 20 years, Breitbart News reported.

During a press conference on Friday, the former Atlanta mayor said she had tapped Perry to join her transition team, according to the Hill.

Per the Hill:

The “Madea” creator began his entertainment career in Atlanta, and his production company, Tyler Perry Studios, is based in the city. Bottoms previously worked as an executive producer on one of Perry’s shows, Netflix’s “Miss Governor” — a political comedy that ran for one season and ended in 2025, according to film database IMDB.

Bottoms’s transition team included a lineup of prominent Georgia figures — including Home Depot co-founder Arthur Blank, former Walgreens CEO Rosalind Brewer, nonprofit leader Michelle Nunn and Delta Air Lines executive Richard Cox, among others.

Perry, who campaigned for former Vice President Kamala Harris (D) in 2024 before she lost the White House to President Donald Trump, was seen stuffing fake bills into the panties of a stripper during an Usher concert, Breitbart News reported in October 2024.

The following year, the outlet said, “Tyler Perry is reportedly being sued by The Oval actor Derek Dixon, who is accusing the Hollywood mogul of alleged sexual assault and years of harassment.”

In a statement regarding the allegations, Perry’s attorney, Matthew Boyd, said, “This is an individual who got close to Tyler Perry for what now appears to be nothing more than setting up a scam… But Tyler will not be shaken down and we are confident these fabricated claims of harassment will fail.”

Keep reading

“Missing” Memory Card Flips Georgia House Race — Republican Candidate Surges from 58-Vote Deficit to 262-Vote Lead After Seminole County Discovers Uncounted Ballots

Another stunning election controversy has erupted in Georgia after officials discovered that a missing memory card containing hundreds of unreported Election Day votes had completely reversed the apparent outcome of a critical State House race.

Republican State Rep. Gerald Greene, who appeared headed for defeat against Democrat Harry James in Georgia’s House District 154, is now leading after election officials discovered that results from a memory card in Seminole County had never been uploaded, WCTV reported.

The reversal was extraordinary.

Greene had been trailing James by just 58 votes following Tuesday’s midterm elections.

But after the missing results were added, the Republican incumbent surged into the lead by 262 votes, a stunning 320-vote swing that could determine control of a crucial seat in the Georgia Legislature.

And the discovery was no minor bookkeeping error.

According to an official statement released Friday by RINO Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, election officials identified a discrepancy of approximately 388 voters who had checked in at polling locations but whose ballots were not reflected in the county’s reported vote totals.

Keep reading

Georgia Mayor Secretly Puts GPS Tracker on Police Chief’s Truck, ENTIRE Police Force Quits in Response

The mayor of the small town of Milner, Georgia, Craig Timmons, has admitted he secretly placed a GPS tracker on Police Chief Lamar Bunn’s city vehicle and set up a camera on private property aimed at City Hall after becoming concerned about work hours and timesheets.

The disclosure outraged the department, prompting Bunn and all five full-time officers to quit, with most of the reserve officers following, and City Manager Tausha Grose also stepping down.

Their resignations took effect on Wednesday, leaving the Lamar County Sheriff’s Office to cover law enforcement for the small town.

The city council later censured the mayor for not using proper channels and methods for his concerns. Members said Timmons should have first brought the issues to them as required by the city charter.

Timmons confirmed his actions to WSB-TV reporter Mark Winne, saying he bought the tracker with his own money and installed a camera at a car wash pointed at City Hall with the property owner’s approval.

Investigative reporter Mark Winne asked the mayor outright, “Did you place a tracking device on the police vehicle driven by the Milner police chief?”

“Yes sir, I did,” Timmons said.

Winne followed up, “Did you put a video camera out back of car wash pointed at the building where his office was?”

“Yes, City Hall, yes sir, and with approval from the property owner,” Timmons said.

The mayor said that his signature appears on the chief’s timesheets and that he believed there were problems with hours, stating, “The mayor’s position is not just shaking hands and kissing babies.”

Bunn told the council the tracker was placed without his knowledge or that of the council or city administrator and called it a violation of his rights.

Officers’ resignation letters cited a lack of trust, concerns about the mayor’s judgment and decision-making, and ethical issues.

Captain Craig Walton specifically called for an independent investigation into the mayor’s conduct.

Keep reading

Suspect Arrested in ICE Office Firebombing Attempt Case: ‘Despicable, Terroristic Crime’

A 31-year-old man was arrested Friday and accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office in Atlanta, Georgia, on Tuesday.

