According to a new report, Black Lives Matter activist Shaun King’s political PAC used cash from donors to purchase a $40,000 dog.
The PAC, Grassroots Law, made two payments to Potrero Performance Dogs in California since December.
One was for $10,000 in December, followed by a $30,650 payment in February, reported the Washington Free Beacon.
Within days of the second payment, King posted on Facebook that he had welcomed a “new member of the King family,” a mastiff named “Marz”.
King’s post is no longer publicly available. According to the Free Beacon, Marz would serve as a guard dog, providing “alertness and protection,” and as a family pet.
In a July Instagram post, Potrero shared photos of an American Kennel Club competition where Mark won “Best in Show,” explaining that “he’s got a little too much energy to be a family dog so he came back”.
The $40,000 or more that Grassroots Law PAC reportedly spent on Marz is close to the $56,000 in contributions it made to non-federal political candidates in 2021, according to the Free Beacon.
“This luxury dog expense may not be illegal for a PAC, but it shows little respect for King’s donors,” Scott Walter of the Capital Research Center think tank told the Free Beacon.
King has repeatedly been criticized for his fundraising and financial information. He was once accused of soliciting money in the name of 12-year-old police shooting victim Tamir Rice without his mother’s permission.
He has also been criticized for asking for money for his wife’s birthday in 2021, which was reportedly spent on a trip to Disney World.
King currently lives in a five-bedroom North Brunswick, NJ, property, with “a lakefront backyard” and gourmet kitchen, according to public records.