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April 11, 2023

James O'Keefe's investigation reveals numerous suspicious donations to the Democrats

By Rajan Laad

Recently, investigative journalist James O'Keefe and Election Watch released reports that revealed thousands of oddly generous donations made by impecunious senior citizens and unemployed individuals to various Democrat groups. 

The discoveries were made when they inspected the donations records from the Federal Election Commission website.  These donations did seem unusual, considering the financial hardships of the donors.

So are these donors true believers in the far-left causes advocated by the Democrat party such that they place party needs above personal needs?

Commendably, O'Keefe and his colleagues didn't merely engage in speculation and conjecture.  They did what most modern journalists hesitate to do: they left the comforts of offices and actually did some investigative reporting on the scene of the occurrences.

They braved punishing weather and terrain to meet with these Democrat "donors" to comprehend their seemingly irrational generosity.

They enrolled concerned citizens, freelance journalists, and even private detectives to assist them since the undertaking is so massive and their budgets limited.

Townhall covered some of the key exchanges between O'Keefe's team and the "donors."

O'Keefe met with Cindy Nowe, who allegedly contributed $18,000 to a Democrat PAC called Act Blue.  Nowe seemed baffled at the claim; she said she had donated "$5 once in a while" to ActBlue owing to her spirit of charity.  Records show her donating numerous times in a single day.

The next stop was Michael Jamieson in Maryland, who, despite being unemployed, appeared to donate $32,000 to the Democrat party.  When asked about his unexplained generosity, Jamieson ranted about President Trump and hurled abuses at his inquisitors. 

Next was Garland Riggs, who is 80 years old and who allegedly donated $230,000 to ActBlue.  Riggs, like others, denied making those generous donations.  He added that his wife may have donated to ActBlue, but the amount was not more than $1,000 a year. 

O'Keefe then met with Carolyn Lenz, who lives in Tucson and who purportedly donated $170,000 over the past seven years.  Lenz vehemently denied making the donations.  

Next was the turn of a private detective Kyle Corrigan, who works for Brightline Investigations and is part of the Election Watch team.

Corrigan traveled to Wisconsin to investigate.

Corrigan met Dale Wing, who records show made over 11,000 donations over seven years, often four times a day.  Dale too denied making the donations.

Corrigan also met with a man to ask about his donating 8,000 times.  He responded that it seemed a "little odd' and "too high."  He said he may have donated $800 and that he donates only once a month. 

The next stop was Southern California.

Citizen-journalists tracked down Penelope Harms, who allegedly made over 1,800 donations totaling $13,000.  Harms too denied making the donations.

Next, the journalists met with Lori Ball, who allegedly made about 500 donations totaling $7,000 to Democrat groups, on occasions seven times a day.  Ball said she merely donates $5 per month.

There was Jan Weisburg in South California, who reportedly contributed $60,000, or $5,000 per month, over the past year.  Jan too denied such high sums:

The next stop was New Orleans.

The journalist met Cornelius Maneux, who allegedly contributed 800 times to ActBlue within two years, totaling $18,000.  Maneux's status is unemployed, and the address listed as his home on the campaign finance report is a modest duplex.  

The journalists talked to several others across the country who, according to FEC records, donated many times and in high amounts to Joe Biden and other Democrats, and who denied making donations.

This isn't the first time that Democrat-affiliated ActBlue has been accused of donation malpractice.  An investigation from 2020 showed that nearly half of all 2019 donations to ActBlue totaling $346 million were made by unemployed individuals.

Apart from RealClearPolitics, The Post Millennial, The American Spectator, and Townhall, the story was ignored by the mainstream media, including "conservative" Fox News.

If asked, they could claim that the story is unconfirmed or needs verification.

The same news outlets gleefully and willingly carried myriad spurious news stories about President Trump, despite the stories not having even an iota of evidence.  They usually based their claims on unnamed sources and occasionally added the word "purportedly" or "allegedly" before making their false claim.

Most mainstream and well funded news outlets have local news affiliates who can easily track down these donors.  The fact that none has bothered to debunk the claims suggests that the allegations may be factual.

It is more convenient to ignore the story and dismiss it as a far-right conspiracy theory.

A Google news search for James O'Keefe yields only news of his issues with Project Veritas.  A similar search for the Federal Election Commission yields nothing about these irregularities.  Even a search for Election Watch yields nothing of consequence.

The suppression means that citizens will never know of this scandal; they are instead fed a constant diet of stories that declare President Trump guilty of a crime, despite not a jot of evidence.

The story isn't just about donation irregularities — i.e., violation of campaign finance laws; it could also be about identity theft, perhaps credit card or debit card fraud, and elder abuse.

The question that must be asked is, who is actually paying and using these individuals as fronts?

There is a possibility that the donors are actually foreign adversaries or foreign nationals with questionable motives.

Recently, rapper Pras Michel was in the news following accusations of accepting millions from Malaysian fugitive tycoon Jho Low and the Chinese Communist Party, which prosecutors claim he funneled via an illegal network of straw donors to donate to Democrat political PACs such as Obama's 2012 reelection campaign.

Perhaps something similar is occurring here.

These donations give Democrats an unfair advantage, in the end, since funding is the lifeblood of any political party.  They can run disinformation campaigns via various channels of communication, and the GOP candidate simply doesn't have the budget to counter.  They can hire personnel to go door to door.  They can open offices in every locality and promote their candidates.

This amounts to tampering with elections, which the Democrats seem to have become masters at.

Perhaps the same networks were used to commit fraud during the 2020 elections, too.

The story demonstrates another grave crisis that plagues the U.S.

The watchdogs such as the news media and the government agencies have become lapdogs for the Democrats.

The media have become a P.R. wing for the Democrats, while government agencies remained focused solely on criminating political opposition.

The Democrats are once again violating an inviolable norm that has existed for ages in the U.S.

The only other group that citizens look to for hope are the Republicans who are in control of the House.  Will the GOP lead an investigation and compel government agencies to do so as well?

Beyond this story, there are other questions.

Will these violations ever stop?

Will there ever be any investigations driven by facts?

Will the guilty ever be punished?

Optimism has no perils.

Photo credit: Twitter video screen grab.

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