Adding up

Elbert Memorial Hospital’s $25,000 contribution to the Take Back Georgia political action committee (PAC) in March that began the controversy that eventually led to former Chief Executive Officer Kerry Trapnell being fired from the hospital June 10 wasn’t an isolated contribution.

Records show that Trapnell made contributions to other political candidates and used hospital funds for trips to events and appearances associated with Republican U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker and former President Donald Trump.

The Elberton Star filed an open records request June 10 for all documents sent to the hospital’s auditors, Draffin and Tucker, in order to perform an expenditure search at the request of Chairman Leon Jourolmon in April after Trapnell’s $25,000 contribution.

The Star received the documents, containing at least 1,000 pages of information, July 5. They included grant bank statements; credit card statements; check register and vendor lists; bank statements and bank account information from Lake Russell Health Services; operating account bank statements; information from the hospital’s Northeast Georgia Bank account; payroll, payroll tax and rural tax credit accounts; Wellness Center accounts and other miscellaneous documents.

The Star was charged $100.60 for the records and Georgia’s Open Records Act allows no more than $0.10 per page to be charged.

After reviewing the records, The Star found that Trapnell, on behalf of the hospital, made contributions to WinRed PAC ($5,800) and Mallory Staples for Congress ($2,500) in November and December 2021 and made a contribution to candidate Patrick Witt ($5,000) in April, according to the records.

The contributions, including the one to Take Back Georgia, totaled $38,300.

The first contribution – November 2021

 

Trapnell first made a $5,800 contribution to WinRed PAC, a PAC with a non-contribution account launched by former President Donald Trump to help Republican candidate Herschel Walker through Team Herschel, INC., his principal United States senate campaign committee.

The hospital’s credit card statement showed the charge description as “WinRed* Team Hersc[hel] Arlington, Virginia.”

The contribution was made as a “sponsorship” Trapnell said he was asked to make in order to attend an event at the end of November 2021, according to notes he made for the expenditure in a “consulting engagement file” May 2.

“I thought I was to make this a corporate sponsorship via EMH so I made the payment via EMH credit card,” Trapnell wrote in the notes that were included as part of the open record request. “When I let Herschel’s team know I made the payment, they immediately told me it needed to be a personal sponsorship rather than corporate.”

Trapnell said he then made a personal contribution “within minutes” and was told the payment from his EMH card would be refunded.

According to the notes, the refund was not done “timely” electronically, and Trapnell noted that a check had been mailed “recently” on May 2.

“This was discovered when talking with them about the $25,000 PAC issue,” Trapnell wrote about the late refund. “Check has been received by EMH and deposited.”

An attached refunded check from “Team Herschel, INC” was dated April 27.

Trapnell notified EMH Authority Board Executive Committee members Scott Wilson, Max Black, Kam McClary and Jourolmon in a Nov. 17 email that he would miss the Nov. 30 board meeting due to attending a meeting with Walker and Trump.

“For those that don’t know, I’ve been working with Herschel Walker behind the scenes on his GA Senate campaign the last few months,” Trapnell wrote in the Nov. 17 email. “I’m helping with some fundraisers and primarily with his rural health initiatives and making connections for him. Long story short, he’s invited me to go with him to meet with former President Trump on Dec. 1 for a dinner and to talk rural health. So, this is a really important trip.”

Jourolmon and McClary responded that they had “no problem” with Trapnell missing the board meeting.

“Excellent opportunity,” Wilson responded. “Enjoy it.”

In an additional statement to the “consulting engagement file,” May 2, Trapnell said the contribution to Walker was “in error.”

“It was never my intent to do anything wrong for myself or for the hospital. The first payment to Herschel Walker was in error and corrected the same day personally. However, that refund got lost in the process due to poor followup on my part. But, I can honestly say it was the last thing on my mind the last few months.”

The second contribution – December 2021

 

On Dec. 31, 2021, Trapnell made a second political contribution – in the amount of $2,500 – to Mallory Staples for Congress, a principal campaign committee for the U.S. House of Representative Georgia District 6 candidate.

The new reapportionment map that affects the 2022 elections for congressional races shows that District 6 includes Dawson and Forsyth counties along with portions of Cherokee, Fulton, Cobb and Gwinnett counties.

