Texas AG demands Zuckerberg-funded nonprofit turn over documents for investigation
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is launching an investigation into a nonprofit that received donations from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg amid allegations it misled donors and unlawfully used the funds for partisan purposes.
Paxton issued a Civil Investigative Demand to the Chicago, Illinois-based Center for Tech and Civic Life on Thursday, demanding that the group send a host of documents as part of the investigation.
According to the CID, the Office of the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division believes the group “is in possession, custody, or control of documentary material relevant to the subject matter of an investigation of possible violations of [state law] related to false, misleading, and/or deceptive practices in solicitations of donations.”
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Documents that the nonprofit has been asked to produce include donation solicitations sent to Texas residents, copies of IRS 990 forms since 2012, and identifying social media accounts and their subscribers, among other things.
The CID warns that anyone refusing to comply with the demand on various documents “may be guilty of a misdemeanor and on conviction is punishable by a fine of not more than $5,000.00 or by confinement in the county jail for not more than one year, or both.”
“Charities cannot mislead their donors and misrepresent the purpose of their fundraising,” Paxton said in a statement Thursday.
“Further, in Texas, as in other states, it is the duty of state and county officials, accountable to the people of Texas, to ensure that elections are fair, safe, and free. That duty cannot be usurped by outside entities who are not chosen by and cannot be accountable to the people of Texas.”
The Center for Tech and Civic Life identifies itself as “a team of civic technologists, trainers, researchers, election administration and data experts working to foster a more informed and engaged democracy, and helping to modernize U.S. elections.”
“We connect election officials with tools and trainings so they can best serve their communities. We provide information the public needs to develop lifelong civic habits,” they added.
“Today, CTCL is a nationally-recognized nonprofit that partners with everyone — from rural election offices to the largest tech companies in the world.”
CTCL gained national attention during the 2020 election cycle, when they reportedly spent hundreds of millions of dollars to help election administrators cope with the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown restrictions.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, helped to fund the nonprofit’s work during the pandemic, leading some to express concerns over possible partisan bias.
In April, CTCL announced that it would be leading a collaborative project known as the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence, spending approximately $80 million over the next five years to help provide resources for election officials.
“The United States election infrastructure is crumbling,” Tiana Epps-Johnson, who leads CTCL, told The Washington Post at the time. She further claimed that “election officials who serve millions of voters lack the basic technology they need to reliably do their work.”
Epps-Johnson previously served as the election administration director for the progressive grassroots organization New Organizing Institute and was part of the first cohort of Obama Foundation Fellows and Harvard Ash Center Technology and Democracy Fellows.
