Maya Homan, Georgia Recorder

'Ill-gotten gains': Republicans called out for taking Ponzi scheme donations

Raffensperger calls for return of donations after Georgia Republican donor accused of Ponzi scheme

by Maya Homan, Georgia Recorder
July 15, 2025

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has joined a growing chorus of voices calling for the return of political contributions from the now-defunct First Liberty Building and Loan, a Newnan-based lending firm with longstanding ties to the Republican Party.

The company has come under fire after federal officials filed a lawsuit accusing First Liberty’s founder, Brant Frost IV, of running a Ponzi scheme that defrauded 300 investors out of at least $140 million. According to the complaint, Frost misled investors about the nature of his business while funneling over $5 million to himself and his family members. He also improperly used investor funds to make more than $570,000 in political contributions, the complaint alleged, all of which went to Republican candidates and committees.

“I take full responsibility for my actions and am resolved to spend the rest of my life trying to repay as much as I can to the many people I misled and let down,” Frost said in a statement issued through his lawyer. “I will be cooperating with the receiver and federal authorities and ask that everyone allow the receiver time to sort things out and do his best to repair the damage I created.”

The allegations have shocked Georgia’s Republican political network, of which the Frost family has long been a part. In 1988, Frost served as Georgia state director for Pat Robertson, a conservative televangelist-turned-Republican presidential candidate. His son, Brant Frost V, worked as a principal at First Liberty and also served as a former vice-chair of the Georgia GOP. His daughter, Katie Frost, chairs a regional committee for the state party. Until last month, both siblings held leadership roles in the Georgia Republican Assembly, a far-right wing of the Georgia Republican Party.

Past recipients of Frost’s political contributions include Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp — who last received a donation from Frost in 2019 — as well as state Sen. Colton Moore and state Rep. Charlice Byrd, according to data from the Georgia State Ethics Commission. Other out-of-state candidates who have received major contributions from Frost include Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Republican from Colorado.

Raffensperger, whose office is investigating First Liberty alongside the Securities and Exchange Commission, urged recipients to return political contributions they have received from the company or from the Frost family.

“Now is the time for every elected official, candidate, or political action committee who received financial support from this entity currently under investigation to stand up and help the victims,” Raffensperger said. “Ill-gotten gains do not belong in the State Capitol.”

The Democratic Party of Georgia has also urged Republican officials to return the funds.

“We have just learned that numerous Republican elected representatives are funded by money defrauded from unsuspecting Georgians,” said DPG Chair Charlie Bailey. “Now the question is whether Brian Kemp, the Georgia Republican Party, and all the electeds who received this money will do the right thing and return it to the hardworking Georgians from whom it was stolen.”

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Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jill Nolin for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com.

CDC panel overhauled by RFK Jr. says it will review childhood vaccine schedule

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will reexamine current recommendations around childhood vaccination schedules and Hepatitis B immunizations, members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices announced during a meeting in Atlanta Wednesday.

The committee, which meets three times a year, does not typically garner much public interest. However, this meeting is the first since U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dismissed all 17 members of the committee and replaced them with a slate of eight hand-picked appointees, many of whom are seen as vaccine skeptics, launching the little-known committee into the national spotlight.

Medical experts, including the American Medical Association, expressed dismay at Kennedy’s appointment of the new committee members, which the organization said occurred “without transparency and proper vetting to ensure they have the expertise necessary to make vaccine recommendations to protect the health of Americans.”

Supporters of the CDC hold balloons that spell out “Restore ACIP” at a rally outside the center Wednesday. Jill Nolin/Georgia Recorder

“We urge the Administration to reconsider the removal of the 17 ACIP members who have deep expertise in vaccines so physicians can continue to have confidence in ACIP’s recommendations,” AMA President Bobby M. Mukkamala said in a statement.

Six former ACIP chairs also authored an op-ed after the former committee members’ dismissal, warning that “if relevant scientific expertise on vaccines is not maintained, access to vaccines may fundamentally change.”

The move was also made in direct contradiction with a promise from Kennedy to Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy ahead of the secretary’s confirmation in February. Cassidy says Kennedy pledged to “maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices without changes.”

Cassidy, a doctor who cast the deciding vote to confirm Kennedy as health secretary, called for the meeting to be delayed until members with more expertise in vaccines could be appointed to the panel, but was unsuccessful. Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski also expressed concern about the backgrounds of the new panelists.

The committee is now chaired by Martin Kulldorff, a doctor and former Harvard Medical School professor who was fired in 2024 after declining the COVID-19 vaccine, and has spoken out against blanket vaccine mandates during the pandemic.

“Secretary Kennedy has given this committee a clear mandate to use evidence-based medicine when making vaccine recommendations, and that is what we will do,” Kulldorff said in his opening remarks. He also disputed characterizations of his skepticism of vaccine mandates as “anti-vax.”

“Some media outlets have been very harsh on the new members of this committee, issuing false accusations and making concerted efforts to put scientists in either a pro- or anti-vaccine box,” he said. “Such labels undermine critical scientific inquiry, and it further feeds the flame of vaccine hesitancy. To thoroughly scrutinize and assure the safety and efficacy of vaccines is a pro-vaccine position.”

Other appointees to the committee include Robert Malone, a doctor and biochemist who said he views the label of anti-vaxxer as “high praise” and Vicky Pebsworth, a regional director for the National Association of Catholic Nurses who also serves on the board of the National Vaccine Information Center, an organization that advocates for vaccine exemptions.

