A voting rights group founded by Stacey Abrams has been dealt the largest campaign violation fine in Georgia history. The New Georgia Project, once a major organizing force, will pay the state $300,000 for illegally spending millions to bolster Abrams' 2018 gubernatorial campaign to settle a complaint filed with the Georgia Ethics Commission, according to a consent form made public on Wednesday. Aria Branch, counsel to the New Georgia Project, told Newsweek Wednesday that the group was "glad to finally put this matter behind us so the New Georgia Project...

A nonprofit voter registration organization founded by two-time Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams has agreed to pay the largest fine ever assessed by the Georgia Ethics Commission. The commission's board voted Wednesday to approve a consent order calling for New Georgia Project and a separate fundraising arm to pay $300,000 for failing to disclose $4.2 million in contributions and $3.2 million in spending during the 2018 election cycle on behalf of Abrams' unsuccessful bid for governor.

It’s a dramatic about-face for a group that for years denied it did anything improper and mocked the investigation as a politically motivated “fishing expedition.” On Wednesday, it admitted to every allegation the commission had leveled against it. It was also a stunning blow to the political organization that helped propel Abrams to the national spotlight. The New Georgia Project’s eye-popping voter registration figures were a fixture in national coverage of Abrams and helped establish her as a rising Democratic star and a prominent voting rights activist. The consent order...