Michael Williams, Republican Who Drove ‘Deportation Bus’ To Sanctuary Cities, Indicted On Fraud Charges

Sometimes your actions come back to haunt you, while at other times, your past is so checkered that no matter how much whitewashing you might try and do, the crimes simply cannot be wished away. This is what seems to have happened with Republican Michael Williams, a state senator from Georgia who infamously ran a “Deportation Bus Tour” to the state’s “sanctuary cities” in his ultimately unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign. This week, Williams was indicted on fraud charges, according to the Hill.

The report says that Williams has been charged with three separate counts of wrongdoing, including making a false report of insurance fraud, making false statements, and falsely reporting a crime. Williams had said that his computer servers were taken from his Gainesville campaign office prior to his loss in the state’s May primary, which is believed to be a false accusation. Seth Weathers, the Georgia Republican’s former campaign chief, had claimed that $300,000 worth of computers servers were taken from the building in May.

Not unlike the leading Republican in the country, however, Weathers called his former boss’ indictment a “political witch hunt” concocted by his detractors. He said the charge was a “political witch hunt from the beginning and has zero merit” in a statement he made to the Atlanta-Journal Constitution.

The report also claims that Williams is accused of lying during an interview he provided to investigators from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. The Forsyth County Republican had reportedly told investigators that he was at his home and not in Gainesville during the purported burglary. Although the court documents do not reveal what happened to the computer servers actually, this statement made by Williams is said to be false.

Former Georgia GOP candidate for governor Michael Williams indicted on insurance fraud charges: https://t.co/naSolaa8vJ

— Patricia Murphy (@MurphyAJC) December 20, 2018

Williams remains in office until January, but he is evidently rattled by the indictment. Weathers went on to defend his former boss by saying that Williams is paying the price for his unabashed conservativism.

“I guess it’s the price you pay for being a fearless conservative. Like they say, a grand jury can indict a ham sandwich,” Weather said invoking their controversial campaign slogan.

The Republican’s campaign fared badly in Georgia’s gubernatorial race as he finished fifth in a race of five. A self-confessed fan of Trump, Williams introduced a series of ill-timed publicity stunts, one of them being a “deportation bus” in which he said he would carry illegal immigrants back to Mexico. As swift as his rise had been among a section of voters due to his affinity for Donald Trump, Williams’ fall has been as prompt.