Georgia prosecutors drop all 15 counts of money laundering against 3 'Cop City' activists

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia prosecutors on Tuesday dropped all 15 counts of money laundering that were levied against three Atlanta organizers accused of misusing a bail fund to aid violent protests against the city’s proposed police and fire training center.

Atlanta Solidarity Fund leaders Marlon Kautz, Adele MacLean and Savannah Patterson still face racketeering charges, along with 58 others who were indicted last year following a yearslong investigation into the “Stop Cop City” movement. Prosecutors have portrayed the decentralized movement as being led by “militant anarchists” hell-bent on radicalizing supporters and halting the construction of the facility by any means necessary, including arson.

At the center of the case is the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, which has provided bail money and helped find attorneys for arrested protesters. Prosecutors said the three defendants funneled money that was supposed to be for charitable causes and instead used it to reimburse protesters who spent months camping in the South River Forest, near the site of the facility in DeKalb County, just outside Atlanta.

Transactions that prompted the 15 counts of money laundering included $93.04 for “camping supplies” and $12.52 for “forest kitchen materials,” according to the indictment.

But just as a motions hearing was about to start Tuesday, Deputy Attorney General John Fowler told Fulton County Judge Kimberly Esmond Adams that he would be filing paperwork to dismiss the 15 counts. A spokesperson for Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr did not say why the money laundering charges were dropped but emphasized that the racketeering charges remain.

Kristen Novay, the attorney for Patterson, applauded the decision.

“The entire indictment is defective, but with those particular counts, I think it is a wise move for a seasoned prosecutor to say, ‘This isn’t worth it,'” Novay told The Associated Press. “Sometimes the hardest call as a prosecutor is to not go for something.”

Demonstrators and civil rights organizations have condemned the racketeering indictment and accused Carr, a Republican, of levying heavy-handed charges to try to silence a movement that has galvanized environmentalists and anti-police protesters across the country. Opponents say the 85-acre, $110-million facility will worsen police militarization and harm the environment in a poor, majority-Black neighborhood.

Despite various attacks against the site and contractors’ equipment over the past couple of years, construction on the training center has continued, and officials say they are planning to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony in December. Supporters say the city must replace outdated facilities and that it is key to better train officers to avoid improper use of force.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of signed petitions to let voters weigh in on the project have spent the past 12 months sitting untouched in boxes as officials await a court ruling on whether nonresidents were wrongly allowed to collect signatures. City officials are hoping the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will kill the petition drive either because it is illegal under state law or because organizers missed their original deadline. The court, which heard arguments in December, has yet to issue its ruling.

Outrage over the stalled referendum continued Monday, when dozens of protesters testified in front of the Atlanta City Council and then hurled hundreds of pingpong balls throughout the chamber as they chanted, “You have dropped the ball.”

Efforts to prosecute those responsible for numerous violent “Stop Cop City” protests have hit multiple stumbling blocks. Last year, DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston, a Democrat, announced she would withdraw from criminal cases tied to the protests, citing disagreements with Carr. And in July, Judge Esmond Adams castigated prosecutors for committing “gross negligence” for mishandling confidential email conversations that Kautz, MacLean and Patterson had with their attorneys, though Esmond Adams denied defense attorneys' motion to dismiss the case on those grounds.

Ping pong balls litter the floor after opponents of the under-construction law enforcement training center known to some as Cop City disrupted the City Council meeting at City Hall in Atlanta on Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

Opponents of the under-construction law enforcement training center known to some as Cop City disrupt the City Council meeting at City Hall in Atlanta on Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

Opponents of the under-construction law enforcement training center known to some as Cop City disrupt the City Council meeting at City Hall in Atlanta on Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

Opponents of an under-construction law enforcement training center known to some as "Cop City," protest at City Hall in Atlanta on Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

Ping pong balls litter the floor after opponents of the under-construction law enforcement training center known to some as Cop City disrupted the City Council meeting at City Hall in Atlanta on Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

Opponents of the under-construction law enforcement training center known to some as "Cop City" disrupt the City Council meeting at City Hall in Atlanta, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

Ping pong balls litter the floor after opponents of the under-construction law enforcement training center known to some as Cop City disrupted the City Council meeting at City Hall in Atlanta on Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

Opponents of an under-construction law enforcement training center that critics call "Cop City," protest at City Hall in Atlanta, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Donald Trump's fourth scheduled stop in eight days in Wisconsin is a sign of his increased attention as Republicans fret about the former president's ability to match the Democrats' enthusiasm and turnout machine.

