UPDATE: 'Donald Trump this thing': Cobb Superior Court clerk accused of ordering passport fee record destruction

Nov. 19—An employee of Cobb Superior Court Clerk Connie Taylor has accused Taylor of ordering her to destroy records related to her collection of passport fees, according to documents obtained by the MDJ.

In a letter sent to the Board of Commissioners and other county staff Thursday, Taylor is alleged to have told accounting manager Maya Curry, "We're just going to Donald Trump this thing," after her office received an open records request related to her fee collections.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation confirmed Friday it has opened an investigation of criminal allegations against Taylor at the request of a Cobb County Superior Court judge.

The letter to the county was drafted by Curry's attorney, state Rep. Stacey Evans, D-Atlanta, and comes amid scrutiny of passport fees retained by Taylor as personal income. Taylor has reportedly personally collected over $425,000 in fees since taking office in January 2021, over and above her annual salary of $169,913.

The Board of Commissioners was set to take about $83,000 of those collections back into the county coffers at their meeting Thursday night, which Taylor said she had mistakenly collected due to a system "error." But the agenda item was abruptly pulled at the top of the meeting.

After receiving the open records request on Oct. 11, Taylor allegedly told Curry she did not have to comply with the request, instructing her to delete electronic records related to the fee collections. Curry, who was "scared, intimidated, anxious, and shocked by what Ms. Taylor was demanding," complied with the demand, per the letter.

"The series of events relayed in the letter speak for themselves," Evans told the MDJ Friday. "Our client is a dedicated government employee who has repeatedly sought to do the right thing under extreme and undue pressure from an elected official. We hope the attention remains on the wrongdoer here."

County spokesman Ross Cavitt referred questions to Taylor, who did not respond to requests for comment Friday. Cobb District Attorney Flynn Broady likewise did not respond to requests for comment.

One of Broady's predecessors, however — former Cobb District Attorney Tom Charron — said the allegations call for a probe by local authorities.

"To me there really would need to be a major investigation, certainly by local law enforcement and the local district attorney's office into ... any allegations of wrongdoing," Charron said. "What escalates it is, if you have a whistleblower, a witness, who says that documents that would shed light on this issue were ordered — by employees or by the elected official themselves — destroyed. And all that really ramps up the investigation."

The allegations

Curry, according to Evans' letter, joined Taylor's office in March, and first raised the issue of the passport fees about two months later.

Federal regulations permit local governments to process passport applications on behalf of the U.S. State Department, charging a $35 processing fee per application. Georgia state law further allows court clerks to keep the proceeds of that fee as personal income.

In May, Curry reportedly sent an email to Taylor asking how she wanted to allocate the fees, saying Taylor's predecessor, Rebecca Keaton, kept a portion of the fees while sending the rest to the county. Taylor then allegedly called Curry, chastising her for putting the question in writing.

The more than $83,000 Taylor was set to return to the county Thursday came from an additional $24.70 fee the office charges for expedited shipping on applications. Taylor told county commissioners that was due to an error within the office's "obsolete system," which she discovered during an internal audit in early October.

Curry alleges otherwise.

Taylor reportedly directed Curry "to allocate all passport processing and expedited shipping fees to her personally." Curry also "is unaware of any audit having occurred."

It was then on Oct. 13, when Curry brought the open records request to Taylor's attention, that Taylor allegedly said she would not comply with the request and made the "Donald Trump this thing" comment.

Taylor allegedly instructed Curry to delete the records — including the report of Taylor's passport proceeds — and referenced the 2001 Enron scandal "and that the accountants were held responsible alongside the executives."

The letter continues, "Ms. Taylor then discussed only issuing handwritten checks to her for the passport fees and thus discontinuing issuing passport fee checks to her under the Office's electronic Accufund system. Ms. Taylor then commanded Ms. Curry to access the electronic Accufund system and delete records of the electronic checks issued to Ms. Taylor for the passport fees. Ms. Curry refused."

Curry then reported the incident to her supervisor and worked to preserve the records by uploading them to a backed up digital drive.

Then last week (the first report on Taylor's fee collections published Nov. 4) "Ms. Taylor demanded that Ms. Curry leave the Office and has had Ms. Curry's access to the Office's systems terminated," the letter alleges.

The reason Taylor reportedly gave was to investigate an interaction between Curry and one of her subordinates, in which Curry is reported to have asked the subordinate "if things were going okay for her at the Office, as she was concerned that the employee seemed unhappy."

David Hudson, attorney for the Georgia Press Association, told the Journal that the Georgia Constitution provides that all public officials are servants of the people.

"It would be an egregious violation of that obligation to obey the Constitution and laws of the State of Georgia for an official to try to cause a violation of a statute, certainly the Open Records Act," Hudson said. "The Open Records Act provides that it is a misdemeanor for anyone to 'knowingly and willingly [frustrate] or [attempt] to frustrate the access to records intentionally making it difficult to obtain or review. . . .' To do so is a misdemeanor and is punishable by a fine of $1,000.00."

Hudson said Georgia's attorney general is given authority to bring criminal or civil cases for Open Records Act violations.

Refund nixed

The announcement that the agenda item to refund the roughly $83,000 to the county had been pulled came at the top of Thursday night's meeting.

County Manager Jackie McMorris said the decision was because "there were just so many questions that we didn't have time to get answers to ... She's a constitutional officer. We can't speak for you, I can't tell you what to do, what not do. It's your decision."

McMorris herself is cited in the letter, allegedly calling Curry Thursday "to inform her that there is an 'investigation,' that Ms. Curry is on 'administrative leave,' and that 'adverse action' may be forthcoming," the letter says.

McMorris could not be reached for comment Friday.

Chairwoman Lisa Cupid said she was unavailable for comment Friday. Thursday night, she was asked by the MDJ legal issues aside, what she made of Taylor's earnings on an ethical level.

"I think that's a fair question," Cupid said. "I want to respect her as an elected official. I want us to get what we are due by law. Whatever else she's received, I think that's for her to determine. I think she's fully aware of the questions people have."