Local

How a small Georgia county found itself tied to sweeping indictment against Trump and his allies

By Bryan Mims, WSB-TV
By Bryan Mims, WSB-TV

COFFEE COUNTY, Ga. — The former head of the Coffee County, Georgia Republican Party was just one of the more than a dozen co-conspirators indicted in Monday’s Fulton County indictment of former President Donald Trump.

Another woman, Misty Hampton, was a former elections supervisor.

The case stems from alleged efforts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results for the presidency by Trump and 18 others facing a variety of charges put forth by a Fulton County grand jury.

From Coffee County, Cathy Latham was accused of allowing individuals access to voting machine data as part of the efforts to overturn the election results and give Trump the electoral win in Georgia.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

In addition to accusations of allowing people access to voter data at a county election office, Latham is also one of the so-called fake electors, who tried to falsely cast an electoral vote in support of the former president at the Georgia State Capitol.

Channel 2′s Bryan Mims heard from Coffee County residents, learning that they’re surprised to be represented in the indictments.

Douglas is a town deep in South Georgia’s farm country. When Channel 2 Action News went to the town’s Sears and more Upholstery stores, we spoke to locals who know some of the indictees from the Fulton County election case.

At a barber shopped, named Woody’s and owned by resident Woody Allen, Mims learned that some folks living there didn’t know much about the data breach with the voting machines, which were captured on video.

Allen was one of those who wasn’t aware of it.

“I don’t really know the people you’re talking about, but there’s a lot of stuff going on around here, I wouldn’t be surprised,” Allen said.

Kerry Moore at Sears and Moore Upholstery knows Hampton, the former elections supervisor, one of the local women named in the indictment on Monday.

Moore told Mims that it was “crazy.”

“If they dig in a whole lot more around here, besides that, they’d find a whole lot more,” Moore said.

Still, Moore and his father told Channel 2 Action News that they think the indictments against Trump are political persecution, a witch hunt to block Trump from reclaiming the White House.

“I don’t know a whole lot about it,” Moore said. “I just know if Trump weren’t running he wouldn’t be indicted for anything. They’re gonna do anything they can do to keep him down.”

RELATED STORIES

Like Moore and his father, Allen thinks the indictments in Fulton County are part of an effort to keep Trump out of the White House.

In Coffee County, surveillance video from the county election’s office on Jan. 7, 2021 is at issue.

The footage shows Cathy Latham, the former county GOP chair, letting data analysts hired by Trump supporters to enter the office and copy sensitive election data.

She’s now named as one of the defendants in the indictment.

To some county residents, it’s a surprise that anyone from their community is even named in the indictment.

Alex Sada, the owner of Style City in Douglas, thinks the indictments will give the county a black eye, but told Channel 2 Action News he supports prosecuting the former president.

“If he is caught cheating, he should not be the president of the U.S.,” Sada said.

Another resident, Donna Raynor, said the indictments don’t reflect Coffee County.

“Coffee County is a small little county and things happen,” Raynor said. “I just end it with God’s in control, so I don’t know.”

People whom Mims spoke with said they didn’t know much about the data copying at the county election office, they just don’t want Trump’s legal problems to put their community in the spotlight.

The former president won Coffee C bounty by almost 70% in the 2020 election.

[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]

MORE RELATED NEWS:

What are the other 18 people indicted in Fulton Co. election case saying?


©2023 Cox Media Group

Most Read