GoFundDems: The Left's New Money-Laundering Machine

by Rush Limbaugh in the Limbaugh Letter, November 2018

"I'm aware there's been several GoFundMe sites ... That have raised money, primarily for our security detail. So, I'm not even quite sure how to collect that money or -- and how to distribute it yet. I haven't been able to focus on that." -- Christine Blasey Ford, Senate Judiciary Committee testimoney, The Washington Post, 9/27/18

Making money has long been a legal problem for the left. So many payoffs to distribute, so little time. Not to mention all the inconvenient banking reporting regulations and record-keeping rules. It's been a real pain in the neck to move the vast sums needed to keep the left's troops supplied.

Enter mankind's most efficient cash-transport in history: the internet. And welcome to the new trend of lefty activists and groups raising enormous amounts of money via crowdfunding websites. Ain't technology grand.

We've just watched a series of Resistance members and useful tools of the left "get paid" on GoFundMe. In addition to Christine Blasey Ford, fired FBI agents, involved in the Russia hoax were showered with hundreds of thousands of dollars within days. A current Crowdpac campaign to defeat Susan Collins in 2020 by funding her "Future Opponent" is approaching $4 million.

The plethora of anti-GOP crowdfunding campaign on sites such as GoFundMe, Crowdpac, and Kickstarter give the impression that they are organic, springing from individual liberty voters all over the U.S. who are so fed up with Republicans, they want to deluge their teams with dollars. Rescue funds from caring progressives.

Yes, there is some of that. But many operators have deep roots in Democrat dark money and politics. Of the hundreds of thousands of dollars raised for Blasey Ford, for instance, much of it goes to left-wing activist Debra Katz, who once defended Bill Clinton and Al Franken. Another far-left group that has sponsored dozens of crowdfunding campaigns is the Center for Popular Democracy [CPD], whose sister CPD Fund rakes in millions from George Soros every year.

Once you start looking into the left's money flow, you find the same names, over and over and over. Let me give you a small peek into this incestuous world. Probably the most prolific left-wing fundraiser on crowdfunding sites is CPD's Ady Barkan, a longtime radical activist. Barkan is everywhere. He's featured in one CPD Crowdpac campaign called "We need YOU to Be a Hero". The mission: "Send Ady Barkan to Illinois" to organize for Democrats. Coincidentally, one of the $1,000 donors happened to be Dan Kovats, executive director of the Illinois Democrat[ic] County Chairs' Association. Cozy little recirculation system they've got there.

In its "Help Us Fund Our Los Angeles Rally!" GoFundMe campaign, CPD raised over $25,000 to hold a June 30 rally featuring Barkan and Ana Maria Archila, the woman who accosted Jeff Flake in the infamous elevator incident. (Months ago, Barkan also accosted Flake, at the airport, about health care.) Viola, on August 2, USA Today ran a puff piece about Ady Barkan, who was diagnosed with ALS in 2017, spending $100,000 -- ostensibly of his own money -- to support lefty Danny O'Connor in a special election in Ohio. The headline: "Father Dying of ALS Buys $100K Ad to Help Democrat in Ohio Midterm." Talk about a circle, er, dance.

What exactly is going on here? Money-laundering? Covering up where money's being directed? Providing slush funds to support shady campaign activities? Hiding the fact that only a few operatives move the levers, and that supposedly organic grasroots activity is really smoke and mirrors? We can be sure of one thing: it's all about funding the Democrat Resistance:

