Louisville mayoral candidate Craig Greenberg is a Democrat, but the bail fund that sprung his alleged would-be assassin did so despite significant ties to the Democratic money machine, including party megadonor George Soros.
The Louisville Community Bail Fund, which became a cause celebre on the left during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, put up $100,000 on Wednesday to bond out 21-year-old Quintez Brown, the BLM activist charged with attempted murder. He has pleaded not guilty.
The fund is the listed beneficiary of at least two campaigns on Democratic fundraising behemoth ActBlue, including one sponsored by Justice Democrats, a political action committee that backs leftist House Democrats such as Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.
In addition, the bail fund is a “fiscally sponsored project” of the Alliance for Global Justice, the far-left group whose donors include the Soros-founded Open Society Foundation, according to Influence Watch.
In 2020, the Tides Center, which is also supported by Open Society, gave $737,225 to the Louisville fund, as noted by the Washington Free Beacon.
Mr. Greenberg and others were stunned when the suspect was bailed out just two days after the shooting at the candidate’s campaign headquarters in Louisville. Nobody was hit, although it was close: Mr. Greenberg’s sweater was grazed.
Mr. Brown is an independent candidate for the city council.
After Mr. Brown was released, Mr. Greenberg said his campaign team and family were “traumatized again by this news,” while Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who lives in Louisville, called it “jaw-dropping.”
“Since 2020, a long list of prominent corporations has donated or pledged enormous amounts of money to the radical nationwide Black Lives Matter parent organization,” said the Kentucky Republican in a Thursday floor speech. “One wonders if any of their corporate money helped spring this would-be assassin from jail.”
The fund identifies itself as a project of BLM Louisville, but it’s unclear whether the local group has any ties to the Black Lives Matter Global Network, which has been accused by some grassroots chapters of failing to share the wealth.
The bail fund has other resources. In addition to the ActBlue campaigns by Justice Democrats and Progressives Everywhere, the LCBF has a fundraising page on the left-wing Action Network that lists 135,666 donations but no dollar amount.
The Louisville fund is also part of the National Bail Fund Network, a project of the Tides Center’s Community Justice Exchange, which is “working towards a world without prisons, policing, prosecution, surveillance or any form of detention or supervision.”
BLM Louisville, who quickly paid the $100k to bail out attempted murder suspect Quintez Brown, says they’re fully community funded. But they’re fiscally sponsored by the Alliance for Global Justice. AfGJ receives money from Soros’ Open Society Foundations.https://t.co/nNRRWiZ4Rr pic.twitter.com/BQ9X988hsK
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) February 17, 2022
Asked how the fund was financed, BLM Louisville described it in a tweet as “100% community-funded.”
“While we work with national networks, we are also one of the only bail funds that rely entirely on support from individuals in our social justice community and impacted community,” said the LCBF on its Facebook page.
Fund co-founder Chanelle Helm cited concerns about Mr. Brown’s mental health and safety at Louisville Metro Corrections, where six people have died in custody since November, three of those by suicide.
“Do they want poor people not to have bail? Do they want poor people to suffer the same injustices inside of a jail?” she asked in a video on Spectrum News 1. “You don’t want rich people to suffer those injustices.”
Mr. Brown is now under house arrest wearing an ankle monitor.
