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Virginia legal professional basic candidate Jay Jones confronted new political fallout Friday after a report revealed his spouse had donated to the Minnesota Freedom Fund, a controversial bail group that used hundreds of thousands to spring violent offenders, together with accused rapists and murderers, from jail.
In Might 2020, throughout unrest in Minneapolis after George Floyd’s dying, Mavis Jones posted on Twitter: “I simply donated to the Minnesota Freedom Fund,” linking to the group’s donation web page and urging others to do the identical. The account has since gone personal.
The revelation, first reported by The Washington Free Beacon, comes as Jones, a Democrat, trails Republican incumbent Jason Miyares in a tightening race for Virginia’s prime regulation enforcement publish. The state’s legal professional basic oversees state-level prosecutions and police oversight.
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The Minnesota Freedom Fund, promoted on the time by a number of progressive figures, together with Sen. Kamala Harris, raised greater than $41 million throughout the 2020 protests, pledging to assist demonstrators arrested throughout clashes with police.
However a FOX 9 investigation later discovered the group spent most of its cash bailing out defendants accused of significant violent crimes moderately than low-level protest offenses.
Jay Jones addresses supporters after profitable the Democratic nomination for Virginia legal professional basic as spouse Mavis Jones seems on in Norfolk, Va., June 17, 2025. (Trevor Metcalfe/The Virginian-Pilot/Tribune Information Service by way of Getty Photos)
Amongst these bailed out was Christopher Boswell, a twice-convicted rapist going through new kidnapping and assault fees who was freed after the fund posted $350,000 in money bail.
The group additionally paid $100,000 to launch Darnika Floyd, who was charged with second-degree homicide, and $75,000 for Jaleel Stallings, who allegedly fired at a Minneapolis SWAT staff earlier than being acquitted at trial.
Greg Lewin, then the fund’s interim government director, advised FOX 9 that very same yr, “The final time we have been down there, the clerk stated, ‘We hate it once you bail out these intercourse offenders.’ I usually don’t even have a look at a cost once I bail somebody out.”
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Darnika Floyd, charged with second-degree homicide, was launched after the Minnesota Freedom Fund posted $100,000 bail in 2020. (Minnesota Division of Corrections)
In a single case, the fund posted bail for George Howard, a profession felony later charged with fatally taking pictures a person in a Minneapolis highway rage incident simply weeks after his launch.
The information provides to a string of controversies for Jones, 35, who has already apologized for violent textual content messages directed at Republican leaders. In a single change, he wrote that then–Home Speaker Todd Gilbert will get “two bullets to the pinnacle” and that Gilbert’s spouse Jennifer ought to “watch her youngsters die.”
Mavis Jones, spouse of scandal-plagued Virginia AG candidate Jay Jones, D-Va., eportedly posted about her assist of the Minnesota Freedom Fund in 2020, which bailed out accused murderers and rapists. (Jay Jones by way of X)
Court docket information additionally present Jones was convicted of reckless driving in 2022 for touring 116 mph on a Virginia freeway. He was fined $1,500 and ordered to carry out 1,000 hours of neighborhood service, however a state ethics evaluation is inspecting whether or not hours spent volunteering for his personal political committee ought to depend towards the sentence.
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The most recent controversy offers Miyares and Republicans new fodder within the closing weeks of the marketing campaign. A Trafalgar Group ballot launched Oct. 17 discovered Miyares main 49.5% to 44.6%, a reversal from earlier surveys that had Jones up six factors earlier than the textual content scandal broke.
As of Friday, Mavis Jones has set her X account to personal.
The Minnesota Freedom Fund and the Jay Jones marketing campaign didn’t instantly reply to Fox Information Digital’s request for remark.
