Another Georgia Democrat has been caught with her hand in the cookie jar, and this time it came with a federal indictment.
Former Georgia state Rep. Karen Bennett was indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly lying on an application for pandemic unemployment assistance. According to prosecutors, Bennett made false statements about her employment and income in order to collect thousands of dollars in COVID era benefits she was not entitled to receive back in 2020.
The allegations are not complicated. During the pandemic lockdowns, the federal government massively expanded unemployment benefits for people who genuinely could not work. Prosecutors say Bennett applied for and received those payments even though she was never prevented from doing her job. Her role at a physical therapy business was administrative, and she reportedly worked from home both before and during the pandemic. In other words, nothing about COVID stopped her from earning a paycheck.
It gets worse. While Bennett disclosed receiving roughly $300 a week from the Georgia General Assembly, prosecutors say she failed to report additional income from her business and a church job that paid about $905 per week. She also allegedly claimed she was actively searching for work, even though she was not. That combination of omissions and misstatements is what landed her in serious legal trouble.
This is not an isolated incident. It is now the second time a Georgia lawmaker has been charged in connection with fraud involving pandemic relief programs. Just last month, Democrat Rep. Sharon Henderson was charged in a similar case. According to AJC Politics, prosecutors say Henderson improperly collected nearly $14,000 in federal unemployment benefits in 2020. She has pleaded not guilty.
Bennett resigned earlier this month amid the growing scandal. In her resignation letter to Brian Kemp, she offered no explanation for her sudden departure, choosing instead to praise her own record and call her time in office a “labor of love.” That letter, reported by the Georgia Recorder, read like a greatest hits album released right before the arrest warrant drops.
At some point, this stops looking like coincidence. Democrats spent the pandemic years throwing trillions of dollars around with almost no oversight, then acted shocked when fraud exploded. Now we are seeing elected officials themselves accused of gaming the system they helped create.
Between unemployment scams, PPP abuse, and now daycare fraud operations for children who apparently do not exist, it is becoming clear why Democrats suddenly sound so sympathetic toward scammers. Too many of them were running the same plays.
This is almost certainly just the tip of the iceberg. If federal prosecutors keep digging, they may find a whole lot more than a couple of crooked state legislators.
Lock up the fraudsters. All of them. Domestic, foreign, and especially the ones who thought their title made them untouchable.
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