By Tommy McGraw, Publisher
The Alabama Democratic Party Executive Committee’s Subcommittee rendered their decision that Greg Griggers will remain the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit Judge Democrat nominee and not be taken off the November 5 General Election ballot.
The decision came down late Monday, Aug. 5, from the ADP’s Subcommittee. The subcommittee said the decision could be appealed within ten days of the ruling.
The ruling stated in part, “For the reasons set forth herein, the Subcommittee finds that the residents did not submit sufficient evidence to warrant the withdrawal of Mr. Griggers’ nomination, and that the evidence supplied by Mr. Griggers showed sufficient cause that he remains the nominee. It is the decision of the Subcommittee that Mr. Griggers remain the nominee.”
Griggers, the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit Judge Democratic nominee and current District Attorney, defended the alleged 31 financial contributions to former Republican President Donald J. Trump in 2020 and 2021 during the hour and half hearing Friday, Aug. 2, in Montgomery at the ADP headquarters. The contributions of a Democratic candidate to another political party are a direct violation of the Alabama Democratic Party Rules.
The Alabama Democratic Party Show Cause Committee heard testimony from Griggers, five of his attorneys, and Greene County Democratic Committee Chairman Lorenzo French, who filed the complaint. The sub-committee of five members took the matter under advisement Friday, and Subcommittee Chairman Ben Harris said they would render a decision “in due time and hopefully very promptly.”
ADP Chairman Randy Kelly appointed subcommittee members which included Barbara Turner, Rebecca Marion, Dr. Randy Kelly, Ben Harris, and Dr. Joe Reed.
Attorney William M. Pompey of Camden, attorneys Richard Cross and Nathan G. “Nat” Watkins, Jr., of Livingston, and attorneys Woodie Dinning and John Gibbs of Demopolis represented Griggers. Harris served as sub-committee chairman and directed the hearing.
Attorney Pompey’s first question, which he repeated throughout the hearing, was, “Has bond been posted?”
“According to the rules you still have got to post that bond, so it will be in the proper setting.”
Chairman Harris responded, “We’re going to hear evidence regardless if the bond had been posted.”
Lorenzo French, who filed the complaint, was the only representative from the complainants and told the subcommittee that he had no other witnesses and the complaint he submitted was his only evidence.
The evidence was a list of the 31 times Griggers allegedly paid sums to the Republican President Donald J. Trump or Winred, one of the many PACs that contributed to Trump’s campaign.
French presented the petition showing those who had signed the complaint along with French and a copy of the printout from the Federal Elections Commission’s website, fec.gov.
The website lists Griggers’ purported contributions to two Democrats and 31 times to President Trump or one of his PACs.
Attorney Pompey’s first question, and he repeated it throughout the hearing, was the distinction of Griggers’ name. “Do you know Mr. Griggers?”
French replied, “Yes.”
“Do you know the people who signed the complaint?” Pompey asked French.
French replied, “I don’t know all of them.”
French said a “group of citizens came to me with the complaint, from the county.” French said he went on the government website to confirm the list that was submitted to him and printed out the list himself, putting in “Greg Griggers’” name. The website pulled up Gregory S. Griggers and Greg Griggers.
Pompey asked French did he notice the “discrepancies, between Greg S. Griggers and Greg Griggers.”
Pompey pointed out that the Greg S. Griggers paperwork had a middle name [initial] on the contributions that went to Democrats and the name Greg Griggers only went to the Republican Party.
Pompey alleged the documentation French presented to the subcommittee could be doctored and photocopied.
Pompey alleged French had filed the complaint against the wrong person, Greg Griggers, and not Greg S. Griggers.
Pompey then asked French, “Do you agree Trump is the devil?”
French responded, “I don’t agree he’s the devil; he’s a human being.”
Pompey asked, “Do you agree he is a human being that rapes women?”
Pompey continued, “Do you know he [Trump] has sex with children claiming they look like his daughter?”
French replied, “Maybe, I don’t know.”