Leftist Tool

• "Honor Dr. Blasey as an Educator." -- GoFundMe campaign, created 9/27/18, which has raised over $31,000 for an academic endowment named after Blasey Ford at an unnamed college.
• "We Believe Women." -- GoFundMe campaign, created 9/19/18, which raised over $57,000 for an ad comparing Anita Hill to Christine Blasey Ford in The New York Times and given celebratory PR treatment by USA Today, 9/26/18.
• "Handmaids Resistance Vigil." -- GoFundMe campaign, created 9/26/18, which raised several hundred dollars for "handmaids" to hold a "continuous vigil" outside Jeff Flake's Phoenix office.
• "Help Christine Blasey Ford." -- GoFundMe campaign, created 9/18/18, which has raised over $625,000.
• "Cover Dr. Blasey's Security Costs." -- GoFundMe campaign, created 9/18/18, which has raised $210,000.
• "We Believe ALL THE WOMEN." -- GoFundMe campaign by several far-left groups, created 9/16/18, which has raised $49,000.
• "GoFundMe Raises Thousands to Place Billboard of Trump's Anti-Cruz Tweet in Texas." -- The Hill, 9/2/18. The GoFundMe page, organized in part by David Hogg, raised over $9,700 in less than 24 hours.
• "Kino Jimenez is currently the victim of a witch hunt ... right-wingers have opted for an unethical approach to the viral video." -- screenshot of GoFundMe page to raise $85,000 on behalf of the thug who stole teenager Hunter Richard's MAGA hat and tossed a drink in his face at a San Antonio Whataburger restaurant, Big League Politics, 7/5/18. Big League Politics reports "the page was quickly removed, presumably when the founder of the campaign realized that raising $85,000 for a 30-year-old deadbeat who assaulted and cursed out the 16-year-old boys would be bad optic for Democrats." Jimenez was indicted for theft of person.
• "This GoFundMe campaign is now linked to the Democrat[ic] Socialists of America [DSA] national bank account." -- GoFundMe campaign, "Medical Fund for Comrades in Cville", created on 8/12/17, raised $198,061 for leftists supposedly injured in Charlottesville. It stopped accepting donations, with no information on where the money went.
• "A photo of a Virginia woman [Juli Briskman] saluting President Donald Trump's motorcade with a middle finger got her fired from her job after it went viral ... [A] Hudson, MA man on Nov. 6 took it upon himself to create a GoFundMe.com crowdsourcing account online to assist Briskman financially." -- Daily Signal, 11/21/17. "Thank You Juli Briskman", created 11/6/17, has raised over $141,000. Briskman now has a second campaign on Crowdpac to fund her candidacy for local office.

Swamp Payout

• "Michael Cohen Gets More Than $134K in Donations Within a Day on GoFundMe." -- USA Today, 8/23/18. "The Michael Cohen Truth Fund" has at least one $50,000 anonymous donor.
• "[I] do not have vast resources to fight Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen alone." -- Stephanie "Stormy Daniels" Clifford, on her CrowdJustice.com fundraising page. So far she has raised over $586,000, most of which will doubtless go to creepy porn lawyer Michael Avenatti.
• "GoFundMe Page for Fired FBI Agent Peter Strzok Raises $325,000 in One Day." -- CNBC, 8/17/18.
• "We are asking you to support a man [fired FBI agent Peter Strzok] who has dedicated his life to defending America; to stand up for the freedoms on which this country was built and a government that truly serves the people by protecting all Americans, including dedicated government employees, from constantly being subjected to the whims and influence of politicians." -- GoFundMe page started by "Friends of Peter Strzok" on 8/13/18, which has raised over $463,000, including several $5,000-$10,000 donations from "anonymous" donors.
• "I never imagined that I would need to rely on this type of assistance." -- Andrew McCabe, fired FBI honcho, The Hill, 4/4/18.
• "Former FBI Deputy Director McCabe's GoFundMe page for a 'legal defense fund' appeared after he was fired by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Originally asking for only $150,000, the campaign continued to adjust its goal upward and, in a matter of a few days, surpassed half a million dollars. That is equivalent to more than a decade of McCabe's expected pension ... He will likely receive a pension of roughly $2 million." -- Jonathan Turley, The Hill, 4/2/18.
• "[M]cCabe seemed eager to portray himself as ... victim. It is not easy to transform oneself from a once-powerful public official terminated for cause to the equivalent of a late-night, mud-splattered stray seeking shelter ... The key to this narrative was the insistence that McCabe was fired hours from his retirement to deny him the pension that he took decades to accumulate ... [which] bordered on the fraudulent. McCabe was never at risk of 'losing his pension'. Federal Employees Restirement System benefits are vested after five years and, thus, were not 'lost'." -- Jonathan Turley, The Hill, 4/2/18.
• "It was curious to many that McCabe would so quickly embrace a GoFundMe site before he was 'referred' for criminal investigation, let alone charged with any crime." -- Jonathan Turley, The Hill, 4/2/18.
• "The original impetus for a charity drive for McCabe seems to have come from Silicon Valley investor Jason Calacanis ... [and] received a huge boost ... when MSNBC's beloved-by-Democrats host Rachel Maddow tweeted a link to the new GoFundMe campaign for McCabe to her 9.4 million followers. At the time of Maddow's tweet -- which has now been re-tweeted by 4,000 people and 'liked' by another 11,000 -- McCabe's fund had $100,000. Less than 24 hours after Maddow's viral tweet, the amount quintupled to a half-million dollars ... a charity campaign fueled by a multimillionaire cable news host, for the benefit of a rich federal police official, is not just bizarre but obscene." -- Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept, 3/31/18.
• "By all metrics, McCabe and his family are financially secure; a more accurate term for them would be 'quite wealthy'. As Splinter's Paul Blest documented -- in an article accurately entitled 'Andrew McCabe Does Not Need Your Money' -- his 'average salary between 2015 and 2017, when he was in the senior leadership of the FBI, was over $157,000.' That income figure for McCabe does not count the income earned by McCabe's wife, who is a highly accomplished medical doctor with multiple sources of income." -- The Intercept, 3/31/18.
• "An analysis by FactCheck.org of financial disclosures forms he filed found that, beyond that salary, 'McCabe has several mutual fund accounts, including 529 college savings accounts and a 401K retirement fund, with the total value of those investment accounts ranging from $287,000 to $880,000.'." -- The Intercept, 3/31/18.
• "Andrew McCabe Pension Fund." -- GoFundMe account for McCabe, created 3/16/18, trying to raise an additional $200,000.

NoFundYou, Conservatives

• "GoFundMe Cancels [Jihad Watch Director] Robert Spencer's Withdrawal of Funds, Refunds Donations, Without Explanation." -- Jihad Watch, 8/21/18. GoFundMe later admitted it relies on the Southern Poverty Law Center, which smears Spencer as a "hate group leader".
• "GoFundMe Removes Account of Woman Fundraising Anti-Sharia Tour, Conservative Web Show." -- Breitbart, 9/22/17.
• "GoFundMe's Updated Terms Totally Forgot About Their Whole Ban on Abortion Campaigns." -- GoFraudMe, 6/26/16, on the site's revising its 2015 "What's not allowed" rules, which included: "Directly funding an abortion". Currently over 400 campaigns turn up under the search term "abortion fund".
• "New GoFundMe Policy Targets Christian Campaigns." -- CBN News, 5/5/15.
• "Not content with shutting down a fund for some Christian bakers who fell afoul of the gay mafia, the leftist trolls behind the crowd-sourcing site GoFundMe have just pulled the plug on a defense fund for the six Baltimore police officers hastily and very likely irresponsibly charged in the Freddie Gray affair." -- PJ Media, 5/2/15.
• "After GoFundMe Shuts Down Christian Bakery Crowdfunding, It Bans 'Discriminatory' Campaigns." -- The Washington Post, 5/1/15.
• "New GoFundMe Rule Makes It Easy to Kill Christian Campaigns." -- The Washington Times, 4/30/15. After The Washington Times questioned GoFundMe's stopping fundraising for Arlene's Flowers and Sweet Cakes by Melissa -- after both businesses faced crippling civil damages awards from refusing to service gay weddings -- GoFundMe piled on, adding a ban on fundraising to defend against "claims of discriminatory acts".
• "Florist's Funding 'Not Found': GoFundMe Shuts Down Second Fundraiser for Christian Businesses." -- Christian News Network, 4/29/15.
• "Gay-Rights Advocates Torpedo GoFundMe Campaign for Christian-Owned Bakery." -- The Washington Times, 4/25/15.

