Greg and Travis McMichael:   
Hear Their Side

I believe with every ounce of my being that the arrest and prosecution of Greg, Travis and William “Roddy" Bryan began at the office of Governor Brian Kemp. If you scoff at the idea, I encourage you to read on and try to keep an open mind. At the end, you may continue to disagree that politics played a significant part in the arrest and prosecution of Greg, Travis, and Roddy. On the other hand, you may have an awakening and truly understand that the arrest and prosecution reeks of backroom politics at the highest level.

Do you recall the controversial TV ad that Kemp played while running against Stacey Abrams in 2018 to become Georgia’s next governor?  Note that in the ad, Kemp points a shotgun at a teenager he calls “Jake.” Kemp keeps the gun pointed at Jake while questioning him about conservative policies he intends to implement if he’s elected governor. After watching the video, ask yourself if you find any irony between Kemp’s campaign video and what happened to Greg, Travis, and Roddy.

Kemp Ad

Kemp’s shotgun video was designed for political gain. Similarly, he used Roddy’s cell phone video and his own authority as governor over the GBI and others in a way that was itself tantamount to political gain. Kemp has since taken credit for the change to Georgia’s Citizen Arrest Law and the establishment of the Georgia Hate Crime Law. He signed both with great fanfare on May 10, 2021, in a ceremony at the Georgia State Capital. On that occasion, Ahmaud’s mother, Wanda Jones, was present. The Atlanta Journal Constitution published an article about the event that was titled “A birthday present to Ahmaud, Georgia overhauls citizen’s arrest law." 

The politics doesn’t stop with Governor Kemp, however. On February 2, 2022, members of the Georgia House of Representatives issued a Proclamation making February 23 of each year “Ahmaud Arbery Day” in Georgia. The proclamation reads in part: “WHEREAS, on February 23, 2022, the State of Georgia honors one of its most distinguished citizens. . . .”

Full proclamation

So why would our elected officials sign and support this effort? After all, Ahmaud was a twice-convicted felon on probation, was awaiting trial and out on bond in Burke County, Georgia, had a diagnosed history of mental health problems, and more. (You can read more about Ahmaud’s history here.) I can’t say why all of those elected officials signed on, but I can share what one representative from the coastal area said in justifying his support: "I was pressured into it.” 

Deep down, I still hold onto a glimmer of hope that I am wrong, but the past 27 months have all but extinguished the hope and trust I had in our government.

Those who believe that justice was served would be right had Greg, Travis and Roddy actually received a fair trial, the kind guaranteed by the United States and Georgia Constitution and supposed to be the inalienable right of every citizen in this country.

I submit that it isn’t too much for three men facing a sentence of dying in an 8’ x 12’ jail cell to be afforded a trial void of media influence, based on truth and evidence and not a false narrative, based upon unbiased and reasonable court rulings, and conducted in a setting free from outside influence. I submit this is what most would agree a fair trial should look like. Of course, none of this happened in the trial of Greg, Travis, and Roddy. But before I get to what took place in their trial, I must go back to the days leading up to and the aftermath following the arrest of Greg and Travis and the arrest of Roddy days later.
 

Greg was adamant that the video of Ahmaud charging Travis and the struggle over the gun confirmed what Travis had said since the moment it happened and continues to say today: Travis was defending himself from a man who was intent on overpowering him, gaining control of his shotgun, and then killing him, his father and perhaps others, including Roddy.

Greg consulted with a local attorney before delivering a copy of the video to local radio talk show host Scott Ryfun.  Within hours the video had gone viral with a media-driven narrative of the "Black Jogger murdered by white vigilante racists in a predominantly white neighborhood," and a tsunami of unintended consequences followed.

Let me stop here and point out the lunacy behind the media-spread charge that, before Greg released the video, then-Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jackie Johnson ran interference for Greg and Travis and obstructed the Glynn County Police Department (GCPD) from pursuing charges. This is yet another LIE spread by the media, and it is a continuation of the complete and utterly false narratives that continue to drive this case.

It is true that Greg had worked for Jackie for nine years. And during that time he and our entire family came to know Jackie as a committed and honest professional, who would never violate her oath to serve the citizens of Glynn County.

The fallacy spread by the mainstream media that Jackie shut down the GCPD investigation and protected Greg and Travis is truly baffling if one considers that it was Greg who released the video! In what stratosphere does that make sense? I’ll not belabor the point other than to say that my family feels terrible for what has happened to Jackie. She deserved none of what she’s been subjected to, and I ask the readers here to please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

The following timeline is based on law-enforcement reports, court transcripts, and media coverage. The physical reports prepared by the GBI and FBI are not yet publicly available, since the case is under appeal. However, any “investigation” or conduct by these agencies is based on a thorough and detailed analysis of documents obtained lawfully by Greg and Travis.

You may need a road map to understand the people and their roles in what I submit was a well-orchestrated effort to ensure a specific trial outcome--the greatest such attempt in the history of Georgia politics. This was nothing less than a conspiracy beginning at the office of Governor Kemp, with key parts played by Attorney General Chris Carr, GBI Director Vic Reynolds, and sundry other elected and appointed state and federal prosecutors.

