‘They’re using people, and they’re dividing them’: Conservative non-profit raised $80k for Texas book ban case only for the funds to disappear
America First Legal, a conservative nonprofit organization with ties to Project 2025, raised over $80,000 in funds that donors were told would go towards a Texas county book-banning case. A year later, the county claims they never received any of the funds.
As the conservative book-banning efforts sweep across the nation, one component that is often hidden is the exorbitant costs involved. Llano County in Texas is a prime example of the financial toll of book banning. Starting in 2021, county officials began purging public libraries of books with any LGBTQ+ content or racial themes. By 2022, seven residents filed a lawsuit accusing the county of violating their Constitutional rights by allowing a few Republican lawmakers to dictate what the entire county of 21,000 could read or access. What followed was a lengthy and extremely costly legal battle. The trial remains ongoing with no end in sight after the county appealed a decision by a federal judge that ordered it to return 12 banned books to library shelves.
Not only has the county accumulated an astounding nearly $300,000 in legal expenses that will come out of taxpayer dollars, but donors may have been swindled out of $82,275 that was supposed to go to the case, which Llano County has yet to receive.
What happened to the funds raised by America First Legal?
As reported by the Austin American-Statesman, a mystery has surfaced regarding funds that America First Legal (AFL) allegedly raised to support Llano County’s book-banning lawsuit defense. Stephen Miller, the former senior advisor to President Donald Trump, runs AFL. The organization was an advisory board member for the right-wing manifesto Project 2025, although it abruptly tried to cut ties to the project in July 2024. AFL tries to push conservative interests through legal means and has filed lawsuits relating to DEI and affirmative action.
Although the AFL is not part of the Llano County book ban case, it got involved in the matter through a 2023 fundraiser organized by defendant and Library Advisory Board member Bonnie Wallace. The fundraiser was a gala in which donors paid anywhere from $100 to $1,250 to attend. A flier from the event claimed, “100% of all monies go to Llano County Library legal expenses.” The flier also instructed attendees to make the checks out to AFL.
The gala raised $82,275, but the funds didn’t go to Llano County as donors were informed. A year after the fundraiser, Llano County Judge Ron Cunningham and outside attorney Jonathan Mitchell confirmed to the Statesman that they never received the funds and that the case has been 100% funded by taxpayers so far. Meanwhile, the outlet could find no records indicating AFL ever made arrangements or agreed to give the funds to Llano County. The AFL did not respond to requests from the Statesman for comment, leaving it unclear where the funds went and why donors were told their money was going to the legal case.
The AFL funds debacle is just another layer to a case that is already frustrating. According to the Statesman, the county has accrued over $270,000 on the case in 2 and a half years. Residents who don’t even support the book bans are feeling its financial impact, including the public libraries pausing new book purchases for three years. A resident from Llano County’s community of Tow, Lisa Miller, suggested the AFL debacle is evidence of the county being taken advantage of to push a wider conservative agenda. She stated, “So much has been tried using Llano as a pawn in a big game. They’re using people, and they’re dividing them, and it’s working.”
As strange as the missing $82,275 is, it’s not even the most bizarre aspect of the case. It’s even stranger that a relatively small county is accruing hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal expenses, destroying its public libraries, and convincing donors to mindlessly hand over money all over a handful of books. In America, countless teachers and librarians don’t make a livable wage, and a third of households can’t afford back-to-school supplies. While American students and educators struggle, counties are pouring hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars into banning books they don’t like.
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