The Justice Department is probing whether Black Lives Matter (BLM) defrauded donors who sent the organization millions of dollars during the racial justice protests in 2020, the Associated Press is reporting.
Federal law enforcement authorities have issued subpoenas and served a search warrant as part of an investigation into the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, Inc. that helped ignite protests in U.S. cities following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020, anonymous sources told the wire service.
Protests in some locations resulted in deaths, rioting, looting, fires, and extensive property destruction.
According to AP:
It was not clear if the investigation would result in criminal charges, but its mere existence invites fresh scrutiny to a movement that in recent years has faced criticism about its public accounting of donations it has received. The recent burst of investigative activity is also unfolding at a time when civil rights organizations have raised concerns about the potential for the Trump administration to target a variety of progressive and left-leaning groups that have been critical of him, including those affiliated with BLM, the transgender rights movement and anti-ICE protesters.
The Justice Department declined to comment on the Thursday report.
The investigation actually began in the Biden administration, according to one of AP’s sources, and has received renewed attention during the Trump administration.
The BLM foundation said it took in over $90 million in donations following the highly publicized death of Floyd, who was seen on viral video struggling to breathe under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer who was later convicted of murder.
Critics have accused the nonprofit foundation of not being forthcoming about how it was spending its donations. Criticism piqued in 2022 when it was learned that some of the funds went to a $6 million home in Los Angeles with six bedrooms, six baths, a swimming pool, and other amenities.
As Breitbart News reported at the time, co-founder Patrisse Cullors admitted she used the group’s $6 million property to host personal parties. The BLM leader later resigned in 2023.
AP reports that no prior investigations into the nonprofit’s finances have yielded proof of impropriety. The latest federal form filing, the wire service reported, shows the BLM foundation had $28 million in assets for the fiscal year ending June 2024.
The current investigation is reportedly being run out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California in Los Angeles.
In a statement to the AP on Thursday, the foundation said it “is not a target of any federal criminal investigation.”
“We remain committed to full transparency, accountability, and the responsible stewardship of resources dedicated to building a better future for Black communities,” the foundation told the wire service.
The Black Lives Matter slogan first emerged in 2013 after the acquittal of neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman who fatally shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida in what was legally ruled a “stand your ground” case.
It was the death the following year of Michael Brown who was shot as he charged a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, that made the slogan “Black Lives Matter” a national, and later a worldwide, rallying cry for leftist social justice.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of the Los Angeles crime novel Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
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