Donald Trump calls for Mark Zuckerberg to be prosecuted after $2M donation to Georgia election board

Donald Trump is calling for Mark Zuckerberg to be prosecuted amid revelations a group linked to him gave $2 million to the Georgia elections board.

The former president laid out the allegations against the Meta CEO on his Truth Social platform on Sunday while sharing an article about the controversial donation.

‘He [Zuckerberg] cheated on the Election(s). The whole system is RIGGED. Why isn’t he being prosecuted? The Democrats only know how to cheat. America isn’t going to take it much longer!’ he wrote.

He then went on to repeat his false claims that the 2020 vote was rigged against him and raised concerns it could happen again.

‘Crooked Democrat Prosecutors, many of them Racists in Reverse, are trying to steal a second Presidential Election. They did it in 2020, and we’re not going to let them do it again in 2024. MAGA!!!’, Trump then wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Trump then went on to repeat his false claims that the 2020 vote was rigged against him.

Donald Trump called for Mark Zuckerberg (pictured together at the White House in 2019) to be prosecuted after reports a group linked to him gave $2 million to the Georgie elections board

Trumps anger in part stems from an allegation that a Georgia elections board may have violated state law for accepting a $2 million from a Zuckerberg-linked group, U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence.

Conservatives have long accused the tech mogul’s social media platform of censoring right-wing voices as part of its campaign against misinformation. 

A watchdog, the Honest Elections Project, is now calling for a full investigation into the DeKalb County Board of Registration and Elections for what they say is a ‘flagrant and egregious’ violation of a state ban on private funding.

The ban was put in place after accusations that donors used their money to push their left-wing agenda ahead of the 2020 elections. 

It was spurred by anger and suspicion on the right that Zuckerberg’s money benefited Democrats in 2020.

The watchdog is now calling for the state attorney general, secretary of state and state elections board to set up a probe and investigate the cash donation.

‘We’re now fairly well convinced this is an attempt to do two things: to get around those bans on private funding by doing either what they did in DeKalb County, by looking for loopholes and end-a rounds, doing what they can to get money into these offices; or by doing what I think they feel is even more important work, which is to pump influence into these offices,’ Honest Elections Project Executive Director Jason Snead told Fox News.

‘They are trying to gather data and reshape the way these offices function so that they essentially become left-wing outposts for progressive voting reform. All of what they do is a ruse in order to get into these offices and accomplish that goal.’

Trump took to Truth Social on Sunday to say ‘the whole system is RIGGED. Why isn’t he being prosecuted?’

Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan (pictured in 2020 at the NASA Ames Research Center) gave more than $400 million to election offices including $2 million to the DeKalb County Board of Registration and Elections in Georgia

Part of the funding which came in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic helped to help jurisdictions deal with the pandemic by providing ballot drop boxes, voting equipment, additional manpower, protective gear for poll workers and public education campaigns on new voting methods, among other expenses.

Zuckerberg’s money was largely distributed through a nonpartisan foundation that had liberal roots. 

Some conservative groups cite analyses that the money went disproportionately to Democratic-leaning counties resulting in a higher turnout.

‘This massive influx of funding – which ultimately topped $400 million – was met with heavy criticism driven by post-election analysis that revealed the money was overwhelmingly funneled to Democrat-leaning jurisdictions,’ a letter by the Honest Elections Project letter states.  

A spokesperson for Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan said the grant was a ‘one-time donation given the unprecedented nature of the crisis.’

‘During the 2020 election, Mark and Priscilla made a one-time donation to help address the unprecedented challenge of ensuring Americans could safely vote during the height of the pandemic,’ Brian Baker told Fox.

In some states, including Georgia, newly introduced laws now require all donations to local election offices to be distributed by the secretary of state.

The issue of Zuckerberg’s donations Trump had been something of a bugbear to the former president.

He told the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida last year that there was something amiss with the amount of money Zuckerberg funneled towards groups being used to support the work of people running the elections. 

Zuckerberg’s spokesman Brian Baker said the donation was to help Americans vote safely during the height of the pandemic but conservatives say funds went disproportionately to Democratic-leaning counties resulting in a higher turnout

Last year, at CPAC, Trump told suggested there was something amiss with the amount of money Zuckerberg funneled towards groups being used to support the work of people running the elections. 

Conservatives have long bemoaned how the majority was channeled to Democratic counties, where turnout increased. 

‘Let’s do a full forensic audit of the $417 million given by Mark Zuckerberg – who used to come to the White House and kiss my ass – they spent to take over local election offices in key Democrat counties,’ Trump said in February 2022.

‘And I believe you’re going to be hearing a lot of it. You know if you’re a person that wants to make a contribution you’re allowed to give less than $6,000 otherwise they put you in jail,’ Trump explained.

‘He gave $417 million. What the hell is going on?’ he demanded to know.

‘These people – they call them mules – ballots in Georgia and other swing states were trafficked and sold on an unprecedented scale and the brutality … it was just incredible what took place that we have it on tape,’ he said.

Elections are more expensive in populous urban areas, and especially more so in 2020, when states scrambled to shift to mail voting to deal with the pandemic.

Metropolitan areas had to buy expensive equipment to open and sort mail ballots, a task that smaller, more GOP-leaning counties could do by hand or with less gear. 

Republican-leaning areas were also already discouraged from accepting election grants due to conservative suspicion of Zuckerberg. 

The Republican attorney general of Louisiana in 2020 ordered his state’s election offices to turn down grants from the nonprofit, the Center for Tech and Civic Life, which distributed $350 million of the Zuckerberg money.

Every election department that applied, received funding,’ said CTCL’s executive director, Tiana Epps-Johnson, adding that the distribution of the money ‘reflects those who chose to apply.’