Reform LA Jails, a group based in Los Angeles run by Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors, shelled out $26,000 for “meetings” in 2019 at a lavish resort in Malibu, California, The Daily Caller News Foundation reported Monday.
Cullors has made headlines in the past few weeks after reports that she spent $3.2 million on four homes in mostly white neighborhoods. The BLM co-founder claimed in 2015 that she and her colleagues are “trained Marxists,” but this could not be more contradicting.
Campaign finance records obtained by The Daily Caller show Reform LA Jails spent a little over $10,000 on “meetings and appearances” at the Calamigos Guest Ranch and Beach Club located in Malibu. In addition, the organization spent an estimated $15,593 at a corporate conference venue called Malibu Conference Center from July to September 2019. It costs $600 minimum to get a room at the facility.
Cullors is the chairwoman and founder of Reform LA Jails, which claims it is “powered by Black Lives Matter.” The group led a successful effort in 2020 to make the Los Angeles Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission craft an initiative to minimize the number of people in jail in the county. “Reform L.A. Jails is a sensible approach to develop a new public safety strategy to save County resources and to protect, restore, and strengthen our communities,” says the group’s website.
The organization did not immediately respond to The Federalist’s request for comment.
As found by The Daily Caller a few weeks ago, Cullors made more than $20,000 a month in 2019 from her leadership position with Reform LA Jails. Her consulting firm, Janaya and Patrisse Consulting, made $191,000 from the group, also known as “Vote Yes On R.” The group defended Cullors’s salary to Fox News, claiming she “earned the market rate compensation” for someone of her expertise in California.
“The founder and chair of Reform LA Jails, Patrisse Cullors, through her consulting firm Janaya and Patrisse Consulting, earned the market rate compensation for serving as the chief executive of a historic and successful $5 million dollar campaign in California, and far below when taking into consideration the fact that Ms. Cullors ran the campaign without a salary at all for all of 2018,” the group said.
According to the California Fair Political Practices Commission, campaign funds “must be used for political, legislative, or governmental purposes.” Inevitably, it is unclear how Reform LA Jails’ meetings in Malibu conform to this law. The Caller also found that the group held several events in 2019, one of which was a party at actress Jane Fonda’s home.
From our founder and chair, @OsopePatrisse…
We’ve spent 1.5 years working on @ReformLAJails. @Janefonda was an early endorser of the campaign. Tonight we had a brilliant house party at her house. pic.twitter.com/NoaaJQYmKB— Reform LA Jails (@ReformLAJails) November 17, 2019
Payments for the events were made by Asha Bandele, who co-authored the book, “When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir,” in 2018 with Cullors. Records indicate Bandele made $260,000 in consulting for Reform LA Jails in 2019, which campaign finance documents show account for more than 18 percent of the organization’s costs for the year.
The website for Janaya and Patrisse Consulting was removed after The New York Post broke its bombshell story on the million-dollar housing spree.
Source: The Federalist
