Tax documents filed with the Internal Revenue Service reveal that Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors used millions of donated dollars to pay friends and family for various services.

Paul Cullors, Patrisse’s brother, received $840,000 for alleged security services rendered to the organization, according to the 63-page Form 990.

The organization also paid a hefty sum to Damon Turner, the father of Cullors’ child, roughly $970,000 for alleged “creative services.”

BLM’s fiscal year — July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021 — ended with $42 million in assets.

Tax filings show that the organization received $90 million in donations, with BLM spending more than $37 million on grants, real estate, and private flights. Another $32 million was invested in the stock market.

According to a report from the New York Post, organizers claim that the “investment is expected to become an endowment in a bid to ensure the foundation’s work continues in the future.”

BLM’s Form 990 shows that more than $25 million was written off as grants to organizations and families.

“Transparency and accountability is so important to us, but so is trust,” said board chair Cicley Gay. “Presenting [donor] names after the fact, at this point, would likely be a betrayal of that trust.”

Source:

Tax filings reveal how BLM co-founder spent charity funds

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY…
1927: At 7:40 AM, Charles Lindbergh takes off from New York to cross the Atlantic for Paris, aboard Spirit of St Louis (1st non-stop flight).

A Virginia family has been convicted on charges relating to forced labor and domestic servitude.

According to the Department of Justice, a jury found Zahida Aman, Mohammad Nauman Chaudhri, and Mohammad Rehan Chaudhri guilty of conspiracy to commit forced labor.

Additionally, Aman was convicted of forced labor and document servitude, and Rehan Chaudhri was found guilty of forced labor.

“Forced labor, the modern-day equivalent of slavery, has no place in our country or district, and we will stop at nothing to prosecute those that commit these or similar crimes,” said U.S. Attorney Jessica D. Aber for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Aman reportedly arranged a marriage between a third son and the victim in 2002. The victim, a Pakistani woman, moved to the United States and stayed with her husband’s family in Midlothian, Virginia, where the defendants had compelled her “to serve the family as a domestic servant” and subjected her to physical and verbal abuse for over a decade.

The DOJ said that the defendants had restricted communication with her family in Pakistan, took away her money and immigration documentation, and eventually threatened “to separate her from her children by deporting her to Pakistan.”

Additionally, the Justice Department says, “the defendants slapped, kicked, and pushed the victim, even beat her with wooden boards, and on one occasion hog-tied her hands and feet and dragged her down the stairs in front of her children.”

“The defendants exploited the victim’s trust and inflicted cruel and inhumane physical and mental abuse on her, all so they could keep her working in their home as their domestic servant,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said.

Source:

Family Convicted of Conspiring to Force a Pakistani Woman to Labor in Their Virginia Home for 12 Years

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is pausing the work of its new Disinformation Governance Board, saying that the “false attacks have become a significant distraction.”

Some critics argued that the DHS was not sufficiently forthcoming about the board’s mission, and others took to calling the board the “Ministry of Truth,” referencing George Orwell’s 1984.

The disinformation board was created just three weeks ago and has never formally met. Its leader, Nina Jankowicz, is also resigning from her post.

“With the Board’s work paused and its future uncertain, and I have decided to leave DHS to return to my work in the public sphere,” Jankowicz wrote in a statement.

“It is deeply disappointing that mischaracterizations of the Board became a distraction from the Department’s vital work, and indeed, along with recent events globally and nationally, embodies why it is necessary.”

One DHS official said: “There have been gross mischaracterizations of what the board’s work would be. And there have been grotesque personal attacks and the reaction has candidly become a distraction to the department’s important work in addressing disinformation that threatens homeland security.”

The board’s critics applauded the decision to “pause,” including journalist Glenn Greenwald, who also criticized the Washington Post report on the situation.

“It’s a cause of momentary celebration that the Department of Homeland Security was forced by popular anger to ‘pause’ its Disinformation Board and the absurd #Resistance cartoon they hired to run it, but read this to see how angry [the Washington Post] and [reporter Taylor Lorenz] are that this happened,” Greenwald wrote on Twitter.

Source:

DHS to pause work of disinformation board

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY…
1643: Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Harbor form the United Colonies of New England.

Embattled Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) has conceded to state Sen. Chuck Edwards in the North Carolina Republican primary, marking the end of a brief but eventful congressional tenure.

Last month, Cawthorn had said he and other right-wing, first-term Congressmembers were the targets of a “coordinated drip campaign” by establishment Republicans.

Top North Carolina Republicans had endorsed Edwards, including Sen. Thom Tillis R-N.C.).

“Republicans chose Chuck Edwards tonight because he is the embodiment of Mountain values who will fight for them every single day in Congress with honor and integrity,” Tillis said.

Former President Donald Trump had endorsed Cawthorn, encouraging supporters to give him “a second chance.”

“When Madison was first elected to Congress, he did a great job,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Recently, he made some foolish mistakes, which I don’t believe he’ll make again…let’s give Madison a second chance!”

In an interview with CNN’s John Berman, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) said Cawthorn’s loss is “good for the country.”

Kinzinger said Washington, D.C., “has become kind of a growing ground for people that are just more interested in fame than governing.”

Read more about the controversies surrounding Cawthorn here.

Source:

Cawthorn ousted in North Carolina

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY…
1973: Senate Watergate Committee begins its hearings.

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) appeared to blame Republican lawmakers for the racially motivated shooting in Buffalo, New York, accusing GOP leaders of “[enabling] white nationalism, white supremacy, and anti-semitism.”

“The House GOP leadership has enabled white nationalism, white supremacy, and anti-semitism,” Cheney wrote on Twitter .

“History has taught us that what begins with words ends in far worse. [GOP] leaders must renounce and reject these views and those who hold them.”

As the New York Post noted, Cheney did not address specific lawmakers in her tweet, which she posted from her personal account, and not from her congressional account.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) both declined to comment on Cheney’s tweet, per the Post.

Source:

Liz Cheney rips House GOP leaders, claims they ‘enabled’ white supremacists

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY…
2013: Human stem cells are successfully cloned.

The White House tweeted a verifiably untrue statement about COVID-19 vaccines, which is ironic given the Biden administration’s recent establishing of a “Disinformation Governance Board.”

“When President Biden took office, millions were unemployed and there was no vaccine available. In the last 15 months, the economy has created 8.3M jobs and the unemployment rate stands at 3.6% — the fastest decline in unemployment to start a President’s term ever recorded,” the White House tweeted.

Twitter users quickly pointed out that the COVID-19 vaccine was available when Biden took office on January 20, 2021.

’There was no vaccine available’ is very clearly false. More than 3 million Americans were fully vaccinated and more than 18 million had at least one dose by Biden’s Inauguration Day. Biden himself was fully vaccinated,” CNN’s Daniel Dale tweeted.

Users also pointed out that the Biden’s verified Twitter account had posted a photo of Biden receiving his first dose on December 21, 2020.

Source:

Twitter allows White House to make ‘clearly false’ claim that COVID vaccine wasn’t available until Biden era