Donald Trump is calling for Mark Zuckerberg to be prosecuted amid revelations that a group associated with him gave $2 million to the Georgia Board of Elections.
The former president laid out the allegations against the Facebook CEO on his Truth Social platform on Sunday, while publishing an article about the controversial donation.
‘He [Zuckerberg] cheated in the election(s). The whole system is manipulated. Why isn’t he charged? Democrats only know how to cheat. America won’t be long!’ he wrote.
He then repeated his false claims that the 2020 vote had been rigged against him, raising concerns it could happen again.
“Fraud Democratic prosecutors, many of them reverse racists, are attempting to steal a second presidential election. They did it in 2020 and we won’t let them do it again in 2024. MAGA!!!” Trump then wrote on his platform “Truth Social”.
Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday, clearly setting out the allegations against Zuckerberg
Trump then repeated his false claims that the 2020 vote had been rigged against him.
Donald Trump called for the prosecution of Mark Zuckerberg (pictured together at the White House in 2019) after a group associated with him reportedly gave the Georgie Electoral Board $2 million
Trump’s anger stems in part from a claim that a Georgia election committee may have broken state laws by accepting $2 million from a Zuckerberg-affiliated group, the US Alliance for Election Excellence.
Conservatives have long accused the tech mogul’s social media platform of censoring right-wing voices as part of their campaign against misinformation.
A watchdog, the Honest Elections Project, is now calling for a full investigation by the DeKalb County Registrar’s and Elections Committee into what it says is a “blatant and egregious” violation of a state ban on private funding.
The ban came after accusations that donors used their money to advance their left-wing agenda ahead of the 2020 election.
It was spurred by anger and distrust on the right that Zuckerberg’s money benefited Democrats in 2020.
The watchdog is now urging the Attorney General, the Secretary of State and the State Elections Committee to set up an inquiry and look into the cash donation.
“We’re fairly convinced now that this is an attempt to do two things: circumvent these bans on private funding, either by doing what they did in DeKalb County by looking for loopholes and ending rounds and doing , what they can bring money into these offices; or by doing what they think is even more important, which is pumping influence into those offices,” Jason Snead, executive director of the Honest Elections Project, told Fox News.
“They are trying to collect data and redesign the way these offices work so that they become essentially left-wing outposts for progressive electoral reform. Everything they do is a ploy to get into these offices and achieve that goal.’
Trump took to Truth Social on Sunday to say, “The whole system is rigged. Why isn’t he charged?’
Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan (pictured in 2020 at the NASA Ames Research Center) donated more than $400 million to polling agencies, including $2 million to Georgia’s DeKalb County Board of Registration and Elections
Some of the funds, made available in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, helped help jurisdictions deal with the pandemic by providing, among other things, ballot boxes, voting equipment, additional manpower, protective gear for poll workers, and public education campaigns about new voting methods .
Zuckerberg’s money was largely distributed through a non-partisan foundation that had liberal roots.
Some conservative groups cite analysis that the money went disproportionately to pro-Democratic counties, leading to higher voter turnout.
“This massive influx of funds — which ultimately surpassed $400 million — was met with fierce criticism, fueled by post-election analysis that found the money was channeled overwhelmingly to more pro-Democratic jurisdictions,” the Honest said in a letter Elections Project.
A spokesman for Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, said the grant was a “one-off donation given the unprecedented nature of the crisis.”
“During the 2020 election, Mark and Priscilla made a one-time donation to help meet the unprecedented challenge of ensuring Americans can vote safely at the height of the pandemic,” Brian Baker told Fox.
In some states, including Georgia, newly introduced laws now require that all donations to local polling stations be distributed by the secretary of state.
The question of the Zuckerberg donations Trump was something of a bogeyman for the former president.
He said at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Fla. last year that something was wrong with the amount of money Zuckerberg was investing in groups used to support the work of the people running the elections.
Zuckerberg’s spokesman Brian Baker said the donation was intended to help Americans vote safely during the peak of the pandemic, but conservatives say the funds went disproportionately to more Democratic counties, resulting in higher turnout
Last year at CPAC, Trump said there was something wrong with the amount of money Zuckerberg channeled to groups used to support the work of people running the elections.
Conservatives have long lamented how the majority was channeled into the Democratic districts, where turnout increased.
“Let’s do a full forensic examination of the $417 million given by Mark Zuckerberg — who used to come into the White House and kissed my ass — that they spent to take over local voting offices in key Democratic counties,” said Trump in February 2022.
‘And I think you’re going to hear a lot about it. You know if you’re a person who wants to contribute, you’re allowed to give less than $6,000 or else they’ll put you in jail,” Trump explained.
“He gave $417 million. What the hell is going on?’ he wanted to know.
“These people — they call them mules — ballots in Georgia and other swing states were trafficked and sold on an unprecedented scale, and the brutality … it was just incredible what happened that we have it on tape,” he said.
Voting is more expensive in populous urban areas, especially in 2020 as states scramble to switch to postal voting to deal with the pandemic.
Metropolitan areas had to purchase expensive equipment to open and sort absentee ballots, a task that smaller, more GOP-oriented counties could do by hand or with less equipment.
Republican circles have also been discouraged from accepting election money due to conservative distrust of Zuckerberg.
Louisiana’s Republican Attorney General in 2020 ordered his state’s election offices to reject grants from the nonprofit Center for Tech and Civic Life, which distributed $350 million of the Zuckerberg money.
Every voting division that applied received funding,” said CTCL executive director Tiana Epps-Johnson, adding that the distribution of the money “reflects those who chose to apply.”
