Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff have made multiple donations to a nonprofit legal firm that had pushed anti-police rhetoric and “sanctuary” city policies, according to the second family’s tax disclosures.
During 2021, 2022, and 2023, Harris and Emhoff cut an annual $1,000 check to Legal Aid DC, a legal organization that represents low-income individuals with housing law, public benefits and other areas of civil litigation, according to the documents.
Legal Aid DC helps low-income individuals in the nation’s capital, and bills itself as “the district’s oldest and largest civil legal services organization.”
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“This organization helps clients who are suffering from domestic violence, and their other contributors include high-profile conservative law firms,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates told The Post.
“We’re proud to have reversed the historic rise in murders President Biden and Vice President Harris inherited from the Trump Administration, and to have replaced it with the lowest violent crime rate in nearly 50 years.”
But the group has also a history of purveying left-wing critiques of law enforcement and immigration law.
In June 2020, the group promoted an article featuring an interview with its housing lawyer Amanda Korber, and expressed concerns that Washington DC may respond to the ongoing protests and riots at the time with more police.
“As Legal Aid’s Amanda Korber noted in the article, we are concerned, especially given the ongoing protest movement, about any solution that involves more police and policing in DC public housing. #BlackLivesMatterDC,” the group posted on X.
As Legal Aid's Amanda Korber noted in the article, we are concerned, especially given the ongoing protest movement, about any solution that involves more police and policing in DC public housing. #BlackLivesMatterDC https://t.co/EX73qgZGmM
— Legal Aid DC (@LegalAidDC) June 10, 2020
Shortly before sharing that article, the firm expressed “solidarity” with the protests that swept the country in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death, though many of them devolved into riots.
“Legal Aid stands in solidarity with those speaking out, demonstrating, and demanding a country and society that will treat every one of its residents with dignity and respect,” the group said in a statement.
“We at Legal Aid unequivocally affirm thatBlack Lives Matter. We understand that the recurring violence—literal and figurative—against black Americans is a manifestation of our society’s persistent, deep-seated racism, and we must all vow to end it,” the group added.
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Months later, Legal Aid DC promoted an article about the “Racial Double Standard of Capitol Police,” published two days after the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot. It highlighted a quote from Minneapolis City Councilman Jeremiah Ellison, whose fatherKeith served as the state’s Attorney General.
“I think the police will view a leftist protester with a gas mask as more dangerous than a right-wing protester with a semiautomatic rifle,” the younger Ellison said in the quote.
The Washington Examiner first reported on the donations to Legal Aid DC.
Minneapolis City Councilman @jeremiah4north: “I think the police will view a leftist protester with a gas mask as more dangerous than a right-wing protester with a semiautomatic rifle.”https://t.co/DxzATXQAbr
— Legal Aid DC (@LegalAidDC) January 8, 2021
Since her abrupt ascension to the Democratic nominee for president, Harris has faced an onslaught of criticism from the right over her support of the Black Lives Matter protests of 2021.
At one point, Harris, 59, promoted the Minnesota Freedom Fund, which was used to post bail for individuals accused of murder, sexual assault and other violent crimes.
Former President Donald Trump and his allies have pummeled her over those efforts and stepped up the slings and arrows now that she has tapped Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.
Walz, 60, oversaw the North Star State during the thick of the riots in 2020 when parts of Minneapolis and St. Paul were literally on fire.
Beyond the police-bashing rhetoric, Legal Aid DC also backed the Sanctuary Values Act when it was up for consideration in the city council. The law, which was later approved, was intended to expand DC’s status as a “sanctuary city,” meaning that it curtailed cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
Specifically, that law was meant to ensure that the DC would “be a safe place for immigrants.”
Legal Aid DC does extensive work with the immigrant community.
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Immigration and the border crisis have emerged as a potent issue ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election. Harris previously backed calls to decriminalize illegal crossing of the border and make it a civil offense instead.
In 2018, prior to becoming governor, Walzexpressed support for turning Minnesotainto a sanctuary state.
“My position on Minnesota becoming a sanctuary state boils down to who has the responsibility for enforcing immigration laws,”Walz told CBS Newsin October 2018, a month before he was elected.
During his tenure in the governor’s mansion, Walz backed legislation that expanded benefits that illegal immigrants in Minnesota could receive, such as state-fundedhealth care assistanceanddriver’s licenses.
The Post contacted the Legal Aid DC for comment.
Tax disclosures from Harris and Emhoff indicate that they donated just over $20,000 to about six to roughly nine different groups on average between 2021 and 2023.
