An intrusion on the data on a Christian crowdfunding website has revealed that serving police officers and public officials donated money to fundraisers for accused wake killers, far-right activists and co-officers accused of shooting black Americans .
In many of these cases, the donations were attached to their official email addresses, raising questions about the use of public resources to support such campaigns.
The breach, shared with journalists by the Distributed Denial of Secrets transparency group, revealed the details of some donors who had previously tried to hide their identities using GiveSendGo’s anonymity feature, but whose website contained the identification.
Beneficiaries of donations from public officials include Kyle Rittenhouse, who is accused of murdering two left-wing protesters in August last year in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Rittenhouse traveled with weapons from neighboring Illinois to provide armed protection to businesses according to his own account during protests over the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
Rittenhouse, which became an issue in the conservative media throughout the late 2020s, and even backed by then-President Donald Trump, held a fundraiser on GiveSendGo that was billed as a contribution to its legal defense. According to the website’s data, he raised $ 586,940 between August 27 last year and January 7 last year.
Among the donors, there were several related to email addresses that can be traced to the police and other public officials.
One donation for $ 25, made on September 3 last year, was made anonymously but associated with the official email address of Sergeant William Kelly, who currently serves as Home Affairs executive officer in the Norfolk Police Department in Virginia.
That donation also made a comment with the caption: “God bless. Thank you for your courage. Hold your head up. You did nothing wrong. ‘
The remark continued: “Every police officer you support, you support. Do not get discouraged by actions of the political class of law enforcement leadership. ”
Another Rittenhouse donor who used an official email address was Craig Shepherd, who according to public records is a paramedic in Utah. This donor donated $ 10 to Rittenhouse on August 30th.
Donations also came to Rittenhouse related to official email addresses for Keith Silvers, and employee of the city of Huntsville, Alabama, and another $ 100 was associated with the official address of Michael Crosley, an engineer at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory , a body charged with maintaining the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile.
Meanwhile, several police officers in Wisconsin donated to a fundraiser, “Support Rusten Sheskey,” held for the Kenosha police officer whose shooting of a black man, Jacob Blake, led to the protests that drew Rittenhouse to the city. .
Two donations of $ 20 to Sheskey’s fund have been linked to email addresses of some lieutenants in Green Bay, Wisconsin police. One, under the name, “GBPD Officer”, was linked to an address attached to Chad Ramos, a training lieutenant in the department; another anonymous donation was associated with Keith A Gehring, who is listed as a lieutenant for the school resource.
Another donation to Sheskey relates to the official email address of Officer Pat Gainer of the Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin Police Department. Given under the screen name “PPPD Motor 179”, the donation also bears the remark: “Stay strong brother.”
About 32 donations, totaling more than $ 5,000, came to Sheskey from private e-mail addresses associated with Kenosha officers, but under license plate numbers rather than names.
More anonymous donations to the site come from city employees of Houston, Texas, who objected to the actions of then-police chief Art Acevedo, who fired four police officers in Houston after they had a man, Nicolas Chavez, who was at the scene , shot dead. his knees, and in an apparent mental health crisis.
One anonymous donation of $ 100 was associated with the official address of the city’s fire chief, Samuel Peña, who himself faced recent labor cost-cutting uprisings but who publicly supported Acevedo. He described himself in a tweet as a “brother” & partner in public safety “in March, when Acevedo announced that he would take up an appointment as the Miami police chief.
Another anonymous $ 400 donation was attributed to the site’s data in an email linked to Chris Andersen, which included the comment: ‘I think Chief Acevedo is part of the’ unrecognizable form of police corruption ‘ which Chris Anderson has. [sic] wrote in his book ‘. Hang on guys !!! ”
Andersen’s book, The Sniper: Hunting A Serial Killer – A True Story, pretends to tell the story of the hunt for a serial killer by the Houston police at a time when the United States is experiencing a spate of civil discontent regarding the unfair shooting (whether true or perceived) of black men by law enforcement (the Black Lives Matter era) ”.
In his Amazon biography, Andersen describes himself as a “39-year-old veteran of the Houston Police Department,” and has worked in roles, including detective for murder, overseeing a Swat team, and internal affairs.
Green Bay police officer Andrew Smith wrote in an email about the donations that “we are investigating the matter”, but added about Sheskey’s actions that his department “does not take a stand on the use of force in the agencies’.
Lynda Seaver, director of public affairs at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, wrote in an email that Michael Crosley “made an honest mistake” and that he “never intended to change his Lab email about not to use this matter ‘.
All other agencies and individuals included with the Guardian’s reporter did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Guardian reported earlier on the use of the fundraising website for far-right groups such as the Proud Boys, which has been banned from other crowdfunding platforms following violent incidents, including the alleged involvement of members of the group in an attack on the United States. Capitol Building on January 6th.