Rick Jackson sues Burt Jones for defamation amid heated governor’s race

Sometimes a lawsuit is more than a lawsuit. Sometimes it’s a campaign attack.

Republican Rick Jackson filed a defamation suit against Lt. Gov. Burt Jones that appears aimed as much at grabbing attention and sending a warning shot to his GOP rival for governor as it is at winning in court.

You can tell from one of the opening lines: “Rather than standing on his record, fighting like an honest man, and earning the trust and support of Georgians, Burt Jones is resorting to what he knows best: cheap and dirty politics.”

The lawsuit targets several recent statements by Jones that Jackson’s team calls “defamatory” and “knowingly false.” But it also sends a clear warning: Keep up the attacks and risk getting dragged into court.

Jones’ campaign says it isn’t worried.

“Rick Jackson’s thin skin is showing,” Jones campaign spokesperson Kayla Lott said.

Meanwhile, Jackson continues to layer his attacks. His latest ad, released this morning, promises to make sure those in the country illegally who commit violent crimes “will end up deported or departed.”

“I don’t care if you’re Muslim or Mongolian,” he says. ”You don’t have the right to force your culture on our country.”

Meanwhile, Jones is out with another attack ad this morning criticizing Jackson’s health care company.

And there’s another sign of Jackson’s growing ties to the president’s orbit. NBC News reported that Jackson was among a small group of donors at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate on Feb. 28 shortly after Trump launched joint strikes with Israel on Iran.

Things to know

Credit: Ben Gray for the AJC

Credit: Ben Gray for the AJC

Good morning! Here are three things to know for today:

Arizona’s next

Credit: Ross D. Franklin/AP

Credit: Ross D. Franklin/AP

Georgia isn’t the only state targeted by the Justice Department.

The Republican leader of Arizona’s state Senate said Monday he had handed over records related to the 2020 presidential election to the FBI. He said it was in response to a subpoena he received from the federal government.

The move comes after the FBI seized voting records from Fulton County in January.

Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen said in a social media post that he complied “late last week” with a federal grand jury subpoena for records related to a controversial audit of the election in Maricopa County that had been ordered by legislative Republicans, the Associated Press reported.

Arizona, like Georgia, is a battleground state that President Donald Trump lost in 2020. President Donald Trump continues to falsely accuse elections managers in those states of fraud and mismanagement.

Third Democrat out

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

Three House Democrats have been charged with stealing federal unemployment benefits. But only one of them is fighting the charges.

Former state Rep. Dexter Sharper resigned his Valdosta-area House seat Monday two days before he is expected to plead guilty to federal charges. In a letter to Gov. Brian Kemp, Sharper said he made the decision “after careful reflection and consultation with my family and counsel.”

Authorities allege Sharper wrongly collected about $13,000 in federal payments. He follows Karen Bennett, who resigned earlier this year before pleading guilty to similar charges.

A third Democrat, Sharon Henderson, did not resign. Instead, Gov. Brian Kemp suspended her from office. She has pleaded not guilty. But her political career might not be over. Last week, she filed to run for the state Senate.

Tariff tiffs

Credit: Jason Getz/AJC

Credit: Jason Getz/AJC

U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff is pressing his Republican challengers to say whether they support refunding money Americans paid under President Donald Trump’s tariffs after a court ruled the levies were illegal.

The Georgia Democrat accused Trump of imposing “economy-crushing tariffs” and challenged his GOP rivals — U.S. Reps. Buddy Carter and Mike Collins and former football coach Derek Dooley — to say whether they support returning that money to taxpayers.

“The Court ruled Trump’s economy-crushing tariffs were illegal from the start, but Trump refuses to refund Americans the money he stole,” Ossoff said. “Georgians deserve to know: Do Trump puppets Carter, Collins, and Dooley support immediately refunding that stolen tariff money to the American people, or do they stand with the President?”

The comments are another sign of how Ossoff and Democrats plan to frame the 2026 Senate race around the cost of living — particularly health care, trade and tariffs that have rippled through Georgia’s economy.

The push for refunds is also gaining traction among other critics of the tariffs, setting up deepening political flashpoints in a races that focus on Trump-era policies.

