A House Judiciary Committee interim staff report has taken aim at FireAid, an organization that raised roughly $100 million to help the victims of the California wildfires last year, spend some of its funds on unrelated initiatives and failed to make direct payments to victims as promised.”FireAid advertised that all donations raised during its benefit concert would go directly to victims of the California wildfires,” the report stated. “Unfortunately, this was not the case. Instead, money went towards left-leaning pet projects, illegal aliens, and the administrative costs related to running non-profit organizations.”
The panel confirmed that FireAid had distributed roughly $75 million of the funds, but highlighted roughly $100,000 sent to podcasters, $100,000 to voter participation efforts, and $550,000 to groups “involved in political advocacy.”
Another $500,000, the report asserted, went to cover administrative costs for non-profits and bonuses for their administrators. It further stated that an unknown amount of the funds went to illegal aliens. $500,000 more, it said, went to the Black Music Action Coalition. The panel could not identify how that group spent the funds it received.
To be clear, Republicans flagged just shy of 2% of the funds that FireAid raised as dubious. Several flagged recipients, however, told FireAid they would use the funds to help wildfire victims, with Republicans flagging their receipt of the funds because the group’s primary purpose was unrelated.
Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent at Just the News. Follow him on X.
