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Kingston says he won't respond to allegations by private citizen

ATLANTA — Republican Senate candidate Jack Kingston says he returned more than $70,000 in campaign money contributions last week after Channel 2 Action News pointed out the money had ties to convicted felon Khalid Ahmed Satary.

“We voluntarily returned the money,” Satary told Channel 2’s Lori Geary at a Lawrenceville rotary meeting Monday.

A company attorney said Satary was a consultant to Lawrenceville-based Confirmatrix.

Its employees landed at the top spot on the list of Kingston's contributors, according to opensecrets.org.

Satary's 19 year-old-son is the CEO of Nue Medical, which is listed at No. 4 on the Kingston’s list of top contributors.

Channel 2 Action News obtained video from a Chateau Elan fundraiser where Satary asks Kingston a question, and a photo in which they are shown together.

Another photo shows Jordan Satary shaking hands with the Republican Senate hopeful.

The same day, Kingston reportedly attended a ribbon-cutting for Confirmatrix.

“You shake a lot of hands.  It's hard to know everybody you meet and sometimes that you're been talking to,” Kingston said. “As you know, we did not take any money from Mr. Satary.  He was not involved in the fundraiser to our knowledge.”

Former Nue Medical employee Robert Miller said he gave the Kingston camp a heads-up about Satary's criminal past on May 1 and that he helped organize the fundraiser.

Miller says Kingston should have returned the money immediately because he also told the Kingston camp the contributions from Nue Medical were possibly illegal because they were bundled.

“We told them we were going to the FBI,” Miller said.

At that May meeting, Kingston told Channel 2 that the campaign attorney was informed only of a falling out among employees.

Miller said that is not true.

“When I saw your interview, I realized that he's actually lying,” Miller said.

Kingston told Channel 2 Action News that he is not responding to the allegations.

“I don't respond to him.  He's a private citizen.  He can say anything he wants. We returned the money which we didn't have to return,” Kingston said.