WI: Green Bay Press Gazette: White supremacist gave to Johnson, Ryan
By: Donovan Slack
June 22, 2015
WASHINGTON – A white supremacist who influenced the Charleston church shooter gave tens of thousands of dollars to Republican candidates and committees in the past five years, including $1,250 to Sen. Ron Johnson and $1,000 to Rep. Paul Ryan’s leadership committee.
Earl Holt III, president of the Council of Conservative Citizens, which was cited in a manifesto by shooter Dylann Roof, contributed $500 in 2011 and $500 in 2012 to Ryan’s Prosperity PAC.
Holt gave Johnson’s campaign $250 in 2010 and $1,000 in 2013. In Johnson’s campaign filings from 2013, Holt lists his occupation as “slumlord.”
A spokeswoman for Johnson said his campaign learned about the contributions on Monday morning and cut a check for the full amount to a charity to help the victims in Charleston.
“As soon as we discovered that Mr. Holt had contributed to the campaign, we immediately donated the full amount of his contribution to the Mother Emanuel Hope Fund,” Johnson campaign spokeswoman Betsy Ankney said.
A spokesman for Ryan’s committee said the PAC will give the contributions it received from Holt to the Charleston church where the shooting occurred.
Roof, the suspect in last week’s murder of nine blacks at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., said he learned about “brutal black-on-white murders” from the Council of Conservative Citizens website.
Holt said in a statement posted Sunday on the group’s website that it is “not surprising” that Roof learned about “black-on-white violent crime” from the group’s site. But the group “unequivocally condemns Roof’s murderous actions.”
The Guardian first reported Sunday that Holt has given more than $65,000 to Republicans in recent years, including presidential contenders Rick Santorum, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz.
