Jay Jones marketing campaign faces scrutiny over spouse’s bail fund donation

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Virginia legal professional common 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 demise, Mavis Jones posted on what was then 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 been made non-public.

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 high regulation enforcement submit. The state’s legal professional common oversees state-level prosecutions and police oversight.

The Minnesota Freedom Fund, promoted on the time by a number of progressive figures together with then-Sen. Kamala Harris , raised greater than $41 million throughout the 2020 protests, pledging to help 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 quite than low-level protest offenses.

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Jay Jones addresses supporters after profitable the Democratic nomination for Virginia Lawyer Common as spouse Mavis Jones appears to be like on in Norfolk, Virginia, on June 17, 2025. (Trevor Metcalfe/The Virginian-Pilot/Tribune Information Service through Getty Pictures)

Amongst these bailed out was Christopher Boswell, a twice-convicted rapist dealing with new kidnapping and assault prices, who was freed after the fund posted $350,000 in money bail.

The group additionally paid $100,000 to launch Darnika Floyd, charged with second-degree homicide, and $75,000 for Jaleel Stallings, who allegedly fired at a Minneapolis SWAT crew earlier than being acquitted at trial.

Greg Lewin, then the fund’s interim govt director, advised FOX 9 that very same yr, "The final time we have been down there, the clerk mentioned, ‘We hate it once you bail out these intercourse offenders.’ I typically don’t even take a look at a cost after 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 prison later charged with fatally taking pictures a person in a Minneapolis road-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 trade, he wrote that then–Home Speaker Todd Gilbert will get "two bullets to the top" and that Gilbert’s spouse Jennifer ought to "watch her kids die."

Mavis Jones, spouse of scandal-plagued Virginia AG candidate Jay Jones (D-Va.) reportedly posted about her help of the Minnesota Freedom Fund in 2020, which bailed out accused murderers and rapists. (Jay Jones through X)

Courtroom data 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 analyzing whether or not hours spent volunteering for his personal political committee ought to depend towards the sentence.

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The newest controversy provides Miyares and Republicans new fodder within the closing weeks of the marketing campaign. A Trafalgar Group poll 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.