Chairman Harris tried to regain control of the hearing, asking Pompey to restrict his comments to the material presented at the hearing.
Pompey replied, “This is about Trump, and I’m going to put Trump on trial here.”
Pompey said, “People mess people’s names up all the time and even people confuse my name” with his mother’s and son’s names.
Pompey said when Griggers donated to Democrats he used his real name, Greg S. Griggers. “He uses his correct name. Greg Griggers is not his name.”
Pompey again asked French, “Did you pay the $5,000 bond?”
French replied, “I don’t know anything about a bond.”
Pompey said paying the bond was in the bylaws as he cited Alabama Democratic Party Rules, articles 8 and 9.
Pompey ended this session with French with, “You have no real knowledge that Mr. Griggers did anything wrong.”
French answered, “I printed it [the list] off the computer.”
Pompey again asked the subcommittee that “this matter be dismissed.”
Harris said the committee would hear all the evidence and then decide.
Chairman Harris asked questions of French.“To make sure I understand, the page attached appears to be a printout. How did you come to be in possession of the list from the website?”
French answered, “I went to the website and printed it out. I typed in the name, Greg Griggers, and this is what the website showed.”
Harris then asked French about the notation at the bottom of the page, which referenced that the information came from the website fec.gov.
French said the notation was printed out with the information and he did not do anything beyond using the information from the website.
No other committee members had questions, but Attorney Pompey did. “Mr French, do you know Judge Hardaway?”
French responded, “Yes, I know him very well.”
Pompey added, “Would it shock you to know that the same thing was done to him as was done to Greg S. Griggers.”
French replied, “It would shock me.”
Pompey then presented a list of Republican contributions done in the name of Seventeenth Judicial Circuit Judge Eddie Hardaway, Jr., from the same website French had searched for Griggers’ name. The “Eddie Hardaway, Jr.,” name was adjacent to Democrat donations, and the Republican donations were in the name of “Eddie Hardaway,” the printout showed. The amounts ranged from 64¢, 65¢, and $50, according to Pompey.
The Record Journal’s researched showed a $500 donation to Alabama Senator Katie Britt.
Pompey submitted the list of Hardaway donations and an affidavit signed by Hardaway saying he did not make the Republican donations.
Pompey said, “The same crap was done to him [Hardaway]. If you believe in this you believe Donald Trump is a rapist and rapes little girls. You don’t believe Eddie Hardaway is contributing to the Republican Party, do you?”
French answered, “Probably not.”
Pompey responded, “I have no more questions since you [French] said you believe Eddie Hardaway didn’t donate to President Trump. That lie won’t fly.”
Attorney Pompey told the sub-committee that if they had read Griggers’ response, they would have dismissed the complaint.
Pompey continued, “This is not the first time this has been alleged against Mr. Griggers. It happened in 2020 and 2022.”
Pompey again asked for a direct verdict and to dismiss the complaint because no bond was paid before the hearing.
The subcommittee excused the participants from the room and voted behind closed doors to take the motions under advisement and said they would act on them after hearing all the evidence.
After returning to the hearing room, DA Greg Griggers testified that his full name was “Gregory Scott Griggers,” he was a member of the [law] Bar and had known Pompey for 30 years.
Pompey continued, “You have always been a Democrat, and you never supported a rapist like Donald Trump. You wouldn’t support a low-down piece of a human being, would you? You have never contributed to the Republican Party.”
Griggers replied, “Like in my response that I swore to, I did not contribute to the Republican Party.”
French was allowed to question Griggers following Pompey. French asked the proposed nominee if the same thing happened during the 2022 District Attorney campaign [allegations of making contributions to the Republican Party]. “You, being the DA, you would have squashed anything” about contributing to the Republican Party, wouldn’t you?”
Pompey objected to French’s question. “We told the committee what his name is, Gregory Scott Griggers. Greg Griggers is not his name. We ask that his name be used in the proper manner.”
