Just one week before candidate qualifying, where Brad Raffensperger must appear before the Georgia Republican Party and should legally be denied a place on the Republican primary ballot, due to his unethical, un-Republican record of governance, the Secretary of State, now candidate for Governor, has published false and misleading accusations against the Georgia Republican Assembly (GRA) President Nathaniel Darnell as well as a hefty fine in relation to the sudden collapse of First Liberty Building and Loan.

The order makes no mention of the fact that Nathaniel’s family are victims of the alleged Ponzi scheme awaiting restitution from the appointed Receiver.

“Nathaniel really believed in First Liberty and we all trusted the Frosts,” said Patricia Darnell, Nathaniel’s Mother. “When we lost our investment, that was Nathaniel’s inheritance. He wouldn’t have intentionally lost his own inheritance if he had known what they were doing.”

“I can’t tell you how it breaks a mothers heart to see her son falsely accused like this.”

Alex Johnson, GRA Chairman says this fact “is conveniently ignored by Raffensperger’s office’s independent and misleading attacks on Mr. Darnell with unproven claims in Raffensperger’s filings/correspondence.”

Nathaniel was unaware that First Liberty was allegedly operating a Ponzi scheme at the time he innocently made referrals to his clients who he in good faith believed could be well served and benefited by their loan agreements. This is why he trusted First Liberty enough to recommend them to his own family members. For years, he saw First Liberty faithfully pay their interest payments on time, just like previous customers had testified to Nathaniel they had for them.

Raffensperger has in his possession numerous emails and texts from First Liberty employees to Nathaniel showing — in writing — that Nathaniel was misled and deceived about their loan agreements, yet Raffensperger chooses to ignore this evidence of Nathaniel’s innocence.

“Since at least 2021, the Georgia Republican Assembly (GRA) has been opposed to Mr. Raffensperger lying to voters by attempting to qualify for elected office as a Republican,” said Johnson. “Last year, GRA members and other good Republicans successfully supported a motion within the GA GOP that prohibits the Republican Party from qualifying him as a Republican.”

“I have massive respect for Nathaniel Darnell,” wrote Ray Blankenship, a Republican volunteer activist in Northwest Georgia. “We all know that Nathaniel had been working for years to bring attention to Raffy’s Democrat tendencies and his Resolution was passed in the STATE CONVENTION to keep Raffy from having our most beloved ‘R’ by his name. I guess when you get a target on your back, you must be over the target yourself. Praying for Nathaniel’s sweet family.”

The GRA has been openly critical of Raffensperger’s record since 2020 and Nathaniel is not only a representative of the organization, but was one of the delegates at the microphone urging the passage of the resolution to ban Raffensperger at the 2025 Georgia GOP Convention. He even made the motion on the floor to adopt the resolution. Secretary Raffensperger has an inherent conflict of interest in his relationship to the GRA President, a conflict that Nathaniel’s attorney Doug Gilfillan formally objected to in December.

“The administration of the law . . . should, like Caesar’s wife, be above suspicion, and should be free from all temptation, bias, or prejudice . . . .” Nichols v. State, 17 Ga. App. 593, 87 S.E. 817, 821 (1916). The involvement in state action by a public official laboring under a personal conflict of interest like Secretary Raffensperger’s conflict here is improper. As a result, Secretary Raffensperger should have recused himself in this matter from any activity, participation, and decisions under O.C.G.A. § 10-5-71, pursuant to which his office is conducting this investigation.

