Free Republic

A well-known community and social justice activist who founded a Boston nonprofit to reduce violence and who was once was lauded as "Bostonian of the Year" avoided jail time in a federal fraud case, the Justice Department said Thursday. Monica Cannon-Grant, 44, pleaded guilty September 2025 to 18 of the 27 counts, including wire fraud, mail fraud and failing to file tax returns, related to a scheme in which Cannon-Grant and her late husband, Clark Grant, pocketed thousands of dollars in donations to their nonprofit.

Nekima Levy Armstrong, one of the organizers of the storming of a Minnesota church to protest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Sunday, denied that she and her group tried to "rush" the church on CNN, despite previous comments suggesting otherwise. Armstrong appeared on CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront" Wednesday when she was asked about whether the Justice Department had contacted her since threatening a crackdown on the protesters. Armstrong said that she had not been contacted by the Justice Department, despite media attention, but that she wanted to "correct" the record on her protest.

A Democratic Virginia lawmaker is backing a bill that would ban the state from verifying a nonprofit’s eligibility to provide and receive federal taxpayer benefits, a move that comes as scrutiny over the misuse of taxpayer funds continues to intensify. The introduction of House Bill 1369 by Virginia Democratic state Del. Jessica Anderson came in the wake of a massive fraud scandal involving nonprofits in Minnesota and amid pressure by the Trump administration for states to enact better oversight of how taxpayer money is spent. "No state agency responsible for the administration of federal funds shall impose a requirement on...

Hundreds of billions of dollars flowed through U.S. nonprofit organizations in 2024, tax filing data show, as major fraud cases — including in Minnesota — put new focus on how taxpayer-backed funds are overseen. The figures come from ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer and were independently reviewed by Fox News, which confirmed the state-by-state revenue totals.

Five of the 10 Somali daycare centers that were visited by Nick Shirley in his viral exposé on alleged fraud in Minnesota were also meal sites for the fraud-laden "Feeding Our Future" organization. The case surrounding fraud with "Feeding Our Future" has seen over 90 people charged and at least 60 people have been convicted. According to the Minnesota Star Tribune, half of the 10 daycare facilities that were visited by Shirley were also connected to Feeding Our Future as "meal sites." Altogether, the five daycare businesses got nearly $5 million from Feeding Our Future between 2018 and 2021. The...

The Conservative Party of New York State called on federal and state officials Monday to revoke the tax-exempt status of a handful of nonprofit organizations recently alleged to support undocumented immigrants in defiance of federal immigration law while also receiving taxpayer funding. “These groups must be publicly identified and stripped of their tax-exempt status,” State Conservative Party Chair Gerard Kassar said in a statement published by the party. “Taxpayer dollars are being used to break federal and state laws. There must be accountability.” The party cites a recent New York Post review of public contract data that documents more than...

The Council approved the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act, legislation that would allow community land trusts to purchase properties before they go for sale on the open market, 31 to 10. Ann Korchak, board president of Small Property Owners of New York... “COPA will make New York City an affordable housing wasteland and trigger the extinction of small owners,” said Korchak in a statement. “This government-engineered, socialist scheme sanctions politically-connected, nonprofit housing slumlords and predatory developers to snatch private property ...”

Mission-driven groups will get an early chance to make offers on properties that can be rehabilitated and preserved as affordable. he New York City Council passed a revised version of the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA), a law that gives certain nonprofits an early right to bid on available properties that could be rehabilitated and preserved as affordable housing. As Jeanmarie Evelly explains in City Limits, the law “specifically targets buildings with poor conditions or where an affordability provision is expiring.” The law allows “qualified entities” to purchase properties, make repairs, and maintain affordable rents. First introduced in 2020,...

The Bail Project, whose employee Holly Zoller drove the U-Haul in Louisville that gave supplies to antifa, received up to $1M in federal COVID relief funds. National File reported yesterday that Holly Zoller, a professional “Bail Disruptor” for the Bail Project, was caught driving a U-Haul truck that gave out supplies to Antifa rioters in Louisville, including what looked like shields. The rioters were protesting the result of the investigation into the death of Breonna Taylor, and the lack of murder charges that resulted. The Bail Project has ties to a number of famous faces. The board of advisors include...

Donnie Allen allegedly shot and killed 27-year-old Benjamin McComas at a Cleveland light rail station around 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 14, according to Fox 8. Allen was charged with aggravated murder and arraigned on a $1 million bond. Court records reviewed by Fox News Digital show Allen was charged with drug possession, breaking and entering, vandalism, obstructing official business and possessing criminal tools in relation to a separate incident at a Cleveland light rail station on Dec. 4. His bond was initially set at $15,000, which was later lowered by Judge Joy Kennedy to $5,000 on Dec. 8. In that...

