During the height of the 2026 primary elections, residents of Jefferson County received curious, oversized mailers featuring images of Judge Yashiba Blanchard. The mailers were still hitting mailboxes when Blanchard was removed from the bench.
According to AL.com, records indicate that, in addition to furniture and photography services, the bulk of the money was paid to popular Democratic political consultant Lindsey McAdory and Democratic activist Samuel T. Greene II.
Two sources with knowledge of the situation told 1819 News that the FBI is investigating Blanchard's spending.
The report says that one of McAdory's companies, CBG Strategies LLC, received at least $637,000, and Greene's company, Greene Consulting Group LLC, was paid $450,000.
McAdory has close ties to Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin and U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures (D-Mobile). The CBG website also boasts of work for State Rep. Phillip Ensler (D-Montgomery), Democratic lieutenant governor nominee, and ProgressPAC, the political arm of the Business Council of Alabama (BCA).
A second company, McMail, shows over $79,347 paid by former Woodfin staffer Alicia Ruth Lumpkin earlier this year. Lumpkin defeated State Rep. Juandalynn Givan (D-Birmingham) to be the democrat nominee for House District 60. Givan is challenging Lumpkin's eligibility to run. The case is pending a motion for summary judgment filed by Givan.
McAdory's social media shows his close ties to state democrats and his disdain for Republicans.
"Supporting Trump means endorsing bigotry, hate, and ignorance. His cult members have swallowed his political propaganda whole, blindly following their self-proclaimed savior as he leads them off a cliff," McAdory wrote in a social media post.
Greene unsuccessfully ran for the state house in 2018.
The funds bypassed normal Jefferson County controls because they came from a discretionary budget fund intended for archiving old county records.
The 2012 law authorizing the fees and their use says, "All special indexing and filing fees collected shall be deposited into the Judge of Probate Fund, and retained by the office of the judge of probate to be used for the payment of salaries for confidential judicial assistants and an improved indexing, recording, archiving, and retrieving system and other equipment, maintenance, and services necessary for the improvement of the office of the judge of probate."
According to the AL(dot)com report, Blanchard, through her attorney, defended her spending.
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