SHAUN KING: Setting the Record Straight On The Accusations Made About Me, My Fundraisers and The North Star
Last week, a report came out questioning how I raise the money I fundraise. I'm finally going to set the record straight.
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Before I begin, I first want to thank so many of you for your unwavering support. I am deeply grateful.
In this article, I am going to give a detailed narrative response to the continued false allegations about me, about my work, about my fundraising, and about my wonderful colleagues at The North Star, Real Justice, The Action PAC, and The Grassroots Law Project.
My enemies won’t read this. They won’t share it. They don’t care about facts. This isn’t for them. It’s for you — our supporters — and it’s even for those of you who are on the fence about what to believe because you’ve seen so much misinformation.
First though, for those of you that are in a hurry, I am going to provide a list of important resources below so that they don’t get lost in the longer narrative. Look at them for yourself. Look at the statements. Look at the nearly 20 different FEC reports we’ve filed. Look at the work. Look at the results. Look at the impact.
And make your own decision.
1. A team of accountants, attorneys, and some of the most respected activists, organizers, and leaders in the world took weeks to look at years and years of my tax returns, all of my banks statements from business, personal and savings accounts, my credit card statements, retirement accounts, and every single fundraiser I’ve ever participated in, shared, or consulted on.
They issued a public 72 page report that can be found here. It was the single most exhaustive, transparent look into the personal and professional finances of any leader I’ve ever seen in my life. I do not know of another civil rights leader, or any leader from any profession for that matter, that has allowed so many people, so much unfettered access to their financial life. I literally gave that team the usernames and passwords to every area of my life — including all of my email accounts, text messages, social media, and more.
It covered nearly $35 million that I’ve raised, or helped to raise, since the Black Lives Matter Movement began. The report stated, as I have stated, that not once has anyone in my entire universe been scammed, cheated, or defrauded out of a single penny. As I have stated, the report made it clear that I do not even have access to the money that I raise for families or causes. Every family I’ve ever supported is included in this report and spoke up on my behalf. I love them. We speak and support each other regularly. No family or charity has ever even accused me of touching their money. It’s a complete fabrication. Always has been.
2. In 2017, I became a Co-Founder of Real Justice. Here is our website. We help elect bold, compassionate change agents as district attorneys. We are the leader in that space. It’s the best, most impactful work of my life up to this moment. We just put our heads down and do the work. And we are moving mountains.
We’ve raised and spent millions of dollars and have ousted horrible prosecutors all over this country as a result. We have helped to manage, guide, fund and support successful campaigns that have already resulted in sweeping changes on the local level.
We helped to elect brave new district attorneys in Philadelphia, San Antonio, St. Louis, Boston, Portland, Oregon, San Francisco, Jackson, Mississippi, in Portsmouth, Fairfax and Arlington, Virginia, in Contra Costa County, California, and more. Those district attorneys have changed the game in immeasurable ways, including reducing the jail population by as much as 50 percent. I have become close friends and partners with many of them. I literally spoke to three of our district attorneys yesterday.
We have filed public, quarterly reports of our ENTIRE BUDGET four times per year since we started in 2017. Here they are on the FEC website for all to see. Every dime we’ve raised and spent. When people ask, “where in the world is all of that money Shaun is raising going,” send them there. But listen, they won’t go. They don’t care. Those reports have been public for four years now. They never get mentioned in a single smear about my work.
Not only do I not have access to our money, I’m not a signer on any of our accounts (never have been), don’t have the usernames or passwords, and don’t have a say in where or how the money we raise is spent. It’s been this way since we launched to protect me from false allegations and to protect our organization so that we can be beyond reproach. Our staff has regularly apologized to me that we even need it to be this way – it is somewhat humiliating – but we have an award-winning team of seasoned experts, attorneys, and accountants who manage every penny we raise.
3. Last year, after starting The North Star, I was advised by our attorneys and senior team that it would be best that any advocacy or political work I do be boxed out of The North Star and put into a separate organization that we called The Action PAC, so that the media work we do at The North Starwould have an ethical wall separating it from the advocacy and political work I lead. We did that to protect the staff of The North Star so that their work could never be seen as a campaign contribution. Furthermore, I advised the writers and editors of The North Star to not run any stories they were writing about political candidates by me, but to write them independent of my views and that I would have no judgment.
