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Written by a Chatham County activist who wishes to remain anonymous
Many elected office-holders in the state of Georgia hold non-voting positions on the governing body of the Georgia Republican Party, which is called the State Committee. David Shafer, the head of the GA Republican Party, continues to effectively cancel patriot grassroots candidates and their resources, and prevent party process at the state committee level.
The Chatham First Patriots from Savannah and their three successive appeals regarding alleged party cheating have been ongoing for nearly one year straight. We have covered it in multiple pieces and they have catalogued much more, to include a primary source footage video, on their Chatham Appeals Transparency Website. You can also see some of their other activities on this Rumble Channel.
Chatham citizens are mechanizing every last provision of the State Rules and laws of Georgia to compel party due process to stop perceived cheating within and on behalf of their home county. Cheating behaviors in the party have occurred recently in multiple counties, and several legitimate cases were crushed on their face for fabricated administrative reasons. Republicans have publicized that David Shafer himself knew his own election to be fraudulent when he entered the Convention Center at Jekyll Island. At least two counties, Newton and Fulton, sent state delegates that were not elected by their county assembly bodies, but behind closed doors instead.
Chatham County ‘Chairman’ Leonard Massey is one of the seven county officers fiat certified by Shafer on May 5, yet Shafer has possession of affidavits of nearly 50% of county delegates attesting to NO ELECTION. Massey is responsible for the events leading up to the current, third appeal, and has denied critical party organizational resources from the vast majority of the precincts in his jurisdiction. He is the primary person with access to the GOP Data Center per RNC guidelines, and has delayed the release of precinct data lists until just earlier this month. They were due ten months ago. This leaves only one month remaining to network and locate candidates for qualification deadlines in March. Failures of duty, such as this, have obliterated the lawful party representative process that is essential for county elections. The situation in Chatham is being repeated throughout the state, with data control being the primary tool of violative manipulation and even abridging of Constitutional rights under the 14th Amendment, according to some.
Local grassroots activists have said that unofficially elected officers have bloviated for months about the reticence of some of their 'subjects' to unite and move on WHILE ALLEGEDLY CONDUCTING MORE REPEAT SUBSEQUENT CHEATS.
To explain the current THIRD APPEAL situation:
It has been 206 Days of Empty Due Process Since Chatham County GOP Officers Orchestrated Another Observable Party Election Fraud. This was conducted on July 22 within the Chatham County GOP Committee, which, by State GOP Rules, is to “exercise county-wide jurisdiction and control over party affairs," as defined and required under Georgia Election Code 21.2.111.
Chairman Massey stated at the meeting that he had made a list of new at-large voting members with consultation from people at the state and district [GOP officers] and from local people. The list would be more than one-third of the voting body. He affirmed his written aims of filling the county committee with their FIFTY-FOUR MEMBER AT-LARGE LIST as “remaining voting members." On its face, many saw it as a subversive way of exerting politically expeditious control away from the Patriots, yet officers claimed it was giving others a way to “participate.” 'Chairman' Leonard Massey and '1st Vice Chairman' Carl Smith deliberately did not conduct a nominating procedure within the county executive committee, which is required by Chatham Bylaws. They also subverted the individuals on the list by NOT OBTAINING their permission to be publicly presented, nor did they provide them information regarding the two-year voting position. In fact, and by affidavit, they didn't present the list to most of their own Chatham County Committee before beginning to vote on it. Then, they used their backdoor proxy collecting, which is outside of State Rules and County Bylaws to cast several votes to push the list through.
When 32 petitioners filed the appeal with three GRP levels on Aug 20, 2021, and because of the repeated county violations, they asked that the issue immediately advance to the State Committee of the Georgia Republican Party, Inc for hearing and decision. Additionally, there is precedence from the convention season and even in the Georgia Election Code 21-2-112 for doing so in a law entitled “Hearings Before State Committee” in situations when “the state executive committee of a political party has reason to believe that the orders, rules, or regulations of the state executive committee, relating to all party matters except the conduct of primaries, are not being, or will not be, fairly, impartially, or properly enforced or applied in any county.” The State Committee consists of approximately 175 voting members, who were elected in June 2021 at one of the fourteen respective GOP Congressional District Conventions or at the State Convention.
Instead of considering the THIRD appeal to be worthy of immediate relief, Chairman David Shafer decided to let the petitioners continue to endure the appeal process under State Rules. His organization proceeded to fail at both the Chatham County and First District GOP levels. Backdoor deals and invented process did not work with the Patriots.
On November 19, by Rules timeline, the appeal moved to state jurisdiction with a full State Committee hearing endorsement by Atlanta Tea Party Leader Debbie Dooley, who also holds an elected position on the honorable committee. The appeal sat without any acknowledgment for nearly one month until December 16, when Executive Director Brandon issued an undated letter to the state committee announcing that the "GRP Committee on Appeals, under provision Rule 6.3 will take up the petition." The letter also read that investigation may include testimony in the event the Committee "deems a hearing is necessary." The letter directed parties to remit evidentiary documents to State Secretary Welsh, and also ordered a cease to 'ex-parte' communication, which lasted only a few days until Chairman Shafer released another letter replete with contradictions.