The suspect was identified as Inique Hinton of Douglasville who was arrested in Cobb County and is now facing federal charges in the case, WSB-TV reported Friday.

Hinton was allegedly caught on camera walking near the ICE building at 180 Ted Turner Drive when he allegedly ignited an object and threw it toward the building. The object hit the fence and burst into flames. Investigators found burned cloth, lighter fluid, a glass bottle, and a lighter when they arrived at the scene.

Hinton reportedly walked away from the area before authorities arrived.

Keep reading

Savannah Mayor Says Some “Gangs” May Just Be Groups Making Music Together

This week Savannah Mayor Van Johnson tried to answer a question about gang violence in the city but in the end provided only more evidence of how one avoids referring to gangs in public.

“It would be irresponsible for me to call… sometimes we have groups of people that are engaged in music, engaged in sports, and people say they’re a gang,” said Mayor Johnson in an interview with WTOC this week. Johnson stated “I don’t have the slightest idea” how many gangs there were in the city of Savannah.

Chatham County Sheriff Richard Coleman held a news conference less than a month ago to say that 18 groups of people that the Sheriff’s Office has intelligence on must immediately cease to exist. He said some of the groups are tied to the Bloods, Crips and Vice Lords. The Sheriff’s Office did not provide documentation for how each of the 18 groups was identified as a gang by law enforcement, reported WJCL.

Johnson did acknowledge that there are street gangs operating in Savannah today, telling WJCL, “We know we do have street gangs here,” and he has listed out all of the things that are being done to deal with them, including the fact that the Savannah police department has had a gang unit for about 10 years. The city also funds a prosecutor that works out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office to deal with violent crimes and he said overall violent crime is down in the city of Savannah, according to WTOC.

But then Johnson went on to explain in some detail why he believed some groups of young people were not gangs. He acknowledged that not every incident of youth crime was gang-related, and he said police should make their case in court rather than in social media posts. Johnson told WTOC he was “glad the sheriff wants to get involved” in addressing the problem of gang violence in Savannah.

A shooting took place on September 26 near West Bay Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in the downtown area of Savannah. At least 27 rounds of ammunition were fired, according to WTOC. Although video was captured of individuals running from the scene of the shooting, no gang connection has been established by the Savannah police in the recent shooting, though the sheriff called it gang activity. As was reported by WTOC, last year’s Oglethorpe Mall shootout left a woman dead after she ran from the gunfire, and six men now face a 71-count indictment that includes charges of felony murder and gang-related charges.

It is a difficult question for a mayor to respond to on the topic of gang violence in his city, but that does not mean he has to answer it with a disclaimer about the unfairness of labeling certain groups as gangs. He can lead with strength on this one.

Savannah residents don’t need a primer on the different kinds of criminal gangs out there. All they need is for their Mayor to acknowledge that gangs are a problem in the city and to assert that he stands behind the police and the prosecutors who are working to combat them. That he spent a press conference about gang violence on the unfairness of labels instead is unfortunate.

Savannah has a gang unit, a federal prosecutor funded by the city, and the numbers of violent crime are decreasing. But what the city needs is the right tone on this matter of growing concern, as the sheriff in the area lists 18 gangs and there is gunfire downtown.

Keep reading

Eleventh Circuit Lets Georgia Social Media Age Checks Proceed

A federal appeals court has given a green light to a controversial part of a Georgia law that requires social media platforms to verify the age of every user, and in the case of those under 16, obtain parental consent.

The ruling came on Thursday, October 15, from a panel composed of Judges Newsom, Luck and Tjoflat, with Judge Kevin Newsom writing the opinion.

The case now goes back to the district court, but the decision did not address whether the law is ultimately constitutional – only that NetChoice went about its lawsuit the wrong way and did not provide enough evidence to prove the law is not constitutional.

Paul Taske, director of the NetChoice Litigation Center, said, “While we are disappointed in the Eleventh Circuit’s ruling, the court notably did not hold that SB 351 is constitutional.”

On June 26, 2025, Judge Amy Totenberg of the Northern District of Georgia ruled that the law was too vague, that it was preempted by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA), and that it likely violated the First Amendment, and blocked it.

The law’s social media part requires platforms to “make commercially reasonable efforts to verify the age of account holders” and obtain a parent’s consent for anyone under 16. For those under 16, platforms can only use age and location for ad targeting.

