Has Charleston shooting suspect Dylann Roof’s defense fund received more than $4 million in donations from supporters?
A false report has circulated online claiming that Charleston shooting suspect Dylann Roof‘s defense fund received more than $4 million in donations from supporters. After the killing of nine Black-Americans in a South Carolina church last week, the website Newswatch33 tweeted and published an article on the 25th entitled ‘Charleston Church Shooter Dylann Roof Receives $4 Million in Donations from Supporters’. Is there any real truth to these allegations?
According to Newswatch33, the group Citizens For White Rights raised over $4 million in funds in support of Roof but there is no such organization found in a Google search under that name. Michael Lawson is claimed to be the attorney for Citizens For White Rights and supposedly released this statement,
Our organization wants to ensure that Dylann Roof receives fair and equal treatment under the laws of our nation. With all of the publicity this recent incident is receiving along with the Black Organizations looking to make our client guilty, it’s important that Dylann Roof is protected. The donations we are receiving will ensure his protection as we wait for trial as well as when the trial begins.
There is no evidence that such a campaign or group even exists, however, there are still avid supporters of Dylann Roof nationwide. Earl Holt III, president of the Council of Conservative Citizens, has apparently influenced Roof according to the Racist Manifesto recently released online. Records show the White supremacist group has donated tens of thousands of dollars to Republican campaigns, including those of 2016 presidential contenders such as Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum and Rand Paul.
Although the $4 million fund seems to be a big hoax, this doesn’t exclude the fact that Roof has supporters all over the Country that hold similar views of White Supremacy and this ideology must be addressed for justice to be served in this case.
-Infinite Wiz(@InfiniteWiz)