In a May 2 note to the “consulting engagement file,” Trapnell wrote that he used the wrong card for the contribution. Instead of his personal card, he used the hospital’s card.

“I did not realize the most recent credit card stored on my computer was the EMH card,” Trapnell said, citing the EMH card number along with his personal card number. “[I] just did not notice the error after clicking through it quickly.”

Trapnell said he did not notice the error until April 2022, when he went to make another contribution to Patrick Witt, who was then running as a Republican candidate for Georgia’s Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner seat, where he made the same mistake.

“When I noticed that error,” Trapnell said of the contribution to Witt, “It made me go back and look at the one above for Mallory Staples which then got corrected [the] same day the error was noted.”

In an undated text message accompanying Trapnell’s May 2 notes, Trapnell texted Staples asking for the refund.

“I need a HUGE favor from you,” Trapnell texted to Staples. “I made that donation back in December. I somehow mistakenly put that on my hospital credit card. I need that refunded so I can do a personal donation. I’m in deep trouble if I don’t get that refunded.”

According to the hospital’s credit card statements, the refund was credited back to the hospital on April 26.

The third contribution – March 2022

 

On March 22, Trapnell filled out a check request for a “sponsorship/donation” in the amount of $25,000 to be made payable to “Take Back Georgia PAC.”

Take Back Georgia is a non-candidate, independent PAC that had connections to former gubernatorial candidate David Perdue and former President Trump, according to records from the Georgia Campaign Finance System.

Trapnell wrote “Sponsorship – Roundtable meeting on March 26 in Atlanta,” as the reason for the check request.

“In late March, I was invited by Herschel Walker’s team to attend a roundtable discussion on March 26 with former President Trump along with other elected officials and those running for office this year,” Trapnell said in his May 2 notes to the “consulting engagement file.” “I was told EMH could be a corporate sponsor of the event for [$25,000] which is why I processed the payment.”

The check was cut via the hospital and dated March 23.

“The purpose of the event was to have me meet elected officials and private individuals who could help with federal funding for a new hospital for EMH,” Trapnell continued in the notes. “There was no intent to talk with anyone at the state level, only the federal level, and specifically U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde. His office has allowed EMH to submit our new facility funding request for federal appropriations consideration, just like Democratic Senators [Raphael] Warnock and [Jon] Ossoff have allowed EMH to do. Unfortunately, Rep. Clyde and I did not even get a chance to talk.”

The contribution was filed along with Take Back Georgia’s filings on the Georgia Campaign Finance System’s website April 1.

Authority Chairman Leon Jourolmon said he found out about the contribution April 21 after being contacted by fellow executive committee member Scott Wilson. Jourolmon then contacted Max Black April 22 and Kam McClary April 24 to inform the rest of the executive committee.

Trapnell was also contacted April 21 by Jourolmon, who told Trapnell he “did not feel [the expenditure] was proper and that [Trapnell] needed to return the money.”

“There was never any board approval for that expenditure, nor any discussion,” Jourolmon said in a May 23 executive committee meeting. “He was instrumental, and he alone, was the one who received the money back.”

“On April 21, I received a phone call from two executive committee members stating they were told Gov. Kemp’s office had an issue with this sponsorship and it appeared on some list as a donation from EMH directly to David Perdue,” Trapnell said in the May 2 notes. “I had no idea how that happened or how that process even worked. I still do not know how that happened. I believed a PAC was for ‘a cause’ and not a specific candidate, just like Georgia Hospital Association’s HOSPAC [is] for hospitals and not a particular candidate. I was not well educated on this process.”

Jourolmon said the money was returned to the hospital, in the form of a check from Take Back Georgia April 26.

Jourolmon said he contacted the hospital’s attorney April 22 and signed a final engagement letter April 27 to request the hospital’s auditors, Draffin and Tucker, to perform an expenditure search of the hospital’s general ledger, current vendor list, 1099 list, check register, bank statements and credit cards.

Draffin and Tucker was also requested to make a list of local, state and federal politicians, as well as political action committees, and make a cost check against the hospital’s expenditures. Jourolmon said the list of PACs “hit about 20,000 at one point” and many of the hospital’s vendors have PACs or have PACs closely associated with them.

