Fulton County

Fulton DA likened criminal investigation into him to past efforts to discredit Dr. King

By Richard Belcher, WSB-TV
By Richard Belcher, WSB-TV

ATLANTA — Veteran Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard likened his troubles with two state investigations and weeks of critical reporting by Channel 2 Action News and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to some of the efforts to discredit Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Howard, who is running for his seventh term in office, made the remarks during a candidates’ forum in which his leading opponent slammed Howard because of the ongoing GBI criminal investigation and a parallel investigation by the State Ethics Commission.

Both probes were prompted by reports by Channel 2 and the AJC that Howard has accepted $195,000 from a nonprofit of which he is CEO and which works closely with his office.

All of the additional pay that Howard received passed through the nonprofit People Partnering for Progress (PPP) starting in 2014.

Upset with what he considered to be an insufficient salary, Howard wrote to then-Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed in 2014 to complain that he hadn’t had a pay raise since 1999 and earned less than chief prosecutors in cities such as Chicago, New York City and Los Angeles and less than the DAs in several Georgia counties with smaller populations than Fulton County.

Howard was earning about $158,000 at the time.

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Records obtained by Channel 2 and the AJC reveal that Reed helped direct grants totaling $250,000 from the city to the DA’s office in 2014 and 2016. Howard routed that money through PPP, which paid him varying salaries over a six-year period from 2014 to 2019. The total – reported this week by Channel 2 and the AJC – is at least $195,000.

The State Ethics Commission has filed more than a dozen charges against Howard for failing to report the outside income on annual disclosure forms which are mandatory for his office.

The GBI has a criminal investigation into the same payments and has interviewed several current and past Atlanta officials about the origins of the grants.

In a forum this week, Howard suggested the allegations and subsequent investigations are driven entirely by the election calendar.

“I wonder why is it all of a sudden this election season that we now start to see allegations against Mr. Howard,” the DA said.

Fani Willis, Howard’s former chief assistant, is running television commercials that criticize Howard “for pocketing money intended to fight gang violence.”

About nearly $5,000 that PPP spent on membership and expenses at the swanky Commerce Club downtown, Willis asked sarcastically whether Howard thought the Crips, Bloods and Gangster Disciples were at the club.

Howard didn’t address any of the charges directly but invoked probably the most famous name in the city’s history.

“I’m reminded of something that has happened throughout our history with people like Dr. King. And I’m not comparing myself to Dr. King, but always allegations were placed against him. They called his wife, tried to get him to commit suicide.”

Willis warned that if Howard is re-elected, the votes of people who support him could be wasted. “I would not vote for somebody as a citizen of Fulton County that I would be very concerned is going to be charged and removed and replaced by the governor.”

Howard answered with this standard response about the investigations: “I can tell you that I will be fully exonerated.”

The GBI’s investigation is still active. Once it wraps up the fieldwork, Attorney General Chris Carr will have to decide whether there is sufficient evidence to seek a criminal indictment against Howard.

Both the GBI and the AG’s office have confirmed the investigation but have not offered any details.

Fulton DA got additional $25K in salary supplements which he failed to disclose, investigation finds That means Howard received nearly $200,000 over and above his salary.

© 2020 Cox Media Group

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