Atlanta – The State Ethics Commission of Georgia on Monday refused to investigate whether the Republican Lieutenant Gove Burt Jones broke the state law when he gave a $ 10 million loan to a campaign committee after showing very little cash on earlier financial disclosure.
However, there is a request for a legal opinion on whether such loans are legal still pending before the morality body.
Attorney General Chris Carr’s lawyer Brian Tyson complained on Thursday. The 2026 Republican enrollment for the governor is running against Carr Jones. GOP primary is in next May, followed by general election in November 2026. Government Brian Kemps cannot legally run again after two conditions.
David MD, director of the Ethics Commission, wrote on Monday that the Commission was rejecting the complaint and would not investigate as it did not allege a legal violation.
Jones’ financial disclosure of Jones showed that Jones had a total assets of $ 12.4 million, but only $ 700,000 in cash and securities. Carr’s campaign questioned how Jones could come with $ 10 million in cash, suggesting that Jones had either reported his finance or is now a source of cash, but Imadi wrote a 2022 report, “There is no factual and legal basis for investigating an alleged false or wrong filing about the loan made in a campaign disclosure report.”
Car spokesperson Julia Magon said that Carr disagrees with “respectfully” decisions, calling the source of Jones “mysterious”. Jones spokesman Kendil Parker stated that the complaint was “pathetic cry for meditation” and the decision “said the first of many disadvantages for the Carr’s campaign”.
The car campaign is still requested for the pending advisory opinion that Jones was banned from lending to its leadership committee, a special funding vehicle that allows governor, lieutenant governor and legislative leaders to raise unlimited funds. Tyson argued that under the Georgia Act, the loan can only be done to a candidate committee, not for an independent political action committee or a leadership committee.
Carr’s campaign has been expressing concern for months that Jones will use its leadership committee and their family funds from a string of gas stations to exclude them in primary. The campaign officials cited the decision of the federal judge of 2022 that a leadership committee for Kemps could not spend money against Challenger David Paradu during the Republican Primary that year as it would violate the free speech rights of the perdue.
