Cobb County Superior Court Clerk Connie Taylor is accused of pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars in passport processing fees in Cobb County, Georgia.
Taylor faces charges of destroying public records and violating her oath of office.
Taylor was elected Cobb County’s Superior Court Clerk in 2020. She was reelected to her position in 2024.
The Georgia Attorney General’s Office says Taylor instructed an employee to destroy records that show she pocketed more than $200,000 in passport fees, in addition to her $170,000 annual salary.
Taylor directed an employee to delete government emails and financial records after a reporter filed an open records request.
She reportedly told the employee, “We’re just going to Donald Trump this thing.”
Taylor was arrested and booked into the Cobb County jail Friday morning. She was released on her own recognizance.
Attorney Stacey Evans, who is representing the employee, said Taylor “chastised” her client for asking how she wanted to allocate passport funds in an email.
Taylor reportedly stated the passport fees were “her money.” She refused to provide any records related to her predecessor’s collection of passport fees.
Georgia’s County clerks are allowed to legally pocket passport fees due to an obscure law on the books.
State law allows clerks to keep a $35 processing fee for each passport application. But Taylor also kept more than $24 per application in expedited mailing charges that should have gone to the county.
By comparison, Fulton County’s clerk pocketed $360,000 in passport processing fees, in addition to her $200,000 salary.
Earlier this year, Taylor agreed to reimburse the county more than $83,000 in passport mailing fees that clerks are not allowed to keep.
“It just doesn’t seem fair to use county resources for your own personal profit,” state Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick said. Kirkpatrick plans to introduce legislation to change the law that allows County clerks to pocket passport fees.
