ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Minnesota Freedom Fund says former President Donald Trump has distorted the facts about the organization and Kamala Harris, his Democratic rival for re-election. “It is not correct that then-Senator Harris has donated to our organization,” said Noble Frank, a spokesperson. “We have no relationship with Harris beyond a single four-year-old tweet.” Trump has blown up the tweet in which Harris encouraged donations to the Freedom Fund. For Trump the Fund has become a campaign a tool to discredit Harris. His stump speech has tried ro link Harris to a twice-convicted rapist who received bail money from the Fund and who three weeks later shot and killed a man. This was in 2022 – two years after the Harris tweet, which was about the time of an unrelated case involving another Twin Cities man — Jaleel Stallings, who also was black and who was accused shooting a police officer. About the Stallings case, Freedom Fund spokesperson Frank said: “We’re really proud of having paid for Stallings.” He was found innocent and paid $1.5 million in compensation for for false arrest.
Stallings on Trump
In an interview with the Minnesota Reformer, Stallings expressed disappointment at Trump’s distortions. The distortions, he said, undermine his current work to launch a nonprofit called the Good Apple Initiative to encourage “good apples” in the criminal justice system to change the culture of Minnesota policing.