Ethics Complaint Filed Against Commissioner Over 'Racist Pig' Remarks

LAWRENCEVILLE, GA — An ethics complaint was filed Monday against Gwinnett County Commissioner Tommy Hunter, who stoked controversy by calling Atlanta U.S. Rep. John Lewis a "racist pig" on Facebook.

The complaint, filed by two attorneys on behalf of a Gwinnett County resident, claims that Hunter — who narrowly won re-election to the board in November — violated three parts of the Gwinnett County Code of Ethics with his online behavior.

The lawyers also are asking the county ethics board to refer the matter to Gwinnett County's Solicitor General to determine whether a misdemeanor law was violated with any of Hunter's Facebook posts.

In a statement Monday, the lawyers did not specify which sections of the ethics code Hunter may have violated or which law may have been broken by his posts.

Since Hunter's mid-January comments, Gwinnett County Democrats have worked to make political hay out of them, organizing protests at commission meetings and calling on Hunter to resign.

In January, Lewis — a civil rights icon who represented Georgia's Fifth Congressional District based in Atlanta — was embroiled in a feud with President Donald Trump. He said at one point that he didn't view Trump as "a legitimate president, in part because he believed evidence that Russian interference helped Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton.

"John Lewis is a racist pig," Hunter wrote on his personal Facebook page during the dispute.

The post goes on to twice refer to Democrats with the insult "Demonrats" and call them "a bunch of idiots."

Hunter, a Republican, represents Snellville, Loganville and other parts of an ethnically diverse span of Gwinnett County. He was first elected in 2012, and narrowly re-elected this year.

His suburban Atlanta district is miles east of Lewis's and the two do not overlap.

Hunter's comments sparked calls from Democrats and some civil rights groups for him to step down from the commission. Some of his fellow commissioners, including Chairwoman Charlotte Nash, publicly apologized to Lewis and, to varying degrees, condemned Hunter's comments.

At a commission meeting last month,Hunter apologized "for the choice of words I made about Congressman John Lewis."

In the same statement, he said "I will not allow baseless accusations of racism against me or anyone to keep people from speaking up when something is wrong."

A statement Monday from the lawyers filing the ethics complaint did not specify the exact sections they accuse Hunter of violating with his remarks.

They plan a news conference, along with complainant Nancie Turner, immediately before a commission meeting planned for Tuesday.

The complaint was delivered Monday to Gwinnett County Attorney William J. Linkous III, attorneys said.

Photo courtesy Gwinnett County Commission