Like Real Justice, The Action PAC has filed quarterly FEC reports for the past year to show every dollar we’ve raised and every dollar we’ve spent. Attorneys and compliance officers go through every detail with a fine tooth comb to make sure we are beyond reproach. The reports are publicly available. It always has been. Again, when somebody asks where all the money goes, send them there. They won’t go there though.
I lead and guide The Action PAC, with a staff of nearly a dozen brilliant organizers, and I am literally the only person on the staff who does not get paid. I’ve never been paid for it. We have raised over $1 million this past year and I have not received a salary or a stipend of any kind for the entire year. You can check the FEC reports. Again, our staff regularly tells me how embarrassed they are by this, but we do it so that the integrity of our work can never be questioned and nobody can ever say that I am doing this work for personal gain. I am often the first staffer up and the last staffer to leave, but I do it all for free.
Over the past year, we have done the very best work of my life. I have pushed our small staff to their maximum capacity and have burned my own candle at both ends in this work. Over 6 million people have joined and supported our campaigns. We’ve made millions of phone calls. We’ve sent hundreds of millions of emails. And we’ve been so damn successful.
We worked with the family of Rodney Reed to stop his execution.
Here is our campaign.
Rodney’s dear brother, Rodrick, is an advisor for the Grassroots Law Project.
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We are working now to help free Michael Thompson from prison. He has been jailed for over 25 years for a damn weed conviction. I speak to Michael often and see him as a good friend.
Here is our campaign.
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We worked with the family of Nate Woods to stop his execution. We failed, but gave it our very best shot.
Here is our campaign.
Nate’s dear sister, Pamela, is an advisor for The Grassroots Law Project and has become my friend in this work.
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We are working hard alongside his family to free Christopher Kearney from prison. We raised the money to pay for legal defense.
Here is our campaign.
Christopher’s wife, Traci, is an advisor for The Grassroots Law Project, and has become a major source of encouragement to our whole team.
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We are working hard to get justice for Steve Taylor, who was murdered by police right before the coronavirus pandemic began. His attorney, Lee Merritt, is the Legal Director of the Grassroots Law Project.
Here is our campaign.
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Some of the best work we have ever done is going on right now in our fight to get justice for Ahmaud Arbery. Before the case was even known nationally, his family asked me to help them in any way I could. We stopped our entire lives to begin the fight for Ahmaud. Millions joined us. 500,000 people ran for Maud with our campaign. We sent over 100 million emails and phone calls to elected officials. Lee Merritt is their attorney. The public has no idea how hard this campaign was and all the complicated work that has gone on behind the scenes.
Here is our campaign.
Ahmaud’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, is also an advisor for The Grassroots Law Project, and openly said thanked God, me and Lee for getting her family this far in the pursuit of justice.
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We are working directly with the families of Breonna Taylor and Kenneth Walker, and with the attorneys for both families. We are fighting to hold the officers who murdered Breonna accountable. We raised the legal defense fund for Kenneth and fought to get him released. I have talked directly with Breonna’s mother, Tamika, and her sister as well as the parents and siblings of Kenneth Walker. Their attorneys are my close personal friends.
Here is our campaign.
Yesterday our volunteers made over 30,000 phone calls to the Louisville City Council to get Breonna’s Law passed, which bans most uses of no-knock warrants. It passed committee and will soon be up for a full vote.
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Working directly with the attorneys of George Floyd, we built the campaign to hold the officers who murdered him accountable. Millions have joined the campaign and we have sent hundreds of millions of emails and phone calls to elected officials on this case. It’s some of the best, most organized work we’ve ever done. Stephen Jackson, who was like a brother to George Floyd, is an advisor for The Grassroots Law Project, and has walked with us every step of the way.
Here is our campaign.
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Our team at The Action PAC started a national mutual aid society to help people and families impacted by the coronavirus called the C-19 Help Squad.
Shaun King on Instagram: “Every now and then, you just have to respond to the lies and BS. Over the past 2 weeks, I have tried my best to ignore the constant lies…”
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I've read both sides of this 'debate' and they both seem persuasive... Very tough for me to make a final decision.
