You may recall that celebrities raised a ton of money for a bail fund for the people arrested in the riots, the Minnesota Freedom Fund. Celebrities like Seth Rogan, Steve Carell, Jameela Jamil, and Pete Holmes all said they had donated to the fund and encourage others to do so too.
According to reports, the group managed to raise over $30 million.
13 Biden campaign people also contributed to the fund to bail out people arrested. The campaign has yet to justify why they were donating to support people arrested during the riots.
But now, the Fund is coming under fire after it was reported that, with all that money, they haven’t spent much on bailing people out, by their own admission only about $200,000, not even 1% of the amount donated. Over 10,000 people were actually arrested during the riots. While probably most of those didn’t require mail and were just arrested and released, some certainly must have because there was everything from arson to assaults on police officers.
Here’s their excuse.
From NY Post:
“We are no longer the same organization we were one week ago,” MFF wrote on its website on June 2. “One week ago we were a small bail fund struggling to get anyone to listen about the harms of cash bail and pre-trial detention. We are now flooded with resources and we are going to take a beat while we marshal those. We have some big plays in mind.”But three days later, it announced donations “may be used to expand legal support for those arrested or incarcerated protesting the murder of George Floyd, and our core values and mission.”
Without jeopardizing the safety of the folks we bailed out we paid well over $200k in the weeks since the uprising alone. We are working on doing more.— Minnesota Freedom Fund (@MNFreedomFund) June 16, 2020
People on both sides of the aisle raked them and the left was particularly disturbed, with some folks demanding the return of the money on social media or receipts as to what happened to the money.
$35 million raised for Minnesota Bail Fund but only $200,000 spent on actual bail for protesters.I’m waiting on a celebrity outcry video.— Chad Prather (@WatchChad) June 16, 2020
The "Minnesota Freedom Fund" admits they’ve only used $200,000 of the $35 MILLION they collected to bail people out. They also used the word ya’ll in their statement because they think they can pander their way out of this fraud. This is what Democrats do when you give $$.— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) June 16, 2020
Some folks defended them saying they were a small organization that suddenly had to deal with a lot.
Activist author Roxane Gay criticized the nature of their response, according to the Washington Examiner.
“This is pretty pithy for an organization with $35 million, like you’re just talking to your little friends,” she said in a tweet she later deleted. “Get thee a crisis communication expert ASAP.”