In this December 21 letter, Shafer even mischaracterized the purpose of the appeal to the state committee and wrote that appeal actions had been taken in regard to the matter that had not. He stated that the Chairman of the Committee on Appeals, which is a subcommittee per State Rule 6.3, had contacted the petitioners. Yet, Chairman John White did not make initial contact with the petitioners until February 7, 2022, leaving them completely without a timeline and expectation of due process under the laws of Georgia.
THREE MAJOR PROBLEMS:
1 - SUBCOMMITTEE JURISDICTION SHOULD END 75 DAYS FROM THE DATE CHAIRMAN SHAFER REFERRED IT. NOV 19 TO FEB 1 IS 75 DAYS. AFTER MULTIPLE REQUESTS, CHAIRMAN SHAFER HAS REFUSED TO PROVIDE THE DATE AND EVIDENCE OF EXACTLY WHEN HE REFERRED THE PETITION.
2 - THE STATE EXECUTIVE BOARD ALSO REFUSED TO SHARE THE NAMES OF THOSE ON THE SUBCOMMITTEE, WHICH WOULD HAVE CAUSED THE MATTER TO BE MORE CAREFULLY SCRUTINIZED. MEMBERS WERE SECRET, AND NOT EVEN MEMBERS OF THE LARGER STATE COMMITTEE WERE ABLE TO FIND OUT WHO THEY WERE.
3 - STATE SECRETARY MICHAEL WELSH CONSISTENTLY REFUSED TO REMIT COPIES OF THE STATE COMMITTEE LIST TO ELECTED MEMBERS OF THE STATE COMMITTEE. HE EVEN DEFLECTED SOME REQUESTS IN JAN - FEB 2022. THE STATE COMMITTEE IS ALSO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE GRP CORPORATION.
It was shortly thereafter that The Georgie Record published another article regarding the results of a request for a CRITICAL DOCUMENT for appeal transparency, mainly the list of those individuals serving in elected capacity on the State Committee. The list is not accessible anywhere to those within the party or to the public, making the body appear to be secret and controlled. The petitioners hired an attorney in November to secure an authenticated state committee member list, but Shafer failed to produce one to their attorney with basic contact information included. Even after a 2.5 hour call with Shafer on Dec 21, which was the first communication he had offered directly to the Patriots after more than 30 unanswered electronic letters since March 28, 2021, he still refused to remit the list in a usable form. THE PARTY HAS BEEN FOUND TO SELECTIVELY REFUSE AND DEFLECT MEMBER LIST REQUESTS FROM MEMBERS AT ALL GRP LEVELS.
Fast forward to February 2, 2022. Executive Director Brandon Moye distributed to Chatham GOP Chairman Massey and the petitioners an opportunity for hearing of the Committee on Appeals, which would be via Zoom on Feb 9, 7pm and cited in footnotes Georgia Election Code 21-2-112 (f) "The state executive committee may delegate its powers under this Code section to a subcommittee." At that moment, the petitioners raised a red flag. The law outlined a process for a matter like this going before the full state committee, yet Shafer's team seemed to think they could either 1) take the entire power of the state committee and hear the appeal or 2) believed themselves to be the only body that could hear the petition per State Rules. Neither would work. Additionally, per State Rules, they knew that the Committee on Appeals only had only 75 days of jurisdiction, and the Moye sent the message on Day 81 in jurisdiction. After multiple requests, Chairman Shafer has refused to provide the DATE that he referred the appeal to the subcommittee, which he claimed on Feb 8 to have done verbally.
The petitioners asked several legal questions to Chairman Shafer and GA GOP staff on Feb 4, 5, and 7 prior to the hearing to ensure that everything was done legally before they engaged it. Shafer did not respond until a State Committee members was looped into the communication. His first response was an insult saying "he couldn't make sense of anything they were saying." He finally remitted some of the legal answers on February 8, but intentionally did not answer questions acknowledging the written law Georgia Code 21-2-112 nor would he provide the date of his initial referral of the matter. HE ALSO STILL REFUSED TO REMIT THE LIST OF NAMES OF THOSE ON THE SECRET SUBCOMMITTEE.
Ultimately, to gain more information and produce a new transparency record, the petitioners decided to submit some legal disclaimers regarding their participation in the hearing and cautiously move forward.
On February 9 at 7pm, twelve petitioners entered the Zoom meeting of the GA GOP and a fully unedited recording was taken. At that moment, they learned officially that the subcommittee consisted of Travis Bowden (Fulton), Josh McKoon (Muscogee), Binford Minter (Coweta), Ashley Gilles (Lamar), and State Parliamentarian John White (Fulton). Petitioners were extremely well-prepared with a full review of the 60-page appeal packet and a violations audit sheet consisting of nearly 30 breaches of State Rules, District Rules, County Bylaws, Robert's Rules of Order, and possibly Georgia laws regarding elections and corporations. The Chatham First Patriots clearly requested a proposed order relief and that the county committee have its powers suspended. If they ‘believed’ what petitioners meticulously provided, the next duty of the subcommittee would be to compose a proposed judgement order based on reasons to believe violations had or would likely continue to occur. Then, they must notify the county committee with an opportunity for a hearing of the entire state committee before they decide on the matter.
