Hamilton creator Lin Manuel Miranda once promoted the Black Lives Matter-linked bail fund that paid to free a 21-year-old activist accused of trying to shoot a Jewish mayoral candidate dead in his campaign office.
On Monday 21-year-old Quintez Brown allegedly showed up at Democratic mayoral candidate Craig Greenberg’s Louisville Kentucky campaign HQ, where he is said to have opened fire.
Just two days later BLM Louisville, together with the BLM-run Louisville Community Bail Fund, posted the journalist and Obama Foundation mentee’s $100,000 cash bond, a decision Greenberg said reflected how ‘broken’ the criminal justice system is.
Now it appears that the bail fund that made Brown’s release possible has been promoted by major stars like Miranda. In May 2020, amid nationwide protest due to murder of George Floyd, the Hamilton creator and actor asked his over 3 million Twitter followers to support the Louisville Community Bail Fund by donating or volunteering.
‘Donating & adding the Louisville Community Bail Fund to the list below,’ Miranda wrote, including links. ‘If you cannot donate, amplify/volunteer.’
‘If you are heartsick over racism & injustice, let it manifest action, work towards justice, however you can manage,’ he added. ‘God keep you safe.’
Later that year TV host Padma Lakshmi also amplified the group on Twitter, posting a a link to the bail fund and asking her followers to donate if they can.
Social activists used their publicly donated funds to secure Brown’s release from behind bars, claiming he would be safer at home and he is suffering PTSD after two years of social unrest and the Covid pandemic.
In 2020 Miranda asked his over 3 million Twitter followers to support the Louisville Community Bail Fund by donating or volunteering
‘Donating & adding the Louisville Community Bail Fund to the list below,’ Miranda wrote. ‘If you cannot donate, amplify/volunteer’
Later that year TV host Padma Lakshmi also amplified the group on Twitter, posting a a link to the bail fund and asking her followers to donate if they can
Chanelle Helm (pictured during BLM protests in 2020) said she knows Brown personally through their activism and they wanted to guarantee his safety
‘It is nearly impossible to believe that someone can attempt murder on Monday and walk out of jail on Wednesday,’ the candidate said Thursday.
‘If someone is struggling with a mental illness and is in custody, they should be evaluated and treated in custody. We must work together to fix this system,’ he added.
Prosecutors had recommended a $75,000 bond for the BLM-supporting student at the University of Louisville, who is also a candidate for the city’s metro council, but it was then raised to $100,000 through fear of his and the public’s safety.
Brown will now be in home incarceration fitted with a GPS ankle monitor after he left Metro Corrections Wednesday evening hours after the bail was paid.
Brown, a well-known BLM activist, was one of 22 people chosen to meet the former President of the United States in 2019 as part of Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, which is aimed at closing achievement gaps facing young boys and men of color.
Brown (circled) was named as a ‘rising face’ by Barack Obama’s foundation in 2019, and was one of just 22 participants chosen for the former president’s My Brother’s Keeper program
Quintez Brown, a 21-year-old student at the University of Louisville and a Black Lives Matter activist, was charged with attempted murder for allegedly attempting to shoot mayoral candidate Craig Greenberg
Brown, 21, was accused of opening fire on Monday on Greenberg (pictured), whose shirt was grazed by a bullet in his campaign headquarters in Louisville
‘A left-wing bail fund partnered with BLM Louisville to bail him out. Less than 48 hours after this activist tried to literally murder a politician, the radical left bailed their comrade out of jail’
Brown, of Louisville in Kentucky, was pictured smiling behind the president, and even named as a future star by the Obama Foundation website, but now finds himself accused of the attempted murder of Craig Greenberg.
Brown’s attorney Rob Eggert has scolded those who suggested it was an anti-Semitic attack. Eggert said: ‘This is not a hate crime. It is a mental health case.’ Cops have yet to comment further on a motive.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who serves the state of Kentucky, joined Greenberg in criticizing Brown’s release.
‘This far-left Black Lives Matter activist and defund-the-police cheerleader walked into a Jewish Democrat’s campaign headquarters and opened fire,’ the Senate Minority Leader said in a statement Thursday
‘But guess what: He’s already been let out of jail,’ McConnell added. ‘A left-wing bail fund partnered with BLM Louisville to bail him out. Less than 48 hours after this activist tried to literally murder a politician, the radical left bailed their comrade out of jail.’
McConnell also pointed out the double standard in media coverage of the alleged attempted assassination.
‘I’m confident that if activists claiming to be conservative tried to assassinate a politician, whatever his mental state, the media would open a 24/7 national conversation about rhetoric on the right,’ McConnell said.
