Tyrone BrooksMONROE, Ga. – A Georgia state lawmaker who’s facing federal wire fraud and mail fraud charges said Thursday that federal investigators are targeting him because of his efforts to investigate and draw attention to an unsolved 67-year-old lynching.
Rep. Tyrone Brooks, flanked by about a dozen supporters, made the statements at a news conference at Moore’s Ford Bridge in Monroe, where two black couples were killed in 1946. Brooks has long championed the effort for justice in the case and said he believes FBI agents have been actively involved in a cover-up in the case. He did not offer any proof to support his claim that he was being targeted for his efforts to bring attention to the lynching.
A spokesman for the FBI’s Atlanta office said the agency would not issue any comment on Brooks’ accusations Thursday.
“We know that the reason that we have been under attack by the government over the last few weeks and the horrible things that have been said about me personally is a direct result of our involvement in the Moore’s Ford Bridge movement,” the longtime Democratic lawmaker said.
A federal grand jury earlier this month handed down an indictment that alleges Brooks solicited more than $1 million in contributions from the mid-1990s to 2012 to fight illiteracy in underserved communities and other causes. Prosecutors say Brooks, who was first elected to the General Assembly in 1981, used the money for personal and family expenses, ranging from home repairs to credit card bills.