Former President Donald Trump is calling for a probe of Facebook leader Mark Zuckerberg after a watchdog group alleged that a Georgia county accepted money from a Zuckerberg-funded group despite a state ban on outside funding for elections.
Mr. Trump, who frequently says the 2020 election was stolen from him, pointed to a formal complaint from the Honest Elections Project that calls for a state investigation into the $2 million that DeKalb County accepted this month from a Zuckerberg-aligned group.
“The whole system is RIGGED. Why isn’t he being prosecuted? The Democrats only know how to cheat. America isn’t going to take it much longer!” Mr. Trump said on his social media platform Truth Social with a link to a Fox News story about the watchdog complaint and Mr. Zuckerberg.
A letter from the watchdog group outlined how the Center for Tech and Civic Life offered more than $400 million in contributions from Mr. Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, to help local election jurisdictions across the country get the staffing and equipment they needed to run the election during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Conservatives complained the “Zuck Bucks” overwhelmingly went to liberal districts and amounted to outside influence in elections, so Georgia passed a ban on outside money for elections in its Election Integrity Act of 2021.
A Zuckerberg spokesman last year said the 2020 donations were a one-time effort to help the country through the pandemic and that it would shift its funding toward a five-year, $80 million project — through the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence — that focuses on collaboration among local officials and technology professionals instead of giving direct election-administration support.
Earlier this month, DeKalb County announced that the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence awarded $2 million to join a bipartisan group of election officials who will share best practices and strategies to “remove barriers and invite participation in democracy.”
“The county is pleased to be a recipient of this funding in support of the elections department’s ongoing efforts to serve as a model for election integrity not just in Georgia but throughout our nation,” said DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond.
The Honest Elections Project said that amounts to an end-run around Georgia law. In a mid-February letter, it urged Georgia Attorney General Christopher M. Carr to investigate. It said the county used “sleight of hand” by putting the finance department in charge of the grant application instead of elections officials.
“DeKalb County’s shameless violation of Georgia’s duly enacted outside funding ban only serves to undermine voters’ confidence in the election process and further embolden radical activists seeking to reshape America’s election system for partisan gain,” its letter said. “The Election Board, along with the Secretary of State and Attorney General, should investigate this violation and work to restore the public’s confidence in Georgia’s election process.”
Mr. Trump piled on the pressure, claiming there is a double standard in the justice system as he faces a long-running federal probe into his actions following the 2020 election.
The forewoman of a special grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, has strongly suggested in media interviews that Mr. Trump is among the persons the panel wanted to indict after a multimonth review.
Also, special counsel Jack Smith is investigating actions by Mr. Trump and his orbit following the 2020 election and before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.
“Crooked Democrat Prosecutors, many of them Racists in Reverse, are trying to steal a second Presidential Election,” Mr. Trump wrote Sunday. “They did it in 2020, and we’re not going to let them do it again in 2024. MAGA!!!”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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