Trump campaign attacks Harris for 2020 tweet supporting Minnesota bail fund
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With Vice President Kamala Harris expected to top the Democratic presidential ticket this year, the Trump campaign is pointing to a nonprofit Minnesota bail fund in an effort to attack Harris’ record on crime.
In social media posts and emails, the former president’s surrogates are highlighting a 2020 tweet in which Harris expressed support for the Minnesota Freedom Fund, a group that posts cash bail for people in pretrial detention who otherwise couldn’t afford it.
But there’s more nuance to the facts of these cases, how the Freedom Fund operates, and Harris’ limited support of the group.
In an email Wednesday, the Make America Great Again Inc. political action committee writes that Harris raised money for the Minnesota Freedom Fund, which “pays to bail out of jail violent criminals, including accused murderers and rapists.”
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And in a post Monday on X, U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer, a Republican from Minnesota’s 6th District, writes: “One convict she sprung from prison killed a man after Kamala helped release him.”
In the post, Emmer links to a 2022 story from the Sinclair Broadcast Group’s The National Desk about Shawn Michael Tillman, who was convicted in a fatal shooting on a St. Paul light rail platform.
The fund never posted bail in Tillman’s murder case. But court records show that in December 2021 Tillman was charged with gross misdemeanor indecent exposure and that the Freedom Fund, on May 3, 2022, posted $2,000 bail on his behalf.
Soon after, Tilllman was accused of killing Demitri Ellis-Strong. After a Ramsey County jury convicted Tillman, 36, of first-degree murder, a judge sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Court records from an unrelated case show that the fund also bailed out George Howard on a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge in early August of 2021. Later that month, Howard fatally shot a man in a road rage incident on I-94 in north Minneapolis. Howard, 50, who’s also known as Ricco Lamont Passmore, pleaded guilty in the case, and is serving a nearly 15-year sentence.
In a phone interview with MPR News on Wednesday, Minnesota Freedom Fund spokesperson Noble Frank said the nonprofit has posted bail for 2,978 people since its inception in 2016, and few of its clients go on to commit violent crimes.
Frank said that the fund’s mission is to keep low-income defendants out of pretrial detention so they can prepare their defenses from home as do those who have the financial means to post cash bail or contract with a bail bondsman.
“Once the courts have made someone accused of a crime eligible to be released before trial, that person should not then have to sit in jail simply because they can’t afford cash bail,” Frank said.
On June 1, 2020 soon after George Floyd was killed by former police officer Derek Chauvin, Harris tweeted “If you’re able to, chip in now to the @MNFreedomFund to help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota.”
Frank said that tweet remains the extent of Harris’ support for the fund.
“We have no connection to Harris or her campaign beyond this four-year-old tweet that is occasioning all of this additional interest in our organization.”
In the aftermath of the 2020 protests and rioting, donations to the Minnesota Freedom Fund poured in, vastly expanding the size and scope of the tiny nonprofit. The group’s tax filings show nearly $42 million in contributions that year, but donations have since leveled off.
Frank said the fund has guidelines for deciding whom it will help.
“We consider an individual’s record of appearance in court and their past compliance with release conditions. And we don’t pay more than twice for one individual during the same 12 months.”
The group also limits how much it spends on bail in each case, but does not publicly disclose that figure.
Frank also noted that contrary to some claims on social media, the fund has no ability to release people from prison after they’ve been convicted of a crime because bail is only for people who might otherwise be jailed in pretrial detention.
“We do believe in accountability for harm once someone has been tried for the crime that they’re accused of,” Frank said. “But we do not believe that the current cash bail system is the only or even the best way to prevent that harm.”