FIRST ON FOX: Georgia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams has spent over $1.2 million on private security since announcing her candidacy in December 2021 despite her ties to multiple abolitionist groups and opposition to the “privatization of justice.”
A Fox News Digital review found that the Abrams campaign doled out over $400,000 between July and August of this year alone for private security.
These payments follow an exclusive report from July that found the Abrams campaign paid out over $800,000 to Executive Protection Agencies, LLC, an Atlanta-based private security firm, between December 2021 and June of this year.
The company’s website says the group provides executive protection that comes with a “keen eye with a thorough knowledge of the venue through threat assessment” for its clients. The website also says the company provides armed and unarmed security guards.
Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams speaks to supporters and members of the Rabun County Democrats July 28, 2022, in Clayton, Ga. (Megan Varner/Getty Images)
The campaign and the private security firm didn’t immediately return requests for comment Sunday about which guards the Abrams campaign uses.
The price tag of over $1.2 million is noteworthy given Abrams’ previous support for the defund the police movement, gun control and the closure of privatized prisons in the state of Georgia.
During the George Floyd unrest of 2020, Abrams repeatedly tried to rebrand the “defund” aspect of the defund the police movement as being one in favor of the “reformation and transformation” of law enforcement, instead of the outright abolishment of policing.
“We have to reallocate resources, so, yes,” she said in June 2020 when asked if police budgets should be reduced. “If there is a moment where resources are so tight that we have to choose between whether we murder Black people or serve Black people, then absolutely: Our choice must be service.”
Abrams has since repeatedly stated that she does not support defunding the police, but her involvement with multiple left-wing groups and individuals that support anti-police causes tells a different story.
Democratic Georgia gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams addresses the media after a rally with Asian-American voters in Atlanta, Ga. Oct. 7, 2022. (Brandon Gillespie)
Abrams serves as a board member and governor of the Seattle-based Marguerite Casey Foundation, which tweeted #DefundThePolice as recently as March of this year and #AbolishThePolice as recently as February. The foundation hosted an event in early February, “Becoming Abolitionists — A History of Failed Police Reforms & Vision for True Public Safety,” which was moderated by foundation President and CEO Carmen Rojas.
STACEY ABRAMS SERVES AS BOARD MEMBER, GOVERNOR OF FOUNDATION THAT SUPPORTS #ABOLISHTHEPOLICE
Abrams, who joined the Marguerite Casey Foundation in May 2021, has received at least $52,500 in income from the foundation, according to her financial disclosures. Her campaign previously told Fox News Digital Abrams does not hold the same views as the foundation, but a press release from the foundation issued weeks after she became one of its governors shows she supported its expanded anti-police efforts.
Stacey Abrams, Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Georgia, speaks during a campaign event in Reynolds, Ga., June 4, 2022. (Dustin Chambers/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
GEORGE SOROS THROWS $1M BEHIND STACEY ABRAMS’ SECOND GUBERNATORIAL RUN
Abrams also previously co-chaired the Black Voices for Black Justice Fund (BVBJ), a racial justice organization that awarded tens of thousands of dollars to activists who want to defund and abolish the police.
Abrams also formerly served as the executive director of the Roosevelt Institute’s Southern Economic Advancement Project (SEAP), a liberal think tank that wants to defund the police and put racial justice at the center of all government policymaking. Abrams was paid at least $708,324 by the organization from 2019 to 2021, according to a financial disclosure statement filed in March.
Abrams has also supported ending the privatization of prisons and probation reporting in Georgia’s criminal justice system.
“I do not believe in the privatization of justice,” Abrams said in April 2018. “There is a profit motive behind private prisons that is anathema to the core of who we are as Americans.”
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Abrams has also pushed for “common sense” gun control measures, including “universal” background checks and a ban on semiautomatic rifles, like the AR-15.
Prior to Abrams announcing her second run for governor in December, a political action committee that is part of a network launched by Abrams to address voter suppression paid more than $1.2 million to Executive Protection Agencies for private security over the course of 2021.