Astonishingly, within a day of the video’s release, we’d have a sitting President, his opponent and now current President, the opponent’s running mate, now Vice President, all weigh in on the case based simply on the narrative that accompanied the video. Soon after, Ahmaud’s name would be included in the nationwide BLM protests and demonstrations, some peaceful, others not, over the deaths of George Floyd, Brionna Taylor and other African-Americans who died during police encounters. I am not here to debate either side of these tragic events, but I submit that Ahmaud’s death had no similarities to those of Mr. Floyd or Ms. Taylor other than the color of his skin. I sit here shaking my head as I wonder how we could have ever received a fair trial under those conditions.

I believe it best to try to lay out what took place in chronological order that begins with the release of the cell phone video by Greg. Bear with me, because as you’ll see, there is a lot to unpack here.

February 23, 2020
Shooting and death of Ahmaud. Jackie Johnson recuses herself and asks DA George Barnhill to oversee the case.

April 2, 2020
Barnhill sends a letter to GCPD Captain Tom Jump after receiving Ahmaud’s autopsy report a day earlier. He finds that Greg and Travis acted lawfully and that no charges should be filed. However, he says that Arbery’s mother and others are alleging he’s biased, and he therefore plans to ask the AG to assign the matter to someone else.

Barnhill Letter

April 13, 2020
Tom Durden is appointed by Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr to replace Barnhill.

May 5, 2020
Roddy’s cell phone video was turned over to the local radio station by Greg. At 10:30 pm, Assistant Special Agent in Charge (ASAC) Richard Dial was assigned as case agent during a call from his supervisor,  Stacy Carson, Special Agent in Charge (SAC).

May 6, 2020
GBI Inspector Evelyn Rodgers spoke with ASAC Dial at 8:30 a.m. Rodgers is a top GBI official who reports directly to GBI Director Vic Reynolds. Rodgers reportedly told Dial that DA Tom Durden requested the GBI take over the investigation from the GCPD.

May 7, 2020
Lee Merritt, attorney for the Arbery family, appeared on Good Morning America and explained that the Arbery family wanted to forego the Grand Jury process and simply arrest Greg and Travis. As you’ll see going forward, Mr. Merrett and Ahmaud’s family developed and maintained a great deal of influence over this case. Coincidentally, the GBI arrested Greg and Travis in nothing less than a staged media event at my home a few hours after Merrett’s TV appearance on May 7. Their arrest came the day after the assigned DA, Tom Durden, declared his intention to bring the case to the Glynn County Grand Jury as soon as possible.

MAY 11, 2020
Attorney General Chris Carr issues a press release stating that Durden asked to be recused from the case because his office lacked the resources to prosecute it.

Note: In May 2020, our country was in the middle of a lockdown due to the COVID pandemic. No one has ever questioned why Tom Durden withdrew from the case after telling the media on May 6, 2020, that he intended to present the case to a Grand Jury. In his comments to the media, Durden said he would take the case to the Grand Jury once the Georgia Supreme Courts allowed courts to reopen, which were closed until June 12, 2020, when Durden made his statement.

Press Release

Carr appoints then Cobb County DA Joyette Holmes to the case. Carr follows on Twitter two days later with a similar announcement.

Carr's Tweet

One media outlet even went as far as to point out that the AG had appointed a Black female (Ms. Holmes) to take over the case from Durden.

GEORGIA BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

I am highlighting this section concerning the Georgia Bureau of Investigation because I think it is important to know the part that the state of Georgia’s premier law-enforcement agency did here and what they didn’t do.

The GBI file encompasses thousands of pages. There are also photos, videos, records, and more. The Glynn County Police Department investigation file of their investigation is also included in the GBI file. The GCPD file in its entirety is 89 pages, not including photos and videos. Agent Dial received a complete copy of the GCPD file from the GCPD around noon on May 6, 2020.

The GBI file names 18 field agents, including ASAC Dial who worked the investigation, plus teams from the GBI Intelligence Unit, GBI Crime Lab, and the GBI Cyber Division. In all, at least 30 GBI personnel, plus untold support staff, played a hand in this case. The GBI even set up a tip-line for the case. I have no statistical data to support this theory, but I don’t believe it is a stretch to say that the resources expended here rival those of nearly any solitary case handled by the GBI since its origin in 1937.

The GCPD file identifies 13 officers who participated in this case, including lead Detective Parker Marcy. Attorneys, the investigator and staff for Greg and Travis’ defense team reviewed every page of these files and did not find a single report, notation, or other documentation in the GCPD file to show that GCPD closed their file, and no charges were being considered when the GBI swooped in on May 6 and took over. In fact, defense interviews with GCPD officers involved with the case indicate that the case was set to be presented to the Glynn County Grand Jury and would have been once courts reopened following the COVID shutdown.