School safety

Credit: Screenshot

Credit: Screenshot

The Georgia House will vote on a roughly $38 billion operating budget today that will set the parameters for negotiations with Gov. Brian Kemp and Senate Republicans.

The House version, unveiled Monday, contains no major departures from the version Kemp proposed in January. But there are lots of smaller differences that can add up quickly.

One item that caught our eye: an additional $450,000 to boost security at five state technical colleges.

Lawmakers last year spent a lot of time on a wide-ranging school safety law in the aftermath of a deadly shooting at Apalachee High School in 2024. That included requiring public schools to install mobile panic alert systems that would instantaneously connect school officials with law enforcement in an emergency.

The House budget would pay for a pilot program to install similar systems at technical colleges.

“This recognizes two things: the importance of taking care of our technical students when it comes to school security, but also the significant number of high school students that are on campus at most of our technical colleges,” said state Rep. Mark Newton, R-Augusta.

Under the Gold Dome

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

It’s Day 30 of the legislative session. Some happenings:

Carr talk

Credit: Screenshot

Credit: Screenshot

It’s beginning to look a lot like an election year, at least on television.

Rick Jackson and Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, both Republican candidates for governor, have been on the air for weeks. Attorney General Chris Carr on Tuesday launched a seven-figure ad buy touting his record as a prosecutor.

“It’s easy for politicians to talk tough,” Carr says in the ad. “But I’m the only Republican who put gangs, human traffickers and antifa behind bars.”

That last line appears to be a reference to the attorney general’s prosecution of dozens of activists who protested against Atlanta’s Public Safety Training Center. A Fulton County judge last year dismissed racketeering charges against the activists, ruling Carr did not have the authority to bring them. He said Carr must ask Gov. Brian Kemp for permission to bring the charges.

Carr has appealed that ruling. The indictment mainly focused on members of Defend the Atlanta Forest. Carr has labeled the group as “an anarchist, anti-police, and anti-business extremist organization.”

“Georgia will not become Seattle or Portland — violent criminals will be prosecuted,” Carr spokesperson Julia Mazzone said.

Listen up

Today on the “Politically Georgia” podcast we break down the chaotic race to replace former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

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Have a question or comment for the show? Email us at politicallygeorgia@ajc.com or give us a call at 770-810-5297 and you could be featured on a future episode.

Shutdown finger pointing

Credit: Ben Hendren for the AJC.

Credit: Ben Hendren for the AJC.

Republicans and Democrats are blaming one another for the partial government shutdown that has left Transportation Security Administration workers unpaid for weeks and contributed to long security lines at airports in Atlanta and beyond.

Democrats have refused to support bills funding the Department of Homeland Security and its agencies, insisting any legislation must include language codifying changes with how immigration enforcement raids are carried out in U.S. cities. But Democrats say Republicans also refused to support a stopgap proposal last week that would have funded the salaries for TSA and emergency management workers.

“It has become all too clear that Republicans would rather keep DHS shut down than work with Democrats to prevent more Americans from being killed by masked federal agents,” U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said during a recent floor speech.

But Republicans say the onus is on Democrats who have voted numerous times against legislation that would fund the entire DHS for the remainder of the fiscal year. The Trump administration put out a news release on Monday highlighting media coverage of airport delays.

“It’s not just airports reeling from the effects of the Democrat Shutdown,” the White House statement said. “Democrats have cut off resources and funding for FEMA, the U.S. Coast Guard, and thousands of federal law enforcement officers — jeopardizing America’s border security, maritime safety, and ability to respond to emergencies.”

Today in Washington

Shoutouts

Credit: Natrice Miller/ AJC

Credit: Natrice Miller/ AJC

Today’s birthday:

Before you go

Sybil Lenora Spires Carter, the wife of President Jimmy Carter’s late brother, Billy Carter, passed away last week in Plains at the age of 87. In her obituary, Carter’s children wrote: “We know that our daddy met her at the gate as soon as she got there and that he hasn’t let her out of his sight.” A funeral is planned in Plains on Saturday.

That’ll do it for us today. As always, you can send your best scoops, gossip and insider info to greg.bluestein@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com, patricia.murphy@ajc.com and adam.beam@ajc.com.