Petitioners presented their information extremely well, in contrast to 1st Vice Chairman Carl Smith. He began with a litany of defamation, unsubstantiated claims, and character attacks. At one point, he wrote in the chat that one of the petitioners was "Skinny Stacey Sarah Stacy abrams thommson." Many inwardly questioned his faculties when he spouted that Congressman Buddy Carter had tried to meet with the petitioners to conduct some sort of political negotiation or mediation activity. Had Smith himself attempted to coordinate such questionable activity? He suggested that Chairman Shafer should have 'stopped' the petitioners back in March. How would he have done that? Block them from the convention, send Sheriffs to their doors with paperwork, alter their statuses on reports? Would he publicly label them radical, fringe, extremist, QAnon believing, anorexic, un-Christian, un-American, protesters, destroyers, and dividers? Coinciding with leftist tactics, all of the above has already been documented on their Chatham Appeal Transparency Website and within the appeal packet. As anyone can see, those 'stopping attempts' were ineffective with the Patriots.
During the hearing, timing procedures were followed, though members of the Committee on Appeals interrupted repeatedly. Travis Bowden, not an attorney, took it upon himself to generate a warning list of essentially 'banned words' on the call, nearly exclusively directing his statements toward the petitioners. And, Chairman White deferred to Bowden, who studied pre-law, as an authority in great stead of the three actual attorneys in the hearing (Minter, McKoon, and Carri Johnson of Chatham County). The following words he attempted to taboo: evidence, cheat, corrupt, violation, and to essentially any observations of primary source and eyewitness violations as fact. He also said that such language could be 'actionable' as if to perhaps threaten petitioners with legal action for exercising their civil liberties in the hearing by articulating their primary accounts.
Two subcommittee members directly badgered one petitioner just after she highlighted public records that indicate that one of the Chatham Vice Chairmen, Ayeda Eid Yusef-Shihadeh, who collected proxies for the invalid election, is not a credentialed GRP member nor has she been voting in the precinct of her legal residence. Public records show her to be voting at an address in Precinct 4-04C, which she sold in 2019. During the past 7 years, she voted there a total of 5-6 times, at least three of which were after she sold the home on 6/9/20, 11/3/20, and 1/5/21. These activities qualify as illegal voting, and are willful activities that should immediately disqualify her from all party activities per State GRP, Inc. Rule 1.1. Shihadeh served on the Credentialing / Registration Committee in Chatham County during the 2021 Convention Season. Her officer name filed with the Chatham Board of Elections is Ayeda 'Ali,' which is a non-legal name she uses in political and social media spaces. The petitioner decided to end her testimony regarding state duty officer violations because of the badgering.
A RECENT AND MOMENTOUS DEVELOPMENT AS OF FEBRUARY 12, 2022:
THREE OF THE FIVE MEMBERS OF THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON APPEALS HAVE BEEN FOUND TO POSSIBLY NOT HOLD POSITIONS ON THE STATE COMMITTEE. BY LEGAL DEFINITION, SUBCOMMITTEE MEMBERS ARE DERIVED FROM THE MAIN COMMITTEE AS A DIVISION. THIS FINDING WAS MADE BY CROSS-REFERENCING THEIR NAMES AGAINST AN AUTHENTIC LIST REMITTED BY SECRETARY WELSH THROUGH VINCENT RUSSO, GRP ATTORNEY, ON DECEMBER 14, 2021.
THE FOLLOWING INDIVIDUALS ARE NOT ELECTED MEMBERS OF THE STATE COMMITTEE PER THAT LIST, WHICH WAS PRODUCED AFTER DAVID SHAFER REFERRED THIS MATTER TO THEM: TRAVIS BOWDEN, BINFORD MINTER, AND JOSH MCKOON.
UNDER THESE LEGAL CONDITIONS, IT APPEALS JUST THAT THIS BODY BE DISSOLVED IMMEDIATELY AND ALL ACTION BE ABORTED IN THE CASE OF THE CHATHAM APPEAL. IF THIS COMMITTEE HAS HEARD OTHER APPEALS, THEIR ACTION SHOULD BE ABROGATED AND THE MATTERS REOPENED FOR INVESTIGATION.
ON ITS FACE, THIS DEVELOPMENT REVEALS OBSERVABLE ABUSE OF AUTHORITY UNDER THE LAWS OF GEORGIA AND ALL OFFICERS AND THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE GEORGIA REPUBLICAN PARTY, INC. WOULD BE HELD IMMEDIATELY RESPONSIBLE.
