"The money began to arrive in earnest in 2021, thanks to the largesse of groups connected with two of the country’s most powerful right-wing donors: Leonard Leo and Thomas D. Klingenstein. Leo, a longtime vacationer in Maine, moved to the state in 2020, and his fingerprints could soon be found on various political campaigns and causes."

#Maine #Minnesota #Trump #Somalis #ICE #EthnicCleansing #LeonardLeo
/6

"It’s no accident that the events playing out in Maine resemble the playbook used to justify the federal crackdown in Minnesota, according to Graham Platner, a U.S. Senate candidate running against Mills for the Democratic nomination.

'This is a nationwide project. This is directly connected to the story in Minnesota to demonize Somali communities, which brought about ICE raids there,' Platner told The Intercept."

#Maine #Minnesota #Trump #Somalis #ICE #EthnicCleansing #LeonardLeo
/5

"That month, the Maine Wire published at least 31 articles that included the word “Somali” and kept it up with at least 26 in January, at least 14 in February, and at least nine in March. Robinson published still more stories about the issue on his Substack, dubbed The Robinson Report."

#Maine #Minnesota #Trump #Somalis #ICE #immigrants #EthnicCleansing #LeonardLeo
/4

"Beginning in December, as right-wing audiences frothed over the viral Nick Shirley video in Minnesota, The Maine Wire leapt into action. Its journalists dusted off earlier reporting to suggest the existence of a sprawling conspiracy of Medicaid fraud, protected by a sordid alliance between Democratic political elites and allegedly corrupt Somali-run nonprofits and health care providers."

#Maine #Minnesota #Trump #Somalis #ICE #immigrants #EthnicCleansing #LeonardLeo
/3

"But as the U.S. right took a hard nativist turn — and amid an infusion of cash from some of the most powerful right-wing money men in the country — the site developed a fixation on Maine’s Somali community, a highly visible immigrant population in a state that’s over 90 percent white."

#Maine #Minnesota #Trump #Somalis #ICE #immigrants #EthnicCleansing #LeonardLeo
/2