Chairman Harris said he had allowed Pompey “great latitude” during his questioning of French “and I’m going to allow Mr. French the same latitude in presenting his questions to the witnesses.”
Griggers then responded to French’s questions about squashing allegations in 2022. “No, sir. There was nothing to the allegations. I knew I had not done anything wrong. Nobody showed me anything back in 2022, so I felt no compulsion to do anything. That and as you know I work for the state of Alabama.”
French asked Griggers, “Being the DA wouldn’t it be easy for you to find out who committed the fraud?”
Griggers responded, “I have no idea. I don’t know who falsified what you [French] submitted to this committee, and I never felt compelled to find out who did it.”
Chairman Harris then asked Griggers did he know the addresses that were submitted along with his name, including an address on Forrest Ave. in Demopolis and a Demopolis PO Box.
Griggers admitted the addresses listed on the website were his home address and a PO Box he had used in the past.
Harris then asked Griggers, “Do you know what happened [Griggers name showing as a Republican donor] here?”
Demopolis attorney Woody Dinning said he had contacted the Alabama Bureau of Investigation [now the State Bureau]. “They came back two weeks ago and said, ‘We tried to go through all the hoops, and it is too time-consuming.’”
Harris then asked Pompey and Dinning if there had been any investigation concerning the Eddie Hardaway, Jr., donations and how that had occurred.
Pompey said they initiated an investigation by the Alabama Bureau of Investigation, “and at this point it is a stone wall because you are going to need the FBI to get involved and try to break through this wall.”
Dinning said that he and attorneys Cross and Watkins researched the website and started putting in people’s names they knew would not contribute to the Republican campaign and came up with the listing for Judge Eddie Hardaway.
Dinning added, “We don’t know how some deviant somewhere was able to do that, but it’s bad that it was done. It’s worse that it is being used to hurt this couple [Griggers and his wife] right here, and they have done nothing wrong. You can go to the same website that Mr. French got his information from, and if you believe that Mr. French’s presentation then you have to convict Judge Hardaway. Everybody on this committee knows Judge Hardaway, and he is the longest-serving judge in the state. He [Hardaway] gave you a sworn affidavit that he has been defrauded the same way Greg Griggers has.”
Chairman Harris said, “I don’t see [donation] amounts on these documents.”
Demopolis attorney John Gibbs representing Griggers presented another document from the fec.gov website that included the amounts that were allegedly donated by Judge Hardaway to Republicans.
This document showed donations to different Republican candidates from other states. This document also showed donations in small amounts of 64¢ or 65¢, according to Gibbs.
Pompey said the same amounts were also shown for Griggers. The actual donations researched by the Record Journal showed amounts between $19 and $100 for Griggers.
Dinning said, “It’s bogus and scary that our federal government [can allow] reports and stuff like that.”
Pompey suggested it may have been someone, “like the federal government.” “People steal people’s social security [numbers]. They get stolen all the time.”
Pompey again used the reference, “It’s not Greg Griggers; it’s Greg S. Griggers.”
DA Griggers then spoke about Judge Hardaway’s alleged donations and how he and his lawyers used that as evidence that Griggers did not make the Republican donations. Griggers called Hardaway a “friend” and he had been his Circuit Judge since Griggers became District Attorney. “In no way are we insinuating he [Hardaway] has done anything improper. In fact, it is the opposite. We hope the committee can see that he has been taken advantage of much like myself, but in no way, nobody is saying he [Hardaway] has done anything wrong. In fact, we are not implying or saying he has done anything wrong or improper. I am not.”
Pompey added, “What we are telling this committee is these are fraudulent documents.”
Again Attorney Pompey renewed his two arguments of rendering a direct verdict of not abusing Democratic Party rules and to dismiss the complaint based on the fact no bond was paid.
Chairman Harris replied, “We are going to reserve our ruling and continue to do that. We are adjourned. The committee will reach a decision in due time and hopefully very promptly.”
Editor’s note: The full text of the Alabama Democratic Party Executive Committee Subcommittee’s decision is in the pdf below: