I know very little about Shaun King other than that he used to write for Daily Kos, that when he was here a lot of his work was very impressive and some of it was ...well, less so. I recall him having to retract statements and articles with major errors. At the time, I leaned towards giving him the benefit of the doubt because I felt that the stories he tended to cover were very fast breaking with lots of misinformation around them and he wasn’t a journalist.
However, since he has moved on my impression is that Shaun King is one of the most effective people at getting stories about police brutality out there into the public eye. I also like the idea of replacing District Attorneys with progressives. Here in Dallas I have seen what a progressive DA can do vs. what a “law & order” DA can do. I sent a donation to that campaign.
So I was surprised when I recently saw a string of comments in the Armando controversy which implied he was a misogynist and grifter:
This comment was the one that really surprised me:
Shaun King. He hasn't for a while, but he has a long long long history of raising money for things, often with the help of black activist women. When the money disappears - and it *always* does, and the women start to question him he gets angry and threatens them - publicly - with lawsuits claiming *he's* the victim.
His followers swarm these women and usually force them off the internet. Anyone else on Twitter who asks about where the money goes gets blocked.
He's done this at least five times. At least since I joined Twitter two years ago. Angry Black Lady (Imani Gandy) on Twitter has been keeping this grifter in the public eye for a few weeks now.
His current scam is a 50 state Flip the Senate fundraising campaign, light on details of the candidates it supports (because it's a grift) and pretends that there are 50 states up for election this year (there aren't. This is a grift.)
He's also working with Rihanna, who will become his latest victim when he screws her over. But I think he may regret that, because she won't put up with lawsuit threats. She'll sue him and he can't withstand that scrunity.
The reason is was surprised is because I had listened to Shaun King’s podcast, The Breakdown, called HowWeFlipTheSenate which discusses this campaign. My impression of this episode was mostly positive. I felt King glossed over the structural disadvantages Democrats faced in 2018 and 2020. And yes, Shaun King did talk about organizing in all 50 states, in all precincts — as part of the long term campaign of making sure Democrats are represented in all states. The seven candidates endorsed by HowWeFlipTheSenate are all current primary candidates in states with Senate Elections in 2020: Texas, Georgia, Montana, New Mexico, South Carolina, Colorado, Tennessee.
Additionally, I was familiar with two of the seven candidates: Andrew Romanoff and Maggie Oliver. Romanoff was a prominent member of the Colorado State Legislature and is a legitimate candidate, not a “Just a Guy”. Maggie Oliver is Secretary of State in New Mexico — again, politically experienced. Why would serious candidates associate with a bad reputation grifter?
Today Shaun King released what he says is an independent review of his personal finances and fundraisers he has been involved in.
The summary is:
In short, we find absolutely no evidence that Shaun has ever inappropriately accessed any funds that he has raised. We searched and we asked. Not one single family, charity, cause or campaign said Shaun was ever compensated, directly, or indirectly, for his online fundraising. In fact, it appears that with the exception of his compensation through Real Justice PAC, Shaun has received zero compensation for the fundraising he promoted. The exhaustive documentation to substantiate our findings, including every statement from every family and attorney, can be found below.
There is a great deal of information in this document. Many (but by no means all) of the people whom Shaun King fundraised for state that the money was properly handled. The document has letters from others involved in the funds assuring that things are proper.
But I did notice the document has no financial statements or charts. Just statements and links to the fundraisers. Which, to some degree is informative.
I also noticed that it is difficult to go from some of the specific accusations of financial wrong in this article and correlate them to findings in the document released by Shaun King. For example the article I linked states:
In a 2013 Forbes article, Shaun King confirmed that HopeMob, a non-profit organization he co-founded, raised $1 million dollars for survivors of Haiti’s 2010 earthquake. Taylor reports in her Daily Beast article that only $540,000 was raised and a grant of only $200,000 was given to a designated Haitian relief organization, much less than the $1 million dollars that was reported. Others who had crowdfunding campaigns through HopeMob would never receive the money they raised.
Neither HopeMob nor Haiti are mentioned in the documents released today. There are other specific claims in the article by Tamela Gordon which are unaddressed in what Shaun King released.
Conclusion
I have no idea what happened between Shaun King and Cyntoia Brown. I’m just thankful she is out of prison. Additionally, I’m not aware of the details in the conflict with Clarissa Brooks. And, honestly, all of that is of less interest to me than whether or not Shaun King is a trustworthy progressive whose campaigns I would be willing to support. Frankly, many people, myself included, have done some harmful and short-sighted things on social media.
But I love the idea of supporting progressive candidates for District Attorney, Secretary of State, Senate as well as fundamentally changing our legal system and how it handles people of color.
This diary was written to show what Shaun King released — as he requested — and to mention that even a cursory search shows that not all financial controversies that were raised were addressed in this document. It leaves me concerned.
I badly WANT Shaun King to be who he says he is because if so he can achieve great things leveraging his following and influence into action. I also KNOW that progressive leaders are targets. The lame attempt to whitewash King’s heritage leaves no doubt of that. I firmly believe that organizations like Breitbart, Project Veritas and many we have not even heard of would gladly lie, violate the law and pay off people to harm Shaun King and other progressive leaders like him.
On the other hand, grifters and scammers are attracted to heart-wrenching stories that open the wallet and that is the ground in which Shawn King works. It is also concerning that there seems to be a pattern that women often wind up with the short end of the stick.
Not sure what to think at this time.