According to the court’s own summary, the law “requires platforms within its ambit to verify the ages of all their users.”

If a platform does not verify, it must “apply the special conditions applied to minors under this chapter to all account holders.” The ways a platform can confirm a parent include “Collecting information related to the minor’s parent’s or guardian’s government issued identification or financial or payment card information.”

The attorney general can seek up to $2,500 for each violation.

There is also another section of the law that requires sites that are more than 33.33 percent “harmful to minors” to check every visitor’s age, including by submitting government-issued ID. This part of the law has been in force since July 1, 2025, and was not challenged by NetChoice.

The Eleventh Circuit panel found that NetChoice had standing to sue but did not meet the test set by the Supreme Court in Moody v. NetChoice to prove the law was unconstitutional in a facial challenge – that is, across the full range of its application. The group had to show that the law was unconstitutional across the board, and it did not.

“NetChoice hasn’t provided even a full list of its own members to which SB 351 applies,” Judge Newsom wrote.

“We’ve learned the facial-challenge lesson the hard way,” the ruling states. “We needn’t address the merits of its First Amendment claim,” it continues.

The panel also reversed the lower court’s ruling that said the law was too vague and that it was preempted by Section 230.

Attorney General Chris Carr said, “This is a major win for Georgia families and a huge blow to those who would stand in the way of commonsense solutions to protect our kids.”

Keep reading

Georgia Democratic Governor Nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms Called Anti-Riot Laws ‘Silly’ and ‘Asinine’

Democrat Georgia gubernatorial candidate and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms called anti-riot laws “silly” and “asinine” in 2022.

Bottoms — who oversaw a massive murder and crime spike during her time as Atlanta mayor, at the height of nationwide social justice protests —  criticized anti-riot laws during an interview with The Atlantic shortly after she ended her time in office. Bottoms announced in the summer of 2021 that she had decided not to run for reelection.

When asked, “What do you make of these proposals to stiffen penalties for public protest that become unruly or violent?” Bottoms called the laws “really silly.”

“And it really takes away from the real conversation and the need to have some real dialogue, some meaningful dialogue, on why people are in our streets protesting. Let’s have a conversation about the open carry law in Georgia and how protesters can walk with AK-47s down the street, and there’s no penalty for that. That scares me more than 100 college students protesting peacefully in the street,” Bottoms replied.

“I think when we peel back and we look at why were people in the streets in the summer of 2020, it was because we were witnessing something that we had never witnessed as a country as whole in my lifetime, and it was a need for a conversation and for real reform,” she continued.

“I hope that when you see policies and laws like that introduced wherever you are, it is this reminder of why elections matter. It’s not enough that we show up and we vote for the president,” she said. “We gotta show up each and every time when that state senator, when that local representative is on the ballot. Because if not, we have people speaking for us and setting laws for us that are completely asinine and not at all in touch with where we are and where we need to be as a country.”

Keep reading

Savannah Car Fires Raise Gang Questions, But Officials Have Not Linked Them

A vehicle fire on the Talmadge Memorial Bridge shut down the bridge Friday evening. It came at the end of a week in which the city of Savannah and its residents grappled with the issue of gangs and gunfire. So far, however, no one has connected the fire to either issue.

The fire was brought under control by 7:16 p.m., according to fire officials. There were no injuries reported in the fire. Details regarding the cause of the fire have not been released by officials, reports WJCL.

Officials have not said the fire was arson, and so far there has been no connection made between the fire and any gang. Vehicles catch fire for many reasons and fire officials would have to investigate to determine the cause.

The question hangs over the city because of a shooting two weeks earlier in downtown Savannah. On Saturday, Sept. 26, officers of the Savannah Police Department were dispatched to a ShotSpotter alert near the parking lot of the Holiday Inn located on Bay Street. Upon arrival, they found that at least 27 rounds of ammunition had been fired and found 64 spent casings from four different calibers of ammunition as well as a handgun that had been fired, leaving several cars in the lot to sustain damage from the bullets. Although a person of interest was detained in connection with the incident, no arrests have been announced in connection with the shooting.

Chatham County Sheriff Richard Coleman called the shooting gang activity. “These behaviors are tied to gangs. They strike fear, they don’t care. And they’re reckless in their conduct,” he said. He has not found any physical evidence to confirm a gang link, WJCL reported, however.

