LESSIG Blog

There’s a pretty salacious report on the Washington Free Beacon about our fundraising campaign. The claim is false. 

As many news outlets reported at the time, our goal was to raise $1M in crowdfunding pledges — including amounts paid immediately and amounts pledged in advance — by September 7. We beat that goal by a day.

We collected on those pledges both before and after the deadline. Of the pledges made before the deadline, only $9,800 was ultimately withdrawn from our total as no longer considered reliable. Pledges also include commitments of monthly contributions. Though the standard practice is to count monthly contributions at a multiple of 9 (so a $50 monthly pledge is valued at $450), we counted them at a multiple of 6 (so a $50 monthly pledge is valued at $300). In any case, they are a small proportion of the total amount pledged.

It is the nature of truth these days to be viewed through a partisan lens. But I’d be happy to have my regular critic, former FEC Chairman Brad Smith, verify the claims I’ve made, by contacting the people who pledged in advance. I’d trust him to report the truth accurately.