LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. — An attorney for Brian Kemp told a judge Wednesday that the candidate for Governor is not responsible for a half-million dollar loan guarantee bearing his signature. Kemp was absent from the courtroom, but at the center of arguments over the loan for an agribusiness called Hart AgStrong.
"Show me the money. Where’s the $500,000? Where is it?" attorney Patrick O'Brien thundered, speaking on behalf of lender Rick Phillips.
"They borrowed a half million dollars. They didn’t pay it back and they don’t want to pay it back," O'Brien said of Kemp and Hart AgStrong.
Nobody disputes that Kemp signed a document guaranteeing repayment of a half million dollar loan to Phillips, a Toccoa businessman.
In a June interview, Phillips told 11Alive News he and Kemp were friends, and Kemp personally guaranteed repayment.
"It was Hart AgStrong, but he personally guaranteed the loan. I dealt with no one else. Brian Kemp is the only person I ever dealt with," Phillip said in June. He was not in court Wednesday.
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Phillips' attorney was asking the court to go ahead and issue a ruling now that Kemp is liable for the loan. Kemp's attorney asked for the case to be dismissed.
"It has expired and it is now unenforceable," Kemp's attorney Chuck Conerly told the court. He argued the language in the loan paperwork lets Kemp off the hook for the loan repayment.
"And that’s the end of the story as far as Mr. Kemp is concerned," Conerly said.
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Kemp spoke about it at a campaign event after the hearing.
"Like I’ve said before, it’s Hart AgStrong’s debt. They need to pay it. They're working to find a solution," Kemp said.
Kemp protested that the case was distracting reporters from debt issues surrounding his opponent, Democrat Stacy Abrams. She admits she owes the IRS $50,000 and says she has negotiated a payment plan.
