Harris-Backed Bail Fund Put Criminals Back on Street

A bail fund that gained prominence during Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 after being promoted by Vice President Kamala Harris and other celebrities led to some criminals being released to commit additional crimes, including murder, the New York Post reported Wednesday.

Among those freed by the Minnesota Freedom Fund was a twice-convicted male sex-offender who went on to allegedly assault other women before he was arrested again, and a man who pled guilty to murder in a road-rage incident after being bailed out while awaiting trial on a domestic abuse charge.

Harris endorsed the Minnesota Freedom Fund in a June 2020 post on X: "If you’re able to, chip in now to the @MNFreedomFund to help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota," she wrote. Although the fund was created in 2016, it sprang to prominence during the riots sparked by the May 2020 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.

The fund raked in $41.6 million according to its 2020 tax filings, the Post reported, a huge windfall compared to previous years when it took in between $100,000 and $230,000 in annual donations. The injection of capital allowed the group to go from spending $1,000 a day on bail to more than $100,000 to spring offenders, according to the Post, which cited an August 2020 report by WMSP-TV in Minneapolis.

Since 2016, the fund has paid $21.2 million in cash bail and $4.8 million for immigration bonds, freeing 2,537 people from pretrial detention and 463 from immigration detention, the Post reported, citing statistics on the fund’s website.

Among those released was Chirstopher Boswell, a twice-convicted sex offender whose $350,000 cash bail was paid for by the fund, the Post reported. By that time, he had served almost 16 years in prison after being convicted of two rapes. When he was bailed out, Boswell was facing 10 felony counts, including attempted rape, sexual assault, and kidnapping against two women, the Post reported, citing local news reports.

A watchdog that tracked those cases confirmed to the Post those charges were subsequently dropped or dismissed, but Boswell’s pattern of behavior continued. By 2022, Boswell was alleged to be dealing methamphetamines and accused of beating up his then-girlfriend along with additional heinous crimes against her, the Post reported, citing charges filed against him by the state.

Boswell, 41, was convicted last year of criminal sexual assault in the first degree, promoting prostitution, stalking and assault with a dangerous weapon over the 2022 incidents. He is scheduled to be released from prison in 2042.

In the summer of 2021, the fund bailed out George Howard while he was awaiting trial on a misdemeanor domestic assault charge, the Post reported. Less than a month later, Howard was arrested on a murder charge, accused of shooting another man in a road-rage incident along a Minneapolis highway. Howard, 50, who also goes by the name Ricco Lamont Passmore, pleaded guilty last year. He is scheduled to be released in 2031.

A crime watchdog group in Minneapolis that monitors the fund’s bail initiatives and crime in the city called Harris’ actions endorsing the group "irresponsible."

"It was ridiculous for Kamala Harris or any government official to promote an organization like Minnesota Freedom Fund, considering she didn’t make the tweet until June 1, well after it was clearly obvious that our city was being burned and looted by protesters," the director of the watchdog group, who did not want to be identified because of safety concerns, told the Post.

When asked about the filings and the criticism leveled against the fund’s initiatives in bailing out sometimes violent criminals, the group told the Post on Tuesday it is "a local nonprofit led by a volunteer-based board."

"We received an unprecedented level of support following the murder of George Floyd, and we have used that support to advance our mission during the years since," said Noble Frank, the group’s communications director.