Virginia attorney general candidate Jay Jones faced new political fallout Thursday over reports revealing his wife donated to the Minnesota Freedom Fund, a controversial bail organization that used millions to spring violent offenders, including accused rapists and murderers, from jail.
In a May 2020 post on what was then known as Twitter, the AG candidate’s wife, Mavis Jones, wrote, “I just donated to the Minnesota freedom fund,” linking to the group’s donation page and urging followers to “please consider doing the same.” The revelation, first reported by the Washington Free Beacon, comes as Jones, a Democrat, battles sliding poll numbers and mounting scrutiny over a string of damaging stories about violent text messages, reckless driving, and an ethics probe into his community service hours.
Mavis Jones’s post appeared as rioters torched businesses in Minneapolis after the death of George Floyd, just months before she married the then-state delegate.
The Minnesota Freedom Fund, later promoted by then-Sen. Kamala Harris, raised more than $41 million during the unrest, pledging to support protesters jailed during demonstrations. But a FOX 9 investigation found the fund spent most of its money in 2020 bailing out defendants accused of murder, kidnapping, and sexual assault, rather than low-level protest offenses.
Among those bailed out was Christopher Boswell, a twice-convicted rapist freed pending new kidnapping and assault charges after the fund posted $350,000 in cash bail. The group also paid $100,000 to release Darnika Floyd, charged with second-degree murder, and $75,000 for Jaleel Stallings, who allegedly fired at a Minneapolis SWAT team before being acquitted at trial. Stallings has claimed he fired in self-defense.
“The last time we were down there, the clerk said, ‘we hate it when you bail out these sex offenders,’” Greg Lewin, then the fund’s interim executive director, told FOX 9 at the time. “I often don’t even look at a charge when I bail someone out. I will see it after I pay the bill because it is not the point. The point is the system we are fighting.”
Critics have accused the fund of enabling violent offenders to reoffend while hiding behind social justice rhetoric. In one case, the group posted bail for George Howard, a career criminal later charged with fatally shooting a man in a Minneapolis road rage attack weeks after his release.
The Free Beacon report said Mavis Jones’s donation resurfaced as her husband campaigns to become Virginia’s top law enforcement officer—a post that oversees state prosecutions and police oversight. It has reignited questions about the couple’s views on criminal justice and public safety.
Jay Jones’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
The news follows a damaging month for the 35-year-old Norfolk Democrat. Earlier this month, text messages surfaced in which Jones wrote that then-House Speaker Todd Gilbert, a Republican, “deserved to be shot in the head” and that he wished Gilbert’s wife could “watch her children die.” Jones later apologized, saying he was “ashamed” of the texts, though he has refused to withdraw from the race.
His Republican opponent, Attorney General Jason Miyares, seized on the latest controversy, saying Jones’s repeated lapses show a pattern of contempt for law enforcement and victims.
The backlash has already taken a toll. A Trafalgar Group poll released October 17 showed Miyares leading 49.5% to 44.6%, a reversal from earlier surveys that had Jones up six points before the text scandal broke.
Further complicating matters, court records show Jones was convicted of reckless driving in 2022 for driving 116 mph on a Virginia highway.
https://nypost.com/2025/10/24/us-news/virginia-ag-candidate-jay-joness-wife-donated-to-fund-that-bailed-out-accused-rapists-murderers/