In a statement to a “consulting engagement file” dated May 2, Trapnell said the contribution to Take Back Georgia was “intended all along to be the only corporate sponsorship ever done for one of the events I attended.”

“I was told to do it that way by the PAC. Even after this has come up as a possible issue, the PAC still does not know why it is not acceptable,” Trapnell wrote in the May 2 notes.

After news about the expenditure broke May 20, Trapnell released a statement that said he made the contribution after being “invited to attend an event where EMH was asked to be a sponsor to help get us in front of more state and federal folks.”

In a photo posted on Twitter by Michele Beagle, who is associated with Herschel Walker, Trapnell can be seen at a table that includes U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde, Walker, Trump, David Perdue and other political candidates. Beagle tagged Walker and Perdue as well as Georgia Safety Fire and Insurance Commissioner candidate Patrick Witt, Georgia Lt. Governor candidate Burt Jones and Georgia U.S. District 10 Congressional Rep. Jody Hice.

Elbert County is not included in Hice’s district.

“To be a sponsor, I made the large sponsorship payment as requested,” Trapnell said in the statement. “I honestly thought this sponsorship was like any other sponsorship we would do for a charity fundraiser, a golf tournament, etc.  Unfortunately, we later learned this type of sponsorship is not allowed and is considered a political contribution.  I had no idea this is how PACs worked.  The moment I found out this news, I contacted the PAC and told them of the news I received.  The PAC then immediately refunded the money to EMH.  The PAC personnel apologized profusely to me as they also did not realize that was not allowed.  They were just trying to help our hospital find funding for a new hospital. Going forward, EMH is adding more policies and processes to ensure this does not happen again in the future.”

According to Take Back Georgia’s registration with the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission, the PAC’s chairperson is Brandon Beach of an Alpharetta address that matches that of Georgia Republican Senator Brandon Beach of Alpharetta.

Trapnell said May 2 that since making a request for a refunded contribution, Beach “called [him] multiple times to apologize for any issue this caused.”

“He did not understand why a hospital should not make such a sponsorship/contribution and is willing to speak with our executive committee if needed,” Trapnell said in the May 2 notes.

 

The fourth contribution – April 14, 2022

 

On April 14, Trapnell made another political contribution to Patrick Witt, who was then running as a Republican candidate for Georgia’s Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner seat.

Trapnell said he made the same mistake he made with his contribution to Staples in December by using the EMH credit card instead of his own.

“I noticed the charge was not there and tried to figure out what happened,” Trapnell said when he looked at his personal credit card, according to the May 2 notes. “That’s when I noticed the error and immediately notified them to fix my mistake. They refunded it electronically back to the EMH credit card immediately and I then made my correct personal contribution. You can clearly see my person name and home address on these as they were intended to be personal. EMH is not listed anywhere.”

Both the contributions to Witt and Staples included Trapnell’s name and home address.

Trapnell attached undated text messages to Witt and Brant Frost with Witt’s office along with the May 2 notes asking them to refund the contribution.

“I have a huge problem and favor to ask,” Trapnell sent to Frost. “I wasn’t paying attention and used my work credit card for the donation instead of my personal one. Can you please refund that payment so I can make another one on my personal card?”

Trapnell copied the text and sent it to Witt.

“I’m really sorry for the mistake but I accidentally picked the wrong credit card when it auto filled,” Trapnell told Witt. “I need to get it fixed asap tomorrow if possible.”

The refunded $5,000 contribution was credited to the hospital’s credit card April 21, according to the credit card statements.

In the additional statement to the “consulting engagement file” dated May 2, Trapnell said the contributions to Witt and Staples “were definitely done in error.”

“The two smaller ones were definitely done in error by not paying attention to the last credit card number stored in the computer drop down box,” Trapnell said. “They were quickly corrected, refunded and processed as personal contributions as intended.”

According to the Federal Election Commission’s website, Trapnell made five personal contributions between Nov. 15 and Dec. 31, 2021 to WinRed, Team Herschel, INC and Mallory Staples for Congress. He had previously made individual contributions to WinRed and Team Herschel, INC from Sept. 20, 2021 through Oct. 1, 2021.