Bonnie and Clyde in Minnesota

Have you heard about the nonprofit in Minnesota, which helps war veterans in the courtroom? Here is the scoop…

Sarah Walker is…I mean was, the Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Corrections. She was persuading other officials to support a non-profit—Veterans Defense Project--run by her husband, Brock Hunter. Sarah has been accused of lobbying to receive tax-payer money, which was benefiting his paycheck and not so much the nonprofit.

Nothing has been found on her state computer but that is not stopping the internal investigation. What has been found is before the nonprofit was provided public funds, it operated on a $10,000 annual budget. In 2017, the annual budget was $450,000. The most significant expense was payroll, which was $100,000 for the three employees. Just this last Spring, Veterans Defense Project sought $800,000 for the next two years…Which is fine as long as the goals for the nonprofit were being met and an audit was completed…Remember Form 990 with the IRS? That info will show up.

Sarah Walker is going to have to discuss her actions with the people she met with and how it affected the association and her husband. There is already concern about past phone records and abuse of power.

We will soon learn whether Veterans Defense Project is helping war veterans or helping Brock Hunter and Sarah Walker.

Thanks to Alex Albanese, former intern at State and Federal Communications and sophomore at American University, for research on this article.