Black Lives Matter filed its first public disclosures with the IRS on Monday, with $1.2 million going to lobbying members of Congress — part of that on efforts to impeach then-President Donald Trump, the New York Post reports.
According to the disclosures, Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation spent $1,261,901 in fiscal 2020 to advance racial justice policies and ''lobby members of Congress to vote in favor of impeachment.
Ten House Republicans joined Democrats in January 2021, voting to impeach Trump for the second time during his term of office, this time blaming him for sparking the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol during the official vote counting that certified Democrat Joe Biden as president. Seven GOP senators joined Democrats to convict Trump, but fell short of the 60 needed to remove him from office.
The Post notes that charities are allowed to spend a portion of their funds on lobbying as long as it is not considered ''excessive.'' BLM spent less than 4% of its more than $37 million on lobbying, tax filings show.
''However, … the IRS considers other factors aside from reported lobbying expenses relative to total expenses when deciding whether or not resources spent on lobbying are 'excessive,''' Laurie Styron, executive director of Charity Watch, a not-for-profit that analyzes charities, told the Post. ''There is still much we don't know about significant portions of this charity's resources.''
Black Lives Matter did not formally register as a lobbyist with the federal government, the Post said, citing public records.
The group had not responded to a request for comment from Newsmax on Tuesday evening.
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