“In the political chatter class, they’re worried," said Brandon Scholz, a retired Republican strategist and longtime political observer in Wisconsin who voted for Trump in 2020 but said he is not voting for Trump or Democratic nominee Kamala Harris this year. “I think Republicans are right to be concerned.”

Trump's latest rally was planned for 2 p.m. Central time Sunday in Juneau in Dodge County, which he won in 2020 with 65% of the vote. Jack Yuds, chairman of the county Republican Party, said support for Trump is stronger in his part of the state than it was in 2016 or 2020. “I can’t keep signs in,” Yuds said. “They want everything he’s got. If it says Trump on it, you can sell it.”

Wisconsin is perennially tight in presidential elections but has gone for the Republicans just once in the past 40 years, when Trump won the state in 2016. A win in November could make it impossible for Harris to take the White House.

Trump won in 2016 over Democrat Hillary Clinton by fewer than 23,000 votes and lost to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 by just under 21,000 votes.

On Tuesday, Trump made his first-ever visit to Dane County, home to the liberal capital city of Madison, in an effort to turn out the Republican vote even in the state's Democratic strongholds. Dane is Wisconsin’s second most-populous and fastest-growing county; Biden received more than 75% of the vote four years ago.

“To win statewide you’ve got to have a 72-county strategy,” former Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, said at that event.

Trump’s campaign and outside groups supporting his candidacy have outspent Harris and her allies on advertising in Wisconsin, $35 million to $31 million, since she became a candidate on July 23, according to the media-tracking firm AdImpact.

Harris and outside groups supporting her candidacy had more advertising time reserved in Wisconsin from Oct. 1 through Nov. 5, more than $25 million compared with $20 million for Trump and his allies.

The Harris campaign has 50 offices across 43 counties with more than 250 staff in Wisconsin, said her spokesperson Timothy White. The Trump campaign said it has 40 offices in the state and dozens of staff.

Harris rallied supporters in Madison in September at an even that drew more than 10,000 people. On Thursday, she made an appeal to moderate and disgruntled conservatives by holding an event in Ripon, the birthplace of the Republican Party, along with former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, one of Trump’s most prominent Republican antagonists.

Harris and Trump are focusing on Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, the “blue wall” states that went for Trump in 2016 and flipped to Biden in the next election.

While Trump’s campaign is bullish on its chances in Pennsylvania as well as Sunbelt states, Wisconsin is seen as more of a challenge.

“Wisconsin, tough state,” said Trump campaign senior adviser Chris LaCivita, who worked on Republican Sen. Ron Johnson’s winning reelection campaign in 2022.

“I mean, look, that’s going to be a very tight — very, very tight, all the way to the end. But where we are organizationally now, comparative to where we were organizationally four years ago, I mean, it’s completely different,” LaCivita said.

He also cited Michigan as more of a challenge. “But again, these are states that Biden won and carried and so they’re going to be brawls all the way until the end and we’re not ceding any of that ground.”

The candidates are about even in Wisconsin, based on a series of polls that have shown little movement since Biden dropped out in late July. Those same polls also show high enthusiasm among both parties.

Mark Graul, who ran then-President George W. Bush’s 2004 campaign in Wisconsin, said the number of campaign visits speaks to Wisconsin’s decisive election role.

The key for both sides, he said, is persuading infrequent voters to turn out.

“Much more important, in my opinion, than rallies,” Graul said.

Associated Press writers Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, and Jill Colvin in Butler, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report.

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives at a campaign event at Dane Manufacturing, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Waunakee, Wis. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at Dane Manufacturing, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Waunakee, Wis. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives for a campaign event Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, in Prairie du Chien, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)