Haven for Crooks

• "SAR [Suspicious Activity Report] analysis indicates that crowdfunding sites have been used as a layering and co-mingling mechanism in money laundering and fraud schemes, often before participants withdraw funds or move them further through the financial system. SAR narratives have identified various forms of illicit use of rewards-based crowdfunding platforms, including money laundering, fraud schemes, possible terrorist financing, and other criminal activities." -- SAR Stats from the Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network [FinCEN].
• FinCEN noted that in 2015 alone, cybercriminals used crowdfunding sites to launder over $27 million -- and the most common reason it was brought to the attention of FinCEN was suspicions concerning the source of the funds.
• "Initiators received funding from backers through crowdfunding sites, followed by structured cash withdrawals from the accounts ... individuals and businesses are utilizing social media to disperse their propaganda and raise funds, misusing ... crowdfunding networks." -- "Crowdfunding: The New Face of Financial Crimes?" by Advancing Financial Crime Professionals Worldwide [ACAMS] 2017 Report.

Shady Soros Business

• "Support the heroes [Ana Maria Archila and Maria Gallagher] who convinced Flake ... an FBI investigation needed to take place ... We don't have ... big money donors." -- Crowdpac campaign, started by CPD's Ady Barkan, raising over $35,000 for his own colleagues: Archila is CPD executive director and Gallagher is a CPD activist. Talk about a setup. Barkan is lying about not having big money donors; CPD is funded by George Soros, the Ford Foundation, The W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and many other large foundations, according to Influence Watch.
• "How many stories of sexual violence do you need to hear in order to believe women?" -- supposedly random encounter by a female protester and Sen. Mitch McConnell at Reagan airport, Fox News, 10/3/18. The protester was Tracey Corder, CPD's racial justice campaign director, who also accosted Sen. Bob Corker (R, TN) at the airport, while CPD co-executive director Jennifer Epps-Addison confronted Sen. David Perdue (R, GA) at the airport.
• "[CPD] ... receives the bulk of its funding from liberal billionaire George Soros and leads a massive $80 million anti-Trump network ... Prior to joining [CPD], Archila was the co-executive director of Make the Road New York, a Latino group ... behind the 'spontaneous' protests at New York's JFK airport following Trump's Muslim travel ban ... Make the Road was also behind the 'Grab Your Wallet' campaign, which targeted retailers carrying Trump family producrs." -- The Washington Free Beacon, 10/1/18.
• "[CPD] is comprised of old chapters of the controversial and now-defunct Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now [ACORN] ... [and] runs a massive $80 million anti-Trump network that spans across more than 30 states." -- The Washington Free Beacon, 10/1/18. Brian Kettering, co-director of CPD with Ms. Archila, was formerly Deputy Director of National Operations for ACORN.
• "Left-wing groups funded by George Soros and other major Democrat[ic] donors hand out cash to protesters arrested for disrupting Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings ... A coalition of activist organizations including [CPD] ... have scheduled the near-constant disruptions at the Kavanaugh hearings as part of an organized effort to derail the confirmation process..." -- The Daily Caller, 9/18/18.
• "Either Sen. Collins VOTES NO on Kavanaugh OR we fund her future opponent." -- Crowdpac campaign, started by Ady Barkan, which raised almost $4 million.
• "Fund Chuck Grassley's Future Opponent." -- Crowdpac campaign, started by Ady Barkan, which has raised $203,000.

Don't get me wrong. Cloud crowdfunding is a great innovation, an efficient outlet for generosity and all kinds of causes. But like all else that is good, it also attracts the corrupt. The left is exploiting a new way to instantly move payoff money or to supply the shock troops. Don't forget, my friends, the best disinfectant is sunlight. You know what to do.