'Deportation Bus' Candidate Booked Into Hall County Jail

CUMMING, GA — The Republican candidate for governor who touted his "deportation bus" as a solution to illegal immigration and led a protest outside a Cherokee County high school has turned himself in to authorities following his indictment on fraud and making false statement charges.

The Hall County Sheriff's Office confirmed Michael Edward Williams, a Georgia state senator who is in the final days of his tenure serving District 27 constituents, was booked into its jail Wednesday afternoon on charges of insurance fraud, making a false statement and false report of a crime.

A Hall County grand jury last week indicted Williams on charges that he lied about a burglary he said took place at his business. Williams, who finished in last place in the May 22 primary, gained state and national notoriety with his infamous deportation bus that branded immigrants as rapists and murderers.

Williams, the former co-chair of the Trump campaign in Georgia, launched the tour weeks before the Republican primary, and took the bus on the road to Clarkston, Decatur and Athens — the state's three so-called "sanctuary cities."

Cherokee County residents became familiar with Williams when he and dozens of his followers protested outside Woodstock's River Ridge High School in September 2017, calling for the Cherokee County School District to fire a teacher accused of suppressing the constitutional rights of pro-Donald Trump students.

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According to the indictment, Williams allegedly committed insurance fraud when he claimed computer servers were stolen from his business in his filing to receive a claim from The Hartford insurance company. He also made a false report of burglary and theft around May 9 to the Hall County Sheriff's Office when he told the agency about the alleged crime.

Finally, Williams is accused of lying to an agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation when he said he was not in the Gainesville area around the time of the purported burglary. According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Williams alleged the servers had been stolen from his office to make cryptocurrency.

AJ Richman, Williams' attorney, said his client bonded out of the Hall County Jail Wednesday afternoon.

Image via Hall County Sheriff's Office