Sources tell InsiderAdvantage that Appalachian Judicial Circuit Chief Superior Court Judge Brenda Weaver, who chairs the state Judicial Qualifications Commission responsible for policing state judges who run afoul of the law, is being pressured to resign by fellow JQC members. A firestorm has erupted in the aftermath of accusations she wrongly pushed criminal charges on a north Georgia journalist who sought a public records request for county expenditures made on her behalf that he characterized as wrong.
In the words of Augusta attorney David Hudson, a preeminent First Amendment expert and counsel to the Georgia Press Association, the Weaver-orchestrated arrest is “an affront to the exercise of First Amendment rights.” Weaver had Fannin Focus publisher Mark Thomason and his attorney Russell Stookey arrested last Friday and charged with attempted identity fraud and identity fraud. The journalist was then thrown in jail, strip searched and bonded out with the notice that authorities can search his person and places of business without warrant.
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