Virginia lawyer common candidate Jay Jones confronted new political fallout Thursday over experiences revealing his spouse donated to the Minnesota Freedom Fund — a controversial bail group that used thousands and thousands to spring violent offenders, together with accused rapists and murderers, from jail.
In a Might 2020 publish on what was then often called Twitter, the AG candidate’s spouse, Mavis Jones wrote, “I simply donated to the Minnesota freedom fund,” linking to the group’s donation web page and urging followers to “please think about doing the identical.”
The revelation, first reported by the Washington Free Beacon, comes as Jones, a Democrat, battles sliding ballot numbers and mounting scrutiny over a string of damaging tales about violent textual content messages, reckless driving and an ethics probe into his group service hours.
Mavis Jones’s publish appeared as rioters torched companies in Minneapolis after the demise of George Floyd and simply months earlier than she married the then–state delegate.
The Minnesota Freedom Fund — later promoted by then-Sen. Kamala Harris — raised greater than $41 million throughout the unrest, pledging to help protesters jailed throughout demonstrations.
However a FOX 9 investigation discovered the fund spent most of its cash in 2020 bailing out defendants accused of homicide, kidnapping and sexual assault, reasonably than low-level protest offenses.
Amongst them was Christopher Boswell, a twice-convicted rapist freed pending new kidnapping and assault costs after the fund posted $350,000 in money bail.
The group additionally paid $100,000 to launch Darnika Floyd, charged with second-degree homicide, and $75,000 for Jaleel Stallings, who allegedly fired at a Minneapolis SWAT group earlier than being acquitted at trial. Stallings has claimed he fired in self-defense.
“The final time we have been down there, the clerk mentioned, ‘we hate it whenever you bail out these intercourse offenders,’” Greg Lewin, then the fund’s interim government director, instructed FOX 9 on the time.
“I usually don’t even take a look at a cost after I bail somebody out,” Lewin mentioned.
“I’ll see it after I pay the invoice as a result of it’s not the purpose. The purpose is the system we’re combating.”
Critics have accused the fund of enabling violent offenders to reoffend whereas hiding behind social justice rhetoric.
In a single case, the group posted bail for George Howard, a profession prison later charged with fatally capturing a person in a Minneapolis street rage assault weeks after his launch.
The Free Beacon report mentioned Mavis Jones’s donation resurfaced as her husband campaigns to turn into Virginia’s high regulation enforcement officer — a publish that oversees state prosecutions and police oversight. It has reignited questions concerning the couple’s views on prison justice and public security.
Jay Jones’s marketing campaign didn’t reply to a request for remark.
The information follows a harmful month for the 35-year-old Norfolk Democrat.
Earlier this month, textual content messages surfaced wherein Jones wrote that then-Home Speaker Todd Gilbert, a Republican, “deserved to be shot within the head” and that he wished Gilbert’s spouse might “watch her youngsters die.”
Jones later apologized, saying he was “ashamed” of the texts although he has refused to withdraw from the race.
His Republican opponent, Legal professional Normal Jason Miyares, seized on the newest controversy, saying Jones’s repeated lapses present a sample of contempt for regulation enforcement and victims.
The backlash has already taken a toll. A Trafalgar Group ballot launched Oct. 17 confirmed Miyares main 49.5% to 44.6%, a reversal from earlier surveys that had Jones up six factors earlier than the textual content scandal broke.
Additional complicating issues, court docket information present Jones was convicted of reckless driving in 2022 for driving 116 mph on a Virginia freeway.
He was fined $1,500 and ordered to carry out 1,000 hours of group service, however a state ethics overview is analyzing whether or not half of these hours — spent volunteering for his personal political motion committee — ought to depend towards the sentence.
