Shaun King has been thrust into the limelight once again after The Daily Beast published a detailed report of his nonprofit’s expenses.
In the article titled Inside Shaun King’s Shadowy $6.7 Million Nonprofit, it is alleged that King’s Grassroots Law Project collected and spent millions after George Floyd’s murder, “including six-figure payouts to himself and allied consultants.”
King’s financials have consistently come under the microscope, and he has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
According to tax documents reviewed by the publication Grassroots Law Project’s first year of its existence, the organization amassed more than $6.67 million.
“The single largest expenditure the Grassroots Law Project made in its first year was $2,654,434, which the disclosures only state went “to bridge the gap between grassroots organizing and legal expertise to reform the American justice system,” the report reads.
Nonprofit organizations are not allowed to support political candidates. However, they are allowed to create affiliated PACs to support candidates aligned with their mission. It seems King’s organization may have blurred the lines when it comes to this rule.
The organization announced tit’s flagship program following, “Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation Commissions” to help set up in the district attorneys’ offices of San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Boston.
“This system is not broken. It’s functioning exactly the way those who designed and built it intended it to function. It was not built to give marginalized communities justice,” King said in a joint press release with Philadelphia D.A. Larry Krasner, then-San Francisco D.A. Chesa Boudin, and then-Boston D.A. Rachael Rollins at the time. “It was built to oppress them. And moving forward, we must build brand new pathways for truth, justice, and reconciliation. The old ones will never get us there.”
The initiatives failed to get off the ground. The Grassroots Law Project cites the pandemic as the reason, but according to The Daily Beast, of the $2,654,434 allocated for the project, only $500,000 has been accounted for.
The group says the remaining funds went towards “policy pushes and campaigns for prosecutorial leniency, phone-banking, donations to other groups, and legal defense funds.”
