A former Georgia gubernatorial candidate who touted his anti-illegal immigration bona fides on the campaign trail earlier this year is in police custody while facing fraud charges.
Michael Williams, a Republican state senator and former candidate for governor, turned himself in after police charged him with making a false report over computer servers he said were stolen from his campaign office, shortly before his last-place finish in the May primary, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Williams’s attorney, A.J. Richman, told the paper his client had negotiated bond and “looks forward to his day in court, and I will vigorously defend him.”
In addition to fraudulently reporting a burglary, which his office said amounted to around $300,000 in losses, Williams is accused of lying to a state Bureau of Investigations agent about where he was at the time of the crime.
The pro-Trump conservative gained short-lived national attention for his “deportation bus tour” aimed at those in the state and country illegally, which broke down between stops in northern Georgia.
When the charges were announced last week, Williams’s office called the accusations a political witch hunt.
Williams will stay in his state Senate seat until mid January, unless lawmakers convene early to expel him.
