This morning police in Georgia arrested three members of a bail fund connected to the protests against the police training site which opponents call “cop city.” All three have been charged with financial crimes.

The GBI, along with the Atlanta Police Department, have arrested three people on charges stemming from the ongoing investigation of individuals responsible for numerous criminal acts at the future site of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center and other metro Atlanta locations.

Marlon Scott Kautz, age 39, of Atlanta, GA, Savannah D Patterson, age 30, of Savannah, GA and Adele Maclean, age 42, of Atlanta, GA, were all charged today with money laundering and charity fraud.

Agents and officers executed a search warrant and found evidence linking the three suspects to the financial crimes. All three charged will be booked into a local jail and will have a bond hearing scheduled soon.

All three are members of a group called the Atlanta Solidarity Fund. The Atlanta Press Collective, which supports the protesters, published a story objecting to today’s arrests and calling this a “provocation.”

If found guilty of the charges, the money laundering charge comes with a fine of $500,000, up to 20 years imprisonment, or both. The charity fraud charge carries a fine of $10,000 or the total amount of the fraudulent solicitations and criminal penalties of up to $5,000, a minimum of one year in jail with up to a five-year maximum, or both.

Warrants against the organizers cite reimbursements as evidence of money laundering. The reimbursements listed are for “expenses such as gasoline, forest clean-up, totes, covid rapid tests, media, yard signs,” “moving the jail support hotline to a new plan,” and “purchase of a safe via amazon.”

“This is an extreme provocation by Atlanta Police Department and the State of Georgia,” said Lauren Regan, Executive Director of the Civil Liberties Defense Center. “Bailing out protestors who exercise their constitutionally protected rights is simply not a crime. In fact, it is a historically grounded tradition in the very same social and political movements that the city of Atlanta prides itself on. Someone had to bail out civil rights activists in the 60’s–I think we can all agree that community support isn’t a crime.”

The Intercept published a story that reads like a rehash of the press collective release.

In targeting the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, police and prosecutors are attempting to further the groundless narrative that the multifaceted movement against Cop City is a “criminal organization,” enabling profoundly unconstitutional arrests based on no more than association with a resilient anti-racist, environmentalist movement…

“They are trying to drain our morale and trying to drain our resources,” another person associated with the fund told me, withholding their name for fear of police persecution following their associates’ arrests. “These arrests send a message that if you run a nonprofit that they find to be at odds with their colonial project, they will target you.”

Gov. Kemp praised the police in a statement released earlier today. His statement said in part, “These criminals facilitated and encouraged domestic terrorism with no regard for others…Here in Georgia, we DO NOT allow that to happen.”

https://t.co/TvZ7nyreLe pic.twitter.com/e7E1f7xWS9

— Governor Brian P. Kemp (@GovKemp) May 31, 2023

Andy Ngo has the mug shots of those arrested.

Marlon Scott Kautz, 39, of Atlanta, Savannah D. Patterson, 30, of Savannah, and Adele Maclean, 42, of Atlanta, were charged with money laundering & charity fraud. The Atlanta Solidarity Fund @ATLSolFund raises cash for #Antifa-linked terrorism suspects. https://t.co/2HHAv7lM94

— Andy Ngô 🏳️‍🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) May 31, 2023

A protest was called for this evening outside the jail.

Atlanta – rally today at the DeKalb County Jail at 6:30pm.

The Atlanta Solidarity Fund has continually shown up for people criminalized for protesting – now it's our turn to show up for them. #StopCopCity pic.twitter.com/peWlq1ODye

— #StopCopCity (@micahinATL) May 31, 2023

It looks like a few dozen people showed up.

Rally going on right now outside the DeKalb County Jail for the three people who were arrested today for running a bail fund that supports #CopCity protesters. pic.twitter.com/gOlescAmYA

— Chamian Cruz 🔍 (@xchamian) May 31, 2023

Meanwhile, with protesters having been cleared from the forest, progress continues to be made on clearing the site for construction. A tour last week showed what will become the main site is now ready for grading.

This is where the heart of the campus will be. Open to the public. You’re also seeing one of the sediment ponds as well as the double silt fences to help prevent erosion during construction. pic.twitter.com/fVMVjvnFYI

— Patrick Quinn (@PatrickQuinnTV) May 26, 2023

Final approval for the city’s portion of the funding for the training center is set to take place Monday. If approved, construction would begin in August.

The arrests came ahead of a much-anticipated meeting of the Atlanta City Council on Monday that could see the final approval for the city’s portion of the funding of the training center, which opponents call “Cop City.”

The meeting will represent one of the last official hurdles for the project, which has cleared regulatory steps and legal challenges in DeKalb County.

While the Atlanta Police Foundation, a nonprofit that supports the Atlanta Police Department, is majority-funding the project through private donations, 11Alive reported in April that by the end of June the city has to write the police foundation a check for about half of an initial $33.5 million the city has agreed to provide — that is, once the City Council approves the payment…

The construction of the facility is tentatively set to start in August on a portion of land in the South River Forest.

So we should know for certain whether “cop city” is going to be built in less than a week.