A reasonable person may wonder what did ASAC Dial and his swarm of agents find in the way of new evidence between noon on May 6 after obtaining the GCPD file and the evening of May 7 when dozens of GBI agents, local police and others pulled up to my home, followed by a gaggle of media to arrest Greg and Travis? Surely there were one or more new witnesses? New fingerprints or DNA findings? Here's your answer: NOTHING!

There was not a scintilla of new evidence to support the sudden arrest of Travis and Greg. Actually, nothing changed, but a narrative was now affixed to the video…. "Black Jogger murdered by white vigilante racists in a predominantly white neighborhood."

Amazingly, the GBI would continue to investigate and worked diligently to find new evidence to support this theory over the weeks that followed. They dispatched scores of agents to knock on every door in the neighborhood, run down anonymous tips, reexamine Ahmaud’s autopsy and toxicology screen, search my home, subpoena social media records, and more.

With the narrative out that Ahmaud routinely jogged in Satilla Shores, surely there must be people who had seen him previously and would come forth and say it. I have not tallied the exact number of people who were interviewed and asked if Ahmaud jogged in the Satilla Shores or Royal Oaks neighborhood, but I am confident that it was upwards of 100 people. All those interviews, and believe it or not, only ONE PERSON claimed to have seen Ahmaud jogging in Satilla Shores in the months before February 2020. This person once lived on Zellwood Road near the back side of Satilla Shores and away from the entrances to the subdivision. She recalled seeing Ahmaud running at times and described him as “a ray of sunshine” when questioned by the GBI. This woman and her family were subsequently found to have 300-plus pages of police records on file with the GCPD for the 20-years she lived on Zellwood Road. The state elected not to call her as a witness at trial.

After Greg and Travis were in custody, Ahmaud’s family and supporters turned their attention to Roddy. In case there’s any confusion, let me be perfectly clear: Roddy Bryan is a wrongfully convicted man. He didn’t collaborate with Greg or Travis, and neither knew the other involved party until the police arrived seconds after Ahmaud was shot during the struggle to gain control of Travis’s shotgun. It was then, and only then, that Roddy and Greg recognized one other.

To explain, Roddy and Greg were casual acquaintances and never social friends. Greg had interacted with Roddy a handful of times over the years when he needed to have some lawn equipment repaired at the local hardware store where Roddy performed small engine repairs. Travis, to this day, has never been formally introduced to Roddy. And most importantly, the McMichael family and Roddy Bryan did not know the other lived in the same neighborhood, albeit on a different street, before February 23, 2020.

The old saying of “the squeaky wheel gets the grease” really fits here. The Arbery family and their lawyer were on every form of media insisting that Roddy was a co-conspirator and must be arrested. Ahmaud’s family and supporters were in front of cameras and telling print media, social media, and the world that, “Yes, he [Roddy] recorded the video, but it was for his enjoyment and not to show what happened.” Other innuendos included: “He must be a racist since he recorded what took place instead of calling the police.” Attorneys Lee Merritt and Ben Crump opined that Roddy was “cocking a gun” when a single click sound was reportedly heard on the audio portion of the video. Like the rest of this case, truth had no place in assuring the successful agenda of politicians and social justice leaders here. It truly did not matter that Roddy provided the cell phone video to GCPD within moments of the first officer’s arrival.

Roddy’s lawyer, Kevin Gough, valiantly argued to anyone who would listen that Roddy was a witness and there would not be a case to consider if Roddy hadn’t recorded the video. Maybe Kevin’s right, maybe not. I say that because Greg and Travis’s story was the same from the moment police arrived, which was less than 30 seconds after the last shot, and continued through the trial. I will take to my grave the conviction that that the video isn’t what convicted these fine men, but rather the false narrative that bears repeating again: "Black Jogger murdered by white vigilante racists in a predominantly white neighborhood."

In my opinion, the GBI led Roddy down the primrose path. Kevin Gough tells the GBI agents multiple times that Roddy fears for his safety and well-being and repeatedly asks for a written agreement that makes Roddy immune from prosecution. The GBI hems and haws but parlays their communication with Mr. Gough into Roddy's providing multiple recorded statements and participating in a re-enactment video. The re-enactment video would not be worthy of an Academy Award, but it served the prosecution well during the trial. The production showcased a GBI agent driving a truck owned by the State of Georgia and the same agent playing the part of Roddy. Another GBI agent played cameraman, and Roddy narrated his recollection of events. I guess Mr. Gough served as technical-legal services during the event since he was the fourth person inside the truck.

Roddy was desperate by that fourth interview and must have recognized that his days as a free man were numbered. He then made what I now understand must have been the act of a desperate man. During what was his last (failed) chance to become a witness and not a man charged with murder, he recalled Travis standing over Ahmaud in the seconds after the shooting and saying, "F*cking N-word." Roddy’s Hail Mary at saving himself failed. He was arrested the following day and like Greg and Travis, may never leave the confines of prison.

Until then, I ask that you please consider donating to the Greg and Travis McMichael Defense Fund found at  https://givesendgo.com/McMichaeldefense.

If you’d like more information, please email us at info@mcmichaeltrial.com