Brown’s friends claim he was suffering from a ‘mental health crisis’ at the time of the shooting, with his attorney Rob Eggert scolding those who suggested it was an anti-Semitic attack
Brown previously wrote a slew of opinion pieces for the Louisville Courier Journal website, including an attack on the city’s police department
In another screed, he railed against a local concealed carry gun law
Brown was also named as a rising star by Barack Obama’s foundation in 2019, and appears on the former president’s website as a role model who bragged of inspiring young boys
The alleged attempted murderer still appears as a changemaker the Obama website bragging of his status as a role model for local boys.
DailyMail.com has contacted the foundation for further comment. Brown was also repeatedly hired by the BBC – the UK’s prestigious public broadcaster – as a spokesman on race matters in the US.
And Brown was even employed as a columnist at his local paper, the Louisville Courier Journal, where he posted regular diatribes against the police and gun ownership.
Brown’s release comes amid nationwide calls for tougher bail laws following a spate of brutal killings, including Brianna Kupfer, 24, stabbed to death in a luxury LA furniture store, and New York ad creative Christina Yuan Lee who was killed in her own apartment.
The Louisville fund’s cofounder and local BLM organizer Chanelle Helm said they wanted to keep Brown safe while he awaits trial, and she knows him personally through their activism.
She told WHAS-TV: ‘They are calling for this individual, this young man who needs support and help, to be punished to the full extent.
‘It is a resounding message that people are down for the torture that has taken place in our jails and prisons.’
She said there have been a spate of deaths in the Louisville Metro Department of Corrections in recent months and she wanted to guarantee his safety.
Helm added that many activists and organizers such as Brown are suffering from mental health problems and PTSD as a result of the unrest of the past two years and the Covid pandemic.
But questions over whether it was safe for Brown to be on the street are mounting, as his former columns offer a disturbing insight into just how different his words are to his alleged actions.
The column was published in July 2019, under the headline: ‘Kentucky’s concealed carry law shows your life doesn’t matter to gun-loving Republicans.’
It said: ‘Your life has no meaning to the irresponsible politicians in Frankfort who time and time again choose the National Rifle Association over your life.
‘Their support for Senate Bill 150, which allows Kentuckians to carry concealed weapons without a permit, is yet another warning: They’ve put a price tag on your life and decided that the blood money they receive from the NRA is more valuable.
‘Every time lawmakers vote against gun safety, and thus the lives of our most vulnerable, they show that their hearts can be as cold as the steel of the guns they praise.’
Astonishingly, another May 2021 column written by Brown – titled Louisville’s huge police budget is the real boogeyman traumatizing Black people took aim at Louisville PD for failing to reduce gun violence.
He wrote: ‘Trauma is not the phone call from a relative that your father is fighting for his life from a gunshot wound. Trauma is the emotional response as you process the inevitability of the moment. It includes the first wave of denial that drowns you in confusion, fear and shock. This can’t be real….
‘How effective is the Louisville Metro Police Department at preventing crime? At 20 years of age, I find it hard to recall a time when crime was not rampant. I can’t recall a time when there was ever mutual trust between the so-called Black community and the police?’
Greenberg said Monday that he was at his campaign headquarters (pictured) with four colleagues when a man appeared in the doorway and began firing multiple rounds
She said: ‘We have someone who has ignored the West End and has created multiple opportunities for himself that has been hit by this gun violence, and we have somebody who has been fighting and creating opportunities for others and himself to end gun violence in his community.’
But metro council president David James said the bail should not have been posted, saying: ‘They are going to be responsible for what he may or may not do to anybody.’
A judge has ordered Brown not to have contact with the alleged victim, 46-year-old Craig Greenberg or his campaign staff.
Police said Brown appears to have acted alone and the motive remains under investigation.
After Brown briefly disappeared last year, family members said they were concerned about his mental health. His lawyer, Rob Eggert said Tuesday in court that ‘there are serious mental issues at play here’ and he will have Brown undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
Craig Greenberg (pictured), a Jewish Democratic candidate for the mayor’s seat in Louisville, was Brown’s target in the alleged shooting on Tuesday
Brown’s lawyer said there are ‘serious mental issues at play here’ and he will have Brown undergo a psychiatric evaluation before trial
Greg Foreman, who hosts the Black Conservative Perspective on YouTube, said: ‘You would think that an attempted murder, which was what this guy was charged with, that indicate he is a violent man, he would not get the opportunity to post bail.
‘Or if he had the opportunity to post bail, it would be an extraordinarily high amount where it wouldn’t be easy for a group like Black Lives Matter to be able to bail him out.’
It comes amid a national debate about bail conditions, after a number of killings from criminals who were out on bail.
On Sunday, Assamad Nash, a homeless serial criminal, allegedly followed a woman into her own Manhattan apartment and stabbed her 40 times in a frenzied attack.
