Donald Trump's campaign has repeatedly smeared a Black veteran who was brutally beaten by police as they attempt to attack Vice President Kamala Harris.
The Trump War Room account has posted multiple times false claims about Jaleel Stallings, a Minnesota man who was ultimately acquitted of charges related to the George Floyd protests in 2020, to suggest Harris helped free violent criminals by tweeting her support for a bail fund as those protests raged nationwide.
"Meet Jaleel Stallings," posted the Trump War Room account on Tuesday. "In June 2020, Stallings was charged with the attempted murder of two police officers during the 2020 riots. @KamalaHarris raised money to bail Stallings out of jail. Kamala Harris is radically liberal and dangerously incompetent."
Stallings was indeed charged with rioting, attempted murder, and deadly force against police officers four years ago, but a jury found him not guilty on all charges. He later won a $1.5 million lawsuit and one of the officers involved in his violent arrest pleaded guilty to assault last year and was sentenced to 15 days in jail.
The U.S. Army veteran and concealed carry permit holder claimed he saw an unmarked white van pull up with its lights off and its side door open when he heard a pop and felt a projectile strike him in the chest, and fearing he had been grazed by a bullet fired by the white supremacists prowling the area, Stallings fired three shots at the van but did not hit anymore.
The 29-year-old Stallings immediately realized he had fired at police, so he dropped his gun and lay face down and motionless — but body camera video shows officers kicking and punching him, even after he was placed in handcuffs, as he tried to explain himself.
The Minnesota Freedom Fund, which Harris had promoted on Twitter, now X, paid $75,000 to bail Stallings out of jail while he awaited the trial that later cleared him, but the Trump campaign then and now have seized on the case to attack the former California attorney general and senator who went on to win the vice presidency and then become the presumed 2024 presidential nominee.
"Kamala Harris helped raise money for a far-left organization that bailed a rioter who shot at police out of jail," the Trump War Room wrote on X on Monday, the day after president Joe Biden ended his re-election campaign and endorsed his running mate.