Article I, Section II, Paragraph I of the Georgia Constitution (1983) provides that, “[a]ll government, of right, originates with the people, is founded upon their will only, and is instituted solely for the good of the whole. Public officers are the trustees and servants of the people and are at all times amenable to them.” See https://sos.ga.gov/sites/default/files/2022-02/state_constitution.pdf. The Supreme Court of Georgia has held that this provision enshrines the principle that “[a]ll public officers, within whatever branch and at whatever level of our government, and whatever be their private vocations, are trustees of the people, and do accordingly labor under every disability and prohibition imposed by law upon trustees relative to the making of personal financial gain from the discharge of their trusts.” Crozer v. Reichert, 275 Ga. 118, 121 (2002) (quoting Georgia Dep’t of Hum. Res. v. Sistrunk, 249 Ga. 543, 547 (1982)). Georgia courts have applied this provision to disqualify public officials where a public official is alleged to have even an indirect financial benefit. See Vickers v. Coffee County, 255 Ga. 659 (1986) (commissioners’ selection among alternative tracts of land for sale to county invalidated because selection of a different site might affect adversely value of property owned by voting commissioner); Wyman v. Popham, 252 Ga. 247 (1984) (allegations of indirect financial interest on the part of two commissioners required hearing to determine validity of commissioners’ vote); Olley Valley Ests., Inc. v. Fussell, 232 Ga. 779, 784 (1974) (“The question the superior court must answer is whether, under all the evidence, Commissioner Smith had a direct or indirect financial interest in the outcome of the zoning vote-an interest which was not shared by the public generally, and which was more than remote or speculative.”). There is a financial connection between the Secretary’s political activities, his campaign for Governor as a Republican (both of which clearly implicate his personal financial interests), and the First Liberty matter.

Attorneys are questioning the constitutionality of the Secretary’s order for attempting to impose a significant fine when there has been no jury trial. Brad Raffensperger has acted as both judge and jury in this matter.

False Accusations Against Nathaniel

Raffensperger falsely claims Nathaniel was “preying on investors,” but if someone in good-faith believed First Liberty was a legitimate business, as many people clearly did over the last 30+ years, offering a legitimate loan generating real interest that would benefit the investor, how could that be described as “predatory”?

Nathaniel believed he was acting in the best interests of his clients with the information he had at the time, and there was good faith basis for his beliefs, since First Liberty had been in business for about 30 years, and had been recommended to him by numerous people, including a CPA, businessmen, previous elected officials, ministry and church leaders, and even the past Insurance Commissioner of Georgia Ralph Hudgens. WSB radio host Erick Erickson even publicly advertised for them.

Raffensperger’s order implies that Nathaniel took in excessive pay. However, the rate offered by First Liberty was within the average for the financial services industry: 2 percent or less paid by First Liberty. It didn’t raise eyebrows and would not have incentivized anyone to knowingly participate in a fraudulent scheme. Nathaniel sought to follow his firm’s guidance by disclosing to them that he had started an outside business to raise capital, and to work with other businesses that were raising capital, for a real estate venture. All funds from First Liberty went to that business, which finally raised enough to build their family’s first active rental property.

Raffensperger reveals his bias and his conflict of interest in this severe order that ignores facts and evidence that prove Nathaniel is one of the many deceived victims of the alleged Ponzi scheme. Furthermore there are numerous people who were more closely involved with First Liberty than Nathaniel, such as employees of the business, who have not yet received any punishment from Raffensperger at all. Brad Raffensperger refuses to accept the possibility that there were any honest or innocent explanations for Nathaniel’s actions.

This situation raises questions, such as:

(1) Since First Liberty advertised broadly on public radio and on their website for years, how did the Secretary of State’s office not discover the problems with First Liberty sooner?

(2) If Raffensperger, the SEC, and the IRS all were clueless about anything being amiss at First Liberty, how do they expect Nathaniel to have known?

These false accusations against the GRA President issued the week before candidate qualifying seem to be a pathetic attempt to help Raffensperger regain the respect of Republican voters who have seen his failures and lack of interest in election integrity.

Now It’s Raffensperger’s Turn

Now all eyes are watching to see what will happen when Brad Raffensperger shows up to try and qualify to run as a Republican candidate for Governor. The resolution passed at the 2025 convention stated: “the Georgia Republican Party shall not qualify, allow to be qualified, or take any action to allow Brad Raffensperger to qualify as a Republican or run for any elected office unless and until a GAGOP convention removes this restriction…”

Politicians are threatened by parties exercising their freedom of association rights. It is therefore likely that the exorbitant fine and penalties Raffensperger’s office is attempting to impose on Nathaniel was carefully timed to discredit the GRA, and to make GOP volunteers too scared to follow through on the directive of the convention body.

“We hope that all victims of the alleged ponzi scheme receive justice and are fully compensated, while the political industry opportunists like Mr. Raffensperger cease trying to trick voters into thinking they are entitled to Republican votes, support, or ballot access,” said GRA Chairman Alex Johnson.