Globe Accused of ‘Hit Piece’ over Exposé of CA Assemblyman Who Sent $6 Million to His Own Nonprofit from State Budget

California Assemblyman Dr. Corey Jackson (D-Moreno Valley), who received his Masters in Social Work, founded and directs the nonprofit Center Against Racism and Trauma (CART), which has only been tax-exempt since February 2022. Earlier this year, he named CART his legislative district’s “Nonprofit of the Year” and then steered $6 million of California taxpayer funding to it, the Globe just reported recently.

Here is the proof of this $6 million going to Jackson’s charity, courtesy of the FLOOR REPORT OF THE 2026-27 BUDGET:

Rather than acknowledge the obvious nefarious funding with taxpayer money, Mr. Hardy Brown of California Black Media defended the Assemblyman’s actions, and accused the Globe of writing a “hit piece,” and not-so-subtly implied that the underlying motive of the Globe is because Assemblyman Corey Jackson is black… not because Jackson was caught red-handed self-dealing and abusing the privilege and authority of his elected office with taxpayer dollars allocated to his own nonprofit.

“In the Black community we do not have the luxury of ignoring any of our leaders whether we agree with them or not,” Mr. Brown says.

The article, “The Receipts: California Assemblyman Steers $6 Million To His Own Nonprofit,” is not about disagreeing with Assemblyman Jackson. The article is entirely about Jackson’s self-dealing and abuse of office.

Mr. Brown continues: “An outspoken advocate for equity, fairness, public health, and social service resources for our Inland Valley community, I have come to admire and respect Jackson’s grit and his work as a legislator. However, I don’t always agree with his political or policy positions.”

“That’s why I was deeply disappointed when the California Globe published a scathing, one-sided and blatantly under-reported hit piece on Jackson last week. Written by reporter Katy Grimes, that article omitted pertinent details, added off-topic information, conflated facts and stretched the truth to suggest that Jackson inappropriately or illegally directed $6 million in taxpayer money to the Center Against Racism and Trauma (CART), a non-profit he founded in Moreno Valley.”

“Assemblymember Corey A. Jackson is my friend,” Mr. Brown begins his op-ed. If I had a friend steering $6 million of state taxpayers funding to her own non-profit that has no employees and a dubious mission, I wouldn’t start out defending her because we are friends.

Corruption is corruption, payola, malfeasance, shadiness, regardless of a personal friend’s status, color, ethnicity, gender or religion.

“Grimes’ two articles might raise some questionable concerns about Jackson’s non-profit going from $250,000 to $6 Million,” Mr. Brown says.

Yes, they might. Particularly when Jackson’s nonprofit appears to rely on government funds rather than private contributions.

However, Mr. Brown then threatens: “I want to caution you of accusing him of any inappropriate self-serving dealing and putting a stain on his reputation by publicly calling for the Trump Administration DOJ to investigate a Black elected official.”

Is Mr. Brown implying that because Assemblyman Corey Jackson is black, and an elected member of the State Assembly, he is untouchable? Is he implying that Assemblyman Jackson is above the law, free from investigation because he is black?

“As a community newspaper founder and news publisher in California for over 46 years, a Black elected school board member for 12 years and a representative for U.S. Congressman George Brown, I know how some journalists who work for the White press work, when it comes to covering Black leaders and the Black community in general,” Mr. Brown says.

I am not a “White press” reporter, and don’t specialize “covering Black leaders and the Black community in general.” I cover the California State Capitol and report on the Governor and members of the California Legislature, regardless of their ethnicity or party. I go where the issues and where the news takes me.

California Globe readers know this, and will remember our recent reports on the former Republican Minority Leader Heath Flora and Republican Caucus Chair Juan Alanis when they voted in July to pass Senate Bill 762, a significant transactions and use tax increase on 14 cities and counties, while the rest of the caucus voted NO, the Globe reported. When Republicans vote for tax increases, that alone is enough of an ideological violation. But when Republican leadership votes to pass increases, that vote represents the entire Republican Caucus,” I wrote.

Or when the Globe reported on Assemblyman Heath Flora (R-Ripon), or “Flora the Explorer” as he is known, and his penchant for the ponies – as in Kentucky Derby ponies. Assemblyman Flora started a ballot initiative committee, which appears to raise money for the sole purpose of taking lobbyist friends to the Kentucky Derby – at least the last couple of years of his mandatory reporting indicates this.

