March 26 2024
Washington Free Beacon: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Tuesday named one of his donors, Bay Area attorney Nicole Shanahan, as his running mate. Shanahan helped bankroll progressive Los Angeles district attorney George Gascón's (D.) campaign and backed some of California's major soft-on-crime policies.
Shanahan, the 38-year-old ex-wife of billionaire Google cofounder Sergey Brin, gave $25,000 to Gascón's 2020 campaign—joining the list of wealthy progressive backers that includes billionaire George Soros and Bay Area millionaires' wives who propelled Gascón into office. That same year, she gave $150,000 to "Reform L.A. Jails," a project financed by California liberal dark money group Tides and chaired by Black Lives Matter cofounder Patrisse Cullors. In 2020, Reform L.A. Jails pushed a Los Angeles ballot initiative to defund police and jails in favor of "alternatives to incarceration."
In 2016, Shanahan spent $85,000 on a successful California voter initiative to allow early release of felons and make it harder to prosecute juvenile offenders as adults. Criminals released under the law have gone on to commit violent crimes, including murder, and critics have noted that deceptive language might have "tricked" voters into supporting the measure.