The City of Atlanta has released 1.4 million pages of printed documents related to the ongoing federal bribery scandal that has ensnared City Hall. Members of the Atlanta news media were faced with a wall of file boxes inside the Old City Hall Council Chambers this morning as they gathered for a press conference called by Mayor Kasim Reed.
Reed said the documents would eventually be released in electronic form, but would not give a timeline.
Two contractors, Elvin “E.R.” Mitchell and Charles P. Richards, have been charged in an ongoing federal investigation that they bribed unnamed city officials for lucrative building contracts. Mitchell has plead guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit bribery and launder money, while Richards was arraigned Wednesday on a single count of conspiracy to commit bribery.
The AJC noted that some of the boxes made available to the media were labeled in reference to Mitzi Bickers, the city’s former director of human relations and a consultant for Reed’s mayoral campaign. Bicker’s is accused of hiring a man arrested for throwing a brick through Mitchell’s window and placing dead rats around his home as a warning not to speak to federal investigators.