The Daily Beast published an investigative report on Shaun King, the 43 year-old BLM activist who collapsed last month after he was reported to have purchased a $40k guarddog with donated money. After reviewing a variety of financial and legal records, the liberal publication labelled King’s nonprofit Grassroots Law Project “shadowy” as well as ineffective and his initiatives as “stagnant.”
The report discussed previously-undisclosed tax documents from King’s nonprofit Grassroots Law Project, which took in over $6.67 million in contributions in 2020 and has spent approximately $2.65 million “to bridge the gap between grassroots organizing and legal expertise to reform the American justice system.”
The GLP worked with the progressive district attorneys of Boston, Philadelphia, and San Francisco in order to establish South Africa’s “Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation” Commissions in its offices.
George Soros-linked progressive lawyers helmed all three offices.
These so-called commissions were announced on July 2020. The GLP states that “White supremacy and bigotry, greed and corruption are at center of police violence, mass incarceration, and other forms of mass incarceration… We will work to eliminate them…
Although it may take many years, two years later the initiative and its online presence appear to be “stagnate.” These commissions were reportedly never fully launched.
The failure of the initiative was blamed on the pandemic and Krasner’s preoccupation with both the crime wave that he has managed and his re-election bid. Krasner is still the only of the three district attorney in office.
The initiative claimed to have taken $500,000 of $2,654,434. The rest allegedly went to “various policies pushes, campaigns for prosecutorial ease, phone banking, donations to other groups and legal defense funds”.
While there may have been gaps, the report states that King’s salary as executive director of the GLP was $104,167 in 2020 tax filings. This is despite the fact that he did not receive a raise. Representatives of the GLP said that King’s salary rose to approximately $250,000, which is far more than the median compensation for nonprofit executives.
King’s non-profit ecosystem also saw money.
According to documents obtained by The Daily Beast, the GLP paid $135 486 to a consulting company called the Social Practice. This firm handles King’s financial affairs. The Social Practice, which is located in the same San Francisco postal drop as the GLP, may have some questions about the boundaries between the entities.
Krasner’s D.A. also had the Social Practice on its payroll. Campaign, while the Soros-backed prosecutor was in trouble in Philadelphia for “coordination with King’s PAC” and failing to report it.
It appears that the web of PACs and nonprofits is complicated. The Daily Beast reported that Becky Bond, co-founder of Social Practice, is also treasurer for the PAC in which Krasner was involved, the Real Justice PAC. King and Bond co-founded the PAC in 2017.
King stated that his birth certificate showed he was white, and that there were many contentions about that fact. However, he claimed that his alleged black parents combined with a hate crime were what prompted him to volunteer for people.
Tamir Rice’s mother accused King of trying to profit off her son’s death in 2014. He now calls himself a “civil right leader”. King was formerly a megachurch pastor. He rose to prominence after becoming a BLM activist for Daily Kos and a “justice columnist” for Daily Kos.
Goldie Taylor, the Daily Beast’s Goldie, previously stated that King had collected millions in dollars “for everybody from Haitian orphans, to the families of African men and children murdered by police across America.” However, while some of that money was given to survivors or victims’ families, most of King’s largesse went into King’s pockets or went into unaccounted projects.
An Internal Revenue Service filing showed that King’s HopeMob took in $419,000 in 2013. This was despite being called the “largest, most active, efficient, and innovative community of generosity in the globe” at the time it was formed. King was reportedly paid $160,000 in cash compensation, even though the company had given out $198,000 in grants.
DeRay McKesson, a BLM activist wrote in 2019 “It’s my hope that Shaun refrains further attempts at fundraising and organizing.”
In February 2019, Benjamin Dixon, a progressive journalist and King, announced the relaunch of Frederick Douglass’ newspaper, The North Star.
The North Star initially claimed over 30,000 subscribers. Some paid $5 per month, others $10 per month. A few people, like Robert Smith, a black philanthropist, gave $10,000 monthly. The North Star eventually made a substantial amount of cash.
The Daily Beast reported that the site hadn’t fulfilled King’s promises 14 months later in 2020. Its Atlanta-based staffers were fired and the headquarters was closed. King’s “radical incompetence” was partly responsible for the paper’s demise. The site’s performance was poor, and #ShaunKingLetMeDown became a popular trend on Twitter.
King, a five-bedroom, lakefront New Jersey residence with five bedrooms, cost $842,000, reportedly asked for donations in August 2021.
The New York Post reported in August 2022 that GLP and King’s Real Justice PAC had spent $524 778 in donation money to pay legal fees in a case involving defamation. Carlos Vega, a former Philadelphia prosecutor, sued King and his PAC.
King was arrested earlier this year for running a fraudulent clothing line. His $165 organic hoodies were not shipped to many buyers.
