Senior Democrats helped legitimize indicted BLM activist

Aidan Kearney, a Massachusetts-based blogger who has covered Cannon-Grant closely since before her rise to prominence in the Boston activist community in 2020, railed against the Democratic officials for using their platforms to legitimize the activist before her indictment.

BOSTON BLM LEADER CHARGED WITH PILFERING FUNDS FROM CHARITY MEANT TO FEED CHILDREN

“They chose to ignore her transparent fraud and not only donated to her, but participated in racial justice forums hosted by Monica,” Kearney told the Washington Examiner. “Without their complicity, she never would’ve been able to do what she did.”

Kearney, who runs TB Daily News, added that the elected officials willingly looked past Cannon-Grant’s antics, such as the scathing tirade she uploaded in 2020 against a black Republican woman who is married to a white man.

“This heifer running against Ayanna Pressley — this one here with the white husband. At some point, we going to have to have a conversation with black folks who get in a relationship with white folks and then forget that they black,” Cannon-Grant said in the rant. “If white vagina and white penises jeopardize your melanin, then we need you to sit in the back of the classroom.”

Prosecutors said Cannon-Grant and her husband conspired to use Violence in Boston as a vehicle for their personal enrichment when they founded the charity in 2017. The pair is charged with stealing donations that were meant to purchase meals for needy children, help at-risk young men cope with violence in their neighborhoods, and organize conferences for black women.

The alleged fraud began in 2017 and increased in 2020 as Cannon-Grant’s profile grew during the nationwide unrest that followed George Floyd’s death.

“With this larger influx of VIB funds, Cannon-Grant and Clark Grant began to help themselves to greater amounts from the VIB Bank Account,” prosecutors wrote in the 18-count indictment, saying she began paying herself $2,788 per week from the charity in October 2020.

Also in 2020, Cannon-Grant was dubbed “Bostonian of the Year” by Boston Globe Magazine and was honored by Boston Magazine as the year’s best social justice advocate.

Cannon-Grant claimed to have Boston officials on speed-dial in 2019.

“Most of the politicians in the city, I have their cell phone number. The only one I don’t have — but I’m not upset about — is Charlie Baker,” Cannon-Grant told The Boston Scope. “The mayor, direct call to his cell phone. Michelle Wu, direct call to her cell phone. District Attorney Rollins, direct call to her cell phone.”

Elected Democratic officials lent their personal and financial support to Cannon-Grant and her charity amid the alleged fraud.

Cannon-Grant claimed on her Facebook page that both Warren and Pressley provided financial support to Violence in Boston in June 2020, the same month both lawmakers appeared on a virtual activist summit organized by the charity.

Warren sent a letter to Cannon-Grant on June 1, 2020, thanking the activist for inviting her to the virtual summit, according to a copy of the letter posted on Cannon-Grant’s Facebook page.

“Your activism and organizing give me hope, and I will continue to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with you in this fight for justice,” Warren wrote in the letter.

Walsh diverted public funding to Cannon-Grant’s charity in 2018 when he was serving as mayor of Boston, according to the Boston Globe.

Walsh provided the funding after he met in person with Cannon-Grant and asked her to “stop calling me a motherf*****,” the Boston Globe reported.

The current mayor of Boston, Michelle Wu, also used her platform to support Cannon-Grant. Wu tweeted in June 2020 that she was “proud to be in the sea of tens of thousands” following the activist.

Warren, Pressley, Walsh, and Wu did not respond to requests for comment.

Former Massachusetts Rep. Joe Kennedy III promoted Cannon-Grant’s endorsement of his 2020 Senate campaign on his campaign website.

Boston City Councilor Julia Mejia and former city councilor Andrea Campbell also threw their lots in with Cannon-Grant, offering public messages of support to the activist prior to her indictment.

Campbell, who is now running to become the attorney general of Massachusetts, participated in events with Cannon-Grant’s charity as recently as August.

Cannon-Grant also has close ties with former Boston City Councilor Tito Jackson, who she described as her mentor in a Facebook post.

U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Rachael Rollins had to recuse herself from the case against Cannon-Grant because of her close ties to the activist.

Rollins called Cannon-Grant a “passionate skilled community advocate and she is a friend” during a campaign event in April 2019.

Three months later, Rollins, who at the time was the Suffolk County district attorney, awarded $6,000 in seized assets to Violence in Boston to fund a youth retreat to Philadelphia.

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Prosecutors said Cannon-Grant instead used the funds awarded by Rollins to pay for a vacation to Columbia, Maryland, in which the activist and her husband spent hundreds of dollars on nail salon services, meals at Bubba Gump Shrimp, and cash ATM withdraws.

Rollins declined to comment on her friend’s indictment, according to Boston.com