National File can reveal in further detail those behind the funding of the Bail Project, which include Bill Gates, Universal Music Group, and others. The Bail Project has come under fire, after it was revealed that their employee, Holly Zoller, was the renter and driver of a U-Haul that provided shields and other supplies to antifa rioters before the chaos in Louisville yesterday. As National File reported, a group of concerned citizens tracked Zoller down: One member of the anonymous group called Zoller, posing as a U-Haul employee, noting that the company had seen “hundreds of Twitter posts” about the...

Hours after a nonprofit group bailed a Missouri man out of jail, he beat his wife so severely that she died five days later, police said, according to KMOV. Samuel Lee Scott, 54, is accused of killing Marcia Johnson, 54, on April 9, KMOV reported. She died on April 14 — and two days later, Scott, of St. Louis, was charged with first-degree murder in connection to his wife’s death. Prior to the murder charge, Scott had been booked into jail on April 5 on a misdemeanor domestic assault charge after he was accused of hitting his wife on “the...

The alleged "mastermind" behind Minnesota’s $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud scandal tied to the Somali community is accused of wielding extraordinary power through threats and what the government described as "fake claims of racism." Aimee Bock, who founded the Feeding Our Future nonprofit in 2016, used her growing authority to silence dissent, discourage scrutiny from state regulators and cut off operators who refused to comply, prosecutors said. While other defendants splurged on luxury homes, cars and overseas property, prosecutors said, Bock instead controlled the levers of approval and reimbursement that allowed the scheme to flourish.

The Biden administration shows no signs of stopping research on “pathogens of pandemic potential” abroad through a controversial US nonprofit, Sen. Joni Ernst said Monday, as the Pentagon will complete a $2.8 million grant this year for experiments on “high-risk pathogens” in Guinea. The Department of Defense began funding Georgetown University in September 2021 for a three-year project out of its Defense Threat Reduction Agency focused on “reducing the risk of pathogens causing fever” in Guinea, a grant database shows. EcoHealth Alliance has received subgrants as part of the project — despite concerns from lawmakers and scientific experts that the...

As we’ve reported, federal prosecutors have uncovered massive fraud in Minnesota’s federally funded food child nutrition programs, where scammers – many of them of Somalian descent – allegedly ripped off over a billion dollars from taxpayers. Some are predicting the end of Gov. Tim Walz’s political career, as this went down under his watch, and it’s been revealed that Rep. Ilhan Omar (MN-05) held her campaign victory party in 2018 at a restaurant owned by a man who was convicted in March on 21 counts related to the scandal, including wire fraud, federal programs bribery and money laundering. Not a...

A BLM activist has been charged over a huge fraud which is said to have included blowing a grant intended for young men at risk of violence on trips to Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., Shake Shack and a nail salon. She is accused of using much of the $1 million raised by her nonprofit Violence in Boston Inc for good causes. Her salary jumped from $25,000 in 2020 to $170,000 in 2021. Cannon-Grant - once named a Bostonian of the Year by the prestigious Boston Globe newspaper - was arrested at her spacious home last week. She appeared in a...

Minnesota is still reeling from the biggest fraud scandal in its history. A sprawling, stunning, almost unbelievable heist of federal money intended to feed hungry children during the pandemic. And at the center of the storm sits Aimee Bock – former schoolteacher, mom-of-two, and the woman federal prosecutors branded the mastermind of a $300million meals-for-kids scam. Bock is already convicted. She's already behind bars. And she's facing a sentence that could lock her away for most of the rest of her life. But her lawyer, Kenneth Udoibok, says she is nothing more than a scapegoat – the fall-girl for a...

BOMBSHELL REPORT: Nearly $2 BILLION in foreign dollars were poured into policy advocate groups in the U.S., including to the group behind anti-Trump protests in Washington D.C.

Nearly half a dozen foreign charities have dumped more than a billion dollars into numerous U.S.-based leftist organizations and causes in recent years, according to a new investigative report. Released on Friday, the new analysis by Americans for Public Trust (APT) shows how five overseas charities have collectively funneled almost $2 billion into left-wing groups, policy fights, and more “to advance their extreme, foreign, activist agenda” in America. These causes, according to the report, range from funding climate alarmist demonstrations and campaigns to environmental-related litigation. “It is extremely alarming that five foreign charities have quietly poured almost two billion dollars...

C3 @C_3C_3 Well well well… Judge McConnell donated $700K to Democrats. He runs nonprofit Crossroads Rhode Island that has received $128 million in government funding. McConnell is now demanding POTUS Trump illegally fund SNAP. After he tried to block DOGE cuts. He’s a Dem activist.