Nash was charged with sexually-motivated burglary by prosecutors Monday, as it was revealed his victim Christina Yuan Lee was found topless in the bathtub of her Chinatown apartment.
Nash was on bail for robbery when he allegedly killed the ad creative.
A previous alleged assault was deemed insufficiently serious to hold him in custody pending trial, thanks to New York’s bail reform laws aimed at lowering the state’s jail population.
Similarly, Shawn Laval Smith, 31, has been charged with murder over the killing of 24-year-old Brianna Kupfer in LA last month.
Brianna was stabbed to death while working alone at the Croft House store on La Brea, just minutes after she texted a friend that a man in the store was ‘giving her a bad vibe’.
Smith is a career criminal with a long rap sheet spanning both coasts, and was free on a $1,000 bond from a misdemeanor arrest in Los Angeles County in October 2020, sheriff’s records show.
Darrell Brooks Jr., who is accused of killing six people and injuring dozens more when he drove an SUV through a suburban Christmas parade in Milwaukee, was also on bail at the time.
Weeks before the massacre, Brooks posted a $1,000 cash bail in a domestic abuse case after he was accused of deliberately hitting a woman with his car.
Brown was arrested shortly after the incident near Greenberg’s offices (pictured). He was carrying a loaded magazine, 9 mm handgun, gun case, and additional magazines when he was arrested
Brown, a social justice activist running as an independent for the council, has campaigned with a slate of candidates opposed to projects that they say will worsen gentrification in Kentucky’s largest city.
The apparent target of Monday’s shooting, Greenberg has touted his experience at the center of the city’s revitalization efforts, and helped draft legislation promoting developments in Louisville’s predominantly Black west side.
Greenberg said on Tuesday that his ears were still ringing from the gunshots fired at him the day before. Despite the attack, he said his resolve to run for mayor has not wavered.
‘If there’s any good to come out of this, I hope it’s that not only will I be a more effective mayor, but that I’ll be someone who can bring the city together to unify around implementing solutions to end gun violence,’ he said in a phone interview.
He said his team has tightened security but that he is committed to continuing to campaign in public.
‘I’m focused on bringing people together,’ Greenberg said. ‘It’s unfortunate that too many things right now are dividing people and I would hope that people start lowering the temperature.’
Greenberg said Monday that he was at his campaign headquarters with four colleagues when a man appeared in the doorway and began firing multiple rounds. He said the man pulled a gun, and began shooting at him.
‘Despite one bullet coming so close that it grazed my sweater and my shirt, no one was physically harmed,’ he said. One staffer managed to shut the door, which they barricaded using tables and desks, and the suspect fled, he said.
Apprehended a short time later less than a half-mile from the scene, Brown was carrying a loaded 9 mm magazine in his pants pocket and had a drawstring bag with a handgun and additional handgun magazines, according to the arrest report.
Brown, a former intern and editorial columnist for The Courier Journal, has been prolific on social media, tweeting and retweeting comments on social justice issues. In one recent post, Brown showed the faces of several young Blacks killed by gun violence in Louisville, writing: ‘This is our reality. All of these kids are gone.’
‘Gun violence reveals the interconnected nature of our reality,’ Brown posted. ‘What affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Especially in our segregated conditions.’
His Twitter profile bio reads: ‘We have one scientific and correct solution, Pan-Africanism: the total liberation and unification of Africa under scientific socialism.’
Brown, who took part in the racial justice protests of 2020, reportedly went missing for 11 days in June 2021 before being found safe on July 1.
Brown has been prolific on social media, tweeting and retweeting comments on social justice issues
Charles Booker, a Louisville Democrat running for U.S. Senate, said Tuesday that he’s known Brown since Brown was a student at the University of Louisville. Booker said when he last saw him in the summer of 2020, the man’s focus was on helping others.
‘The young man I knew then was working to end violence in our city, not carry it out,’ Booker said in a release Tuesday afternoon.
Booker said his heart was broken for Greenberg, his family and campaign staff.
Greenberg has built a big fundraising lead in a crowded race to succeed outgoing Mayor Greg Fischer in the Democratic-leaning city. A Harvard-educated lawyer, Greenberg helped start Louisville-based 21c Museum Hotels, building the company to more than 1,100 employees. The company is credited with helping revive Main Street in downtown Louisville and other urban neighborhoods across the country.
Brown disappeared for about two weeks last summer. After he was found safe, his parents issued a statement asking for patience and privacy while they attended to ‘Quintez’s physical, mental and spiritual needs,’ the Courier Journal reported.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign lawyer and man who funded Steele dossier is now representing BLM after leaders fled the charity over investigation into $60M finances
Hillary Clinton’s former campaign lawyer – the man who spearheaded a dirt-digging investigation that led to the unsubstantiated ‘dirty dossier’ on Donald Trump – is now working for Black Lives Matters, according to the secretive foundation’s most recent tax filing.