One member of the committee, Michael Ross, had already withdrawn from the committee by the time the body convened for the two-day summit in Atlanta. Kennedy, who was attending a “Make America Healthy Again” event in Oklahoma, was not present at the meeting.

‘Completely unprecedented’

As the committee met inside, dozens of people braved the sweltering heat to hold what they called a “parade of preventable diseases” to highlight the dangers of limiting the public’s access to vaccines. They also called for the committee to be restored to its previous makeup.

A whole colorful cast of pathogens were represented just outside the center’s entrance, from influenza to HPV to meningococcus. Dr. Deblina Datta carried a leg brace to represent polio.

“This is what we don’t want to see again. When we introduce vaccine skepticism, we are going to see people wearing this,” Datta said holding up the brace.

Dr. Deblina Datta, a former CDC worker, carried a leg brace to represent polio Wednesday. Jill Nolin/Georgia Recorder

Datta spent more than two decades at CDC working on immunizations, with six years with the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. She called the abrupt overhaul of the committee alarming.

“While a healthy skepticism of vaccine policy is good, this level of skepticism and the sources of the skeptics being put onto ACIP is calamitous,” Datta said. “And it’s absolutely eroding the public’s faith in the ACIP to dictate policy.”

Katrina Kretsinger, who retired from the CDC two years ago after working mostly on vaccine-preventable diseases, said she has major concerns about the changes made to the committee.

“This is completely unprecedented,” she said. “And I really don’t think it’s going to have any credibility.”

But she said she is also trying to have “a little bit of wait and see” attitude about the new members.

“I would say that there’s a number of them who seem like they are reasonably well qualified, and then there are others of the seven who come with a very clear anti-vaccine agenda and are well known for viewpoints that are really hard to defend based on the scientific merits,” Kretsinger said. “It’s very disappointing.”

ACIP’s new agenda

The new ACIP appointees are scheduled to spend two days reviewing safety and efficacy data on COVID-19, Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), Measles, Mumps, Rubella and Varicella (MMRV), Influenza, Anthrax and Chikungunya vaccines before voting on new immunization recommendations.

However, Kulldorff said the committee also plans to commission new working groups dedicated to evaluating the impact of childhood vaccines and investigating the timeline for the recommended administration of Hepatitis B vaccines in newborns. The committee will also be reexamining vaccines that have not been reviewed within the last seven years.

“In addition to studying and evaluating individual vaccines, it’s important to evaluate the cumulative effect of the recommended vaccine schedule,” Kulldorff said.

Thursday’s agenda also includes a presentation from Lyn Redwood, the former head of Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group founded by Kennedy.

Redwood, who is not a CDC employee, is expected to argue that a preservative used in a small portion of flu vaccines, known as thimerosal, causes autism. According to the CDC, research has shown no connection between thimerosal and autism or any other source of harm, and the chemical was taken out of childhood vaccines in the U.S. in 2001.

Fury as ICE detains immigration reporter legally in US

Several organizations dedicated to preserving free speech and protecting members of the press are calling for the release of a prominent immigration reporter who was detained while covering a protest in Atlanta earlier this month and is now on track to be deported.

Mario Guevara, an Emmy-award winning Spanish language reporter based in metro Atlanta, was initially charged with improperly entering a roadway, obstruction of law enforcement officers and unlawful assembly, all of which were misdemeanors. An immigrant from El Salvador, Guevara had been a legal resident of the U.S. for more than 20 years. However, the misdemeanor charges after his arrest allowed Immigration and Customs Enforcement to place a detainer on him, paving the way for a potential deportation.

He was later transferred into ICE custody and charged with three additional misdemeanors from the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office for distracted driving, failure to obey a traffic control device, and reckless driving, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Body camera footage obtained by the AJC showed Guevara wearing both a helmet and vest marking him as a member of the press as he was arrested, alarming free press advocates. He had been covering a protest against the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

“At the time of his arrest, Guevara was wearing a press vest and clearly identified himself to law enforcement,” Katherine Jacobsen of the nonprofit organization Committee to Protect Journalists wrote in a letter to DeKalb County Chief Executive Officer Lorraine Cochran-Johnson. “Video footage indicates that Guevara was in no way obstructing police activity but rather documenting the protest, a matter of public interest.”

In a letter to U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, the Committee to Protect Journalists and other free press advocates including the Atlanta Press Club, the Georgia First Amendment Foundation and the Georgia chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists urged her to facilitate Guevara’s release.

“We request that he be released on bond and that removal proceedings against him, which were triggered by three misdemeanor charges that seem to conflict with his First Amendment rights as a journalist, be dropped unequivocally and immediately,” the letter states. “If Guevara’s case proceeds, it would represent a grim erosion of both freedom of the press and the rule of law. Journalists who are not U.S. citizens could be at risk of deportation solely because local law enforcement filed misdemeanor charges against them in retaliation for reporting without those charges ever being tried in court.”

Department of Homeland Security’s official account disputed media coverage of the arrest in a post on the social media site X, and confirmed that Guevara “was turned over to ICE custody and has been placed in removal proceedings.”

Guevara is currently being held at the Folkston ICE Processing Center in South Georgia, which is set to become the largest immigrant detention facility in the United States. His legal team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.