The Sheriff announced a new gang enforcement unit on Oct. 1 and released a list of 18 different gangs he said are operating in the area. Of those listed, four are affiliated with the Crips, five are affiliated with the Bloods, and one is affiliated with the Vicelords, while the remaining eight are local “street gangs.” The Sheriff told gang members they had until that day to stop their activity.

Savannah Mayor Van Johnson called video of the shooting “disturbing and unacceptable” in a statement. He cautioned however that the Mayor’s Office would not present speculation as fact and the Savannah Police Department is investigating the case and has a gang unit already in place to investigate gang activity.

At least two vehicles are said to have burned in Savannah this week, but only the Talmadge Memorial Bridge fire has been extensively publicly reported so far. Police and the fire department have not said whether any are under investigation, and nothing in the public record links the fires to each other or to any gang. We will update this story as we learn more.

Keep reading

Bodycam Footage of Georgia Cop Who Gunned Down Adorable Baby Donkey is Released – Blows Up His Stated ‘Reason’ for Killing the Animal

Police have finally released the body camera footage of the despicable Georgia cop who gunned down a baby donkey back in late August, and it destroys the disgusting lie he was trying to sell to the public.

As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, Elsberry farm owner Hannah Israel revealed that Cedartown, Georgia police officers entered her family’s pasture and killed her donkey HeeHaw after they perceived him as a “threat.”

In a post on Facebook, Israel wrote, “At 12:45 am cops entered my pasture searching for a missing person WITHOUT permission or warning and shot and killed my bottle-raised BABY donkey.”

She added, “HeeHaw was raised in the house and did petting zoos; he never knew a stranger. And was shot and killed in his OWN pasture for doing what donkeys do. Alerting to a stranger.”

At the time, the police had been reportedly called to assist a bloodhound team that was searching for a missing 12-year-old girl.

Trenton Garner, the officer who killed Heehaw, claimed taking the animal’s life was the only way to protect himself, the K-9 officer, and the team of bloodhounds.

Garner later stated that he informed his sergeant and the animal’s owner.

Keep reading

Girl Wins $164 Million Lawsuit from Hotel in Sex-Trafficking Case

A federal court in Georgia has ordered a hotel to pay a female victim $164 million because it allowed a sex trafficking ring to operate on its premises.

The victim, who was 15 at the time of her trafficking, was reportedly held at the Super 8 hotel in College Park, Georgia, in 2020 and 2021, where she was sexually assaulted by her captors and their clients.

“They set up an environment for children to be sold,” said Patrick McDonough, the anonymous victim’s attorney, according to WAGA-TV. “This hotel operator would actually warn the traffickers if the police were coming.”

“Hey, look, if you’re going to turn a blind eye and profit off of children being sold, you’re going to be held accountable,” the attorney added, noting that the girl was held in the hotel for about 120 days.

The federal jury in the case determined that the owner of the hotel chain, Lincoln Bancorp LLC, would have to pay $44 million in compensatory damages and $120 million in punitive damages.

This is not the first hotel that has been held liable for sex trafficking in Georgia. Last year a $40 million verdict was returned against United Inn and Suites in DeKalb County. A woman who was 16 when she was trafficked sued the hotel and won, making it the first hotel in the Peach State to be found civilly liable for sex trafficking.

There are currently three other hotels being sued in civil court for sex trafficking in Georgia.

Georgia is not the only state where hotels are being accused of participating in sex trafficking.

According to the Lawsuit Information Center, there are currently two hotels in New Jersey being sued for cases of sex trafficking. Other cases include hotels in Los Angeles, Ohio, Philadelphia, and more.

Breitbart News has reported several cases of hotel and motel operators being accused of either facilitating or turning a blind eye to sex-trafficking going on in their establishments.

One such incident occurred in Virginia, where an Indian family with the last name of Sharma was arrested for allowing drug and sex trafficking to occur in their Red Carpet Inn hotel in Dumfries.

In another case, federal authorities in Nebraska carried out a series of raids, leading to the arrest of a group of Indian nationals who were allegedly engaged in an elaborate scheme involving sex, labor, and drug trafficking. In addition to multiple businesses owned by the suspected traffickers in Nebraska, the scheme also involved companies in Georgia and Texas.

In yet another case, Kavankumar Patel, an illegal migrant from India, was sentenced to a ten-year prison term for participating in a child sex-trafficking ring in Omaha, Nebraska, the Department of Justice announced.

Keep reading