Attorney Marc Elias’s eponymous law firm was named several times in Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation’s charity registration renewal filing, which was submitted in California on February 11.
The revelation comes after the leaderless organization faced intense pressure from California’s Department of Justice, which accused it of failing to submit its annual financial reports and alleging it was in delinquent status.
The Elias Law Group is identified in the filings as the organization in charge of the books. The forms also listed longtime Clinton ally Minyon Moore as a member of its board of directors.
Elias and the Democratic National Committee funded a research campaign during the 2016 presidential election that was led by former British spy Christopher Steele, who produced the ‘golden showers’ dossier on Trump.
Black Lives Matter also referenced the Elias Law Group in a New Mexico charity registration statement, the Washington Examiner reported.
Lawyer Marc Elias, who helped fund the now-debunked ‘golden shower’ dossier on Donald Trump, is now working for the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation
A California legal filing by Black Lives Matter Global Network named Elias Law Group as the organization in charge of its books, and lists Clinton loyalist Minyon Moore as a board member
The partnership between Elias and Black Lives Matter, which has been under fire for failing to disclose its financial records, has raised eyebrows for some.
‘The latest filing’s addition of partisan lawyer Marc Elias confirms the group is more political than charitable,’ Capital Research Center president Scott Walter, told the Examiner.
‘But it also suggests that finally some left-wing heavyweights have begun to deal with the embarrassing mess made by a major activist group the institutional Left has failed to, pardon the term, police.’
BLM’s reluctance to release financial records had put its dealings under scrutiny, with California’s Department of Justice last month accusing it of failing to submit its annual financial reports and alleging it was in delinquent status.
It warned that the leaders of the non-profit could be held personally liable if they failed to disclose financial records about its $60 million in donations by the end of March.
The notice came just days after it was revealed that BLM has not had anyone in charge of its finances since co-founder Patrisse Cullors resigned last May.
It is not clear who is currently in charge of the activist group after all three of its founding members – Cullors, Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi – left the organization.
Cullors, 38, stepped down as executive director of the Black Lives Matter Global Network last year amid scrutiny of her $3.2 million property empire.
The scrutiny into BLMGN’s finances came after it was reported that the group transferred $6.3 million to Cullors spouse, Janaya Khan, and other Canadian activists to purchase a mansion in Toronto in 2001.
Black Lives Matters leaders could be held personally liable if they fail to disclose financial records about the charity’s $60 million in donations within the next 60 days (Pictured left to right: Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi in 2016)
California’s warning followed an order from Washington state instructing BLM to ‘immediately cease’ fundraising in the state due to its ‘lack of financial transparency’
Elias did not respond to a DailyMail.com request for comment.
He served as general council for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, which is now accused of spying on Trump during the race and trying to smear him through unsubstantiated claims he was colluding with the Russians.
Clinton was accused last week of hiring a tech term to ‘infiltrate’ servers at the Trump Tower and the White House.
According to a filing from Special Counsel John Durham, the aim was to try and smear Trump by linking him to Russia.
Durham was appointed by then-Attorney General William Barr to serve as the Special Counsel for the United States Department of Justice in October 2020, while Trump was president.
He continues to investigate a case that is sure to anger supporters of the 45th president.
Elias’s eponymous law firm was listed ‘repeatedly in the short-year Form 990 filing by the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation. BLM supporters are pictured protesting the death of George Floyd on June 7, 2020
He served as general council for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, which is now accused of spying on Trump during the race and trying to smear him through unsubstantiated claims
Special Counsel John Durham
Durham’s motion that was filed last Friday looked a potential conflicts of interest with regards to former Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussman, who has been charged with making a false statement to a federal agent. Sussman has pleaded not guilty to the charge.
The former chief investigator of the Trump-Russia probe for the House Intelligence Committee under Republican Devin Nunes, Kash Patel, said Friday’s filing ‘definitively showed the Hillary Clinton campaign directly funded and ordered its lawyers at Perkins Coie to orchestrate a criminal enterprise to fabricate a connection between President Trump and Russia,’ reports Fox News.
‘Per Durham, this arrangement was put in motion in July of 2016, meaning the Hillary Clinton campaign and her lawyers masterminded the most intricate and coordinated conspiracy against Trump when he was both a candidate and later President of the United States while simultaneously perpetuating the bogus Steele Dossier hoax,’ Patel told Fox.
BLM’s board of directors now includes Minyon Moore, who served as political director under former President Bill Clinton. He is now considered one of Vice President Kamala Harris’s closest confidants.