We have many such examples of reporting on many different lawmakers, based entirely on their actions and the impacts on state policies – not on their ethnicity, gender, skin color, or religion. But because California has a Democrat super-supermajority in the State Legislature, most of our articles involve the supermajority.

Claiming victimhood on behalf of Assemblyman Corey Jackson is odious.

Mr. Brown says, “Grimes also does not indicate that she reached out to Jackson or others to question the budget allotment to CART.”

No, I did not reach out to Jackson, because I was reporting on details in the state budget, clearly showing Assemblyman Jackson funneling money to his own nonprofit.

Think about it – if an elected official can orchestrate sending taxpayer funding to his own nonprofit, with no questions asked, California has a much bigger problem than Mr. Brown’s offense at my articles on Corey Jackson’s self-dealing.

Using taxpayer’s money and then framing yourself or your friend as the injured party is a particularly unattractive move. When a scandal involves taxpayer funds, whether it’s a nebulous slush-fund, or self-dealing, or straightforward waste, the people who benefited or orchestrated it have extracted a public resource. Adding a victim narrative on top of that with accusations of “Hit piece,” “I was targeted,” “this is lawfare,” “the system is out to get me,” tries to convert accountability into sympathy. It’s a classic accountability-avoidance move and diversion tactic.

This accountability-avoidance tactic works on some because grievance is emotional and efficient: it recasts the person who took or directed the money as the one who suffered. 

But it also makes Assemblyman Jackson’s transaction clearer. Taxpayers did not volunteer to underwrite Assemblyman Jackson’s nonprofit. Treating those transfers as compensation for persecution does not change the source of the money.

“Grimes inserts information that is completely unrelated to the main topic of the story, in my opinion, to discredit Jackson’s character: that he allegedly featured ‘DSA and Marxist figures as speakers’ at his events,” Mr. Brown says.

“Assemblyman Jackson also featured DSA and Marxist figures as speakers, including Angela Davis, Dolores Huerta and Ibrahim Kendi, according to his website,” I reported. “These folks hate capitalism but don’t do anything for free.”

This is not “completely unrelated” to Assemblyman Jackson’s nonprofit because as I pointed out previously, “As the founder of a small, taxpayer-funded nonprofit, Assemblyman Jackson’s dual role in overseeing state funding for it, publicly recognizing and awarding his own organization, and securing a large unexplained jump in its allocation raises serious conflict-of-interest and transparency questions common to legislative earmarks.”

Assemblyman Corey Jackson was playing fast and loose with taxpayer money and got caught. He should be investigated. Any lawmaker in his shoes should be investigated.

Mr. Brown attempts to make my reporting on Assemblyman Jackson’s dubious nonprofit and $6 million earmark a partisan attack:

“The publication does little to conceal its right-leaning political bent. Although the California Globe bills itself as ‘pro-growth and pro-business, nonpartisan and objective,’ the content on the publication’s website is highly partisan and political. It also describes itself as an ‘independent, professional news website obsessively chronicling everything political throughout the state of California.’”

And then the victimhood takes center stage:

“As the Black Press struggles to produce quality journalism in this age of misinformation, disinformation and the unregulated flow of information on the internet competing for our readers’ attention, it is incumbent upon those of us who think ourselves as responsible, civic-minded news publishers to hold ourselves accountable. We must do the due diligence to ensure that our reports are reading information that is accurate, factual, complete and thoroughly investigated.”

Yes, We must do the due diligence to ensure that our reports are reading information that is accurate, factual, complete and thoroughly investigated. And that is why we included the page from the budget with the $6 million payout to Jackson’s nonprofit. Assemblyman Jackson named CART his own legislative district’s “Nonprofit of the Year” about three weeks before the $6 million amount appeared, and then voted YES on the measure.

That is self-dealing. It is not victimhood. Assemblyman Corey Jackson is not a victim, but he is abusing the power of his elected office to self-deal, and in all likelihood at some point, personally benefit. After all, $6 million dollars to a nonprofit with no employees and no real purpose is a lot of money.

Where is this money going? It is untraceable once the nonprofit receives it. And that should resonate with every voter in California.