The court fight over Stacey Abrams and that $2 billion has been running for over a year now, and the latest round just ended with an appeals court ruling that has everyone talking. It all started when the Trump administration came into power and discovered billions of dollars that had been set aside under the Environmental Protection Agency. Stacey Abrams was part of a consortium of organizations that were supposed to get a piece of that money. Her group, part of something called the Greenhouse Reduction Fund, was set to receive $2 billion out of the total $20 billion.
Biden and his team were giving out all this money when they lost the election. Then Trump came in, found out about it, and put a stop to the disbursement. The climate groups, including the one connected to Abrams, sued to get the money released. At first, a court said the money would be held while the dispute played out.
Then another court ruled that the Stacey-linked groups had filed their claim in the wrong court and needed to refile elsewhere. That looked like a setback, so they appealed to the full appeals court. Yesterday, that full appeals court handed down its decision. They ruled that Stacey and the others are likely to win, meaning they are likely to get the money.
The case is being sent back down to the lower court to issue its ruling, and it looks like the groups are going to get what they want. But there’s a wrinkle. While all of this was happening, Trump’s administration pushed through what they called the “one big beautiful bill” in 2025. In that bill, they rescinded the money legislatively.
They didn’t want to leave it up to the courts, so they tried to snatch the money back through Congress. The question now is whether that legislative move holds up. Congress has the power of the purse, and there are laws about how the executive branch can impound funds. The appeals court still ruled that Stacey and her group will likely get the money, even though Congress had already taken it back.
This whole mess is probably heading to the Supreme Court. They will have to decide whether to hear the case, and if they do, they’ll have to sort out whether a later Congress can legally take back money that was already appropriated. As of right now, Stacey Abrams and her group are winning. They are closer than ever to getting their hands on that $2 billion.
And all of this is happening while Abrams is still under subpoena to testify before the Georgia State Senate about alleged campaign finance violations tied to another one of her organizations. The State Ethics Commission fined the New Georgia Project, an organization founded by Abrams, $300,000. It was the largest fine imposed by the State Ethics Commission ever. The fine came after a multi-year investigation into complaints that the organization violated campaign finance laws and failed to report how much money it earned and spent.
According to a consent order, the Georgia State Ethics Commission found the New Georgia Project violated campaign finance law tied to Abrams’ run for governor in 2018 and a transit referendum in Gwinnett County in 2019. Both campaigns lost. In the consent order, the New Georgia Project admitted to 16 violations, including failing to properly register with the Ethics Commission and failing to disclose more than $4 million in campaign contributions plus more than $3 million in spending. The pattern is pretty clear.
Abrams goes around founding different organizations, keeps loose ties with them, gets some money flowing, but doesn’t stay to run the day-to-day operations. Then when there’s trouble, she can say, “I just founded that. I wasn’t there. I wasn’t the one who did the dirty work.
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The commission first looked into a complaint back in 2019, but a series of legal battles from the New Georgia Project delayed a decision for years. Cody Hall, an advisor to Governor Brian Kemp, is now questioning what Abrams knew and when she knew it. The legal counsel for the New Georgia Project responded to the consent order with a statement saying they were disappointed in the ruling that was overturned on procedural grounds and glad to finally put the matter behind them so the group could focus on registering voters in Georgia. When asked if the State Ethics Commission found reason to believe Abrams herself violated any laws, Executive Director David Emadi said that was still under investigation.
The Georgia Senate has ramped up its investigation, issuing subpoenas to Abrams and other key figures, including New Georgia Project leaders Lauren Groh-Wargo and Nse Ufot. They’ve been ordered to appear before lawmakers at the state capitol. Republican State Senator Greg Dolezal, the committee’s vice chairman, said, “The committee has a responsibility to follow the facts wherever they lead. Georgia law requires transparency and accountability in our elections.
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The New Georgia Project shut down and dissolved in 2025 following mounting financial and legal troubles. This long-running saga is far from over. The Supreme Court will have to decide whether to hear the case about the $2 billion, and if they do, they’ll have to rule on whether Congress can legally take back money that was already appropriated. The main question is whether Trump and his administration could simply refuse to give out money that Congress had approved.
And whether a later Congress can take it back. Those are questions the Supreme Court will have to answer. Right now, Stacey Abrams and her organizations are ahead on points.
But the fight is not done yet.
