(Headline USA) Disgraced Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors admitted in a recent interview that she hosted lavish personal parties at a $6 million mansion purchased by the organization.
BLM bought the Los Angeles home in early 2021, but the purchase has only recently come under scrutiny from ethical experts who say it was a violation of charity finance law.
Cullors, who was forced to step down from BLM after it was reported that she bought at least two multi-million dollar properties for herself, has denied ever living in the $6 million mansion or purchasing it with donor cash.
However, comments that she made during an interview this week contradict both of those claims.
She revealed to the Associated Press this week that she used the mansion to host a party for 15 people to celebrate President Joe Biden’s inauguration in January 2021. She also admitted that she lived in the home for a brief period of time while the FBI allegedly investigated threats against her life. And a couple months after the first party, Cullors said she hosted a second private party to celebrate her son’s birthday.
“I look back at that and think, that probably wasn’t the best idea,” Cullors said of the personal parties she hosted at BLM’s mansion.
BLM claimed it charged Cullors a “rental fee” for using its property, which she said she intends to pay. However, it is not clear when BLM billed Cullors, or how much she was charged.
Cullors used the property on at least two other occasions. In an April 2021 YouTube video, she was seen in the mansion’s kitchen baking herself a peach cobbler. In May 2021, she uploaded another YouTube video of her and two other BLM leaders sipping wine on the mansion’s patio railing.
A conservative ethics watchdog filed an IRS complaint against Cullors and BLM last month, citing Cullors’ “highly unusual” use of BLM’s mansion for her personal benefit.
“Enough is enough,” the National Legal and Policy Center’s Paul Kamenar said in a statement.
“The IRS owes the public and supporters of Black Lives Matter a full investigation of the group’s finances, management, and cover-up of the use of its $6 million LA mansion by Patrisse Cullors, even if she thinks compliance with IRS disclosure rules is ‘triggering’ and causes her and her associates ‘trauma.'”
