Just weeks after Birmingham podcaster Iva Williams filed an ethics complaint against State Rep. Juandalynn Givan (D-Birmingham) for paying her brother for campaign services in her race for Birmingham mayor against incumbent Randall Woodfin, the Alabama Ethics Commission informed Givan that the case was "closed." But that closure isn't the end.
Givan is now vowing that she's not letting the matter end there, saying that while the "bogus ethics complaint" was dismissed, she's fighting back.
In an email to Givan provided to 1819 News, Wednesday morning, Cynthia Propst Raulston, the special assistant to the commission director, said, "Thank you for the detailed invoices you sent. This case will be closed."
She went on to say, "We appreciate your cooperation in resolving the matter."
Givan told 1819 News, "I want to say as a legislative body, we need to work on crafting changes to the ethics laws that deal with frivolous claims against us, because these are claims that can ruin someone's reputation, good name, and character. All for the purpose of political gain, of those who have become political enemies, and as I call them, political assassins."
She said the person who filed the claim against her did so to "bring me down, publicly, to humiliate me, stain and assassinate my character publicly," adding that the purpose was to impact and harm her in the upcoming election.
Givan said from the outset that the expenditures were valid and called the complaint against her "petty," insisting that it was yet another "attack on my character" by those associated with Woodfin.
SEE: Juandalynn Givan calls ethics complaint accusing her of improperly paying brother 'petty'
"These idiots, these low-life scum, 'cause that's what they are. Feel they can do anything they want, all in the name of Alabama laws, and it's not fair," Givan said.
The Birmingham lawmaker said she has followed other cases and instances of people facing ethics complaints, sometimes multiple complaints by the same person or people, including Hoover City Councilman Steve McClinton.
"I followed the one in Hoover," she explained. "Damn. These people can file these types of complaints viciously, and nobody does anything."
RELATED: Hoover City Councilman McClinton cleared in 'weaponized' ethics investigation
McClinton fully supports the idea of legislative reform.
"I think it's outstanding, it should be bipartisan," he told 1819 News. "It's a human issue about decency, about respect, and when somebody on the other side just frivolously throws your name out there for accusations of ethics violations, that hurts no matter what."
"To me, the people who do something frivolously, especially maliciously, trying to hurt someone's character, that has to be consequences and penalties upon that, whether it be loser pays, or whether they're banned from certain politics or whatever, it has to stop," McClinton, who had to pay thousands of dollars in lawyers' fees to fight ethics charges that were dropped, added.
Givan is running for reelection, facing a challenger backed by Birmingham's Randall Woodfin.
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