We just got a trove of hacked documents on the Freedom Convoy

Details: Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00; Written by editor

Who’s funding the “grassroots” Freedom Convoy protests that have disrupted Canada and shut down border crossings over the past month?

Plenty of Americans, as it turns out — including a right-wing billionaire and hundreds of members of U.S. militia groups.

The Intercept has examined a huge trove of hacked documents that includes over 100,000 donor records related to the Freedom Convoy. The data show that most of the donors are American, and many have ties to other extremist causes.

These documents provide a rare glimpse into the growth of the global far right — but to keep digging into the financial networks fueling extremist organizing, our nonprofit newsroom needs your help. Will you make a donation today?

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Like many other major sites used by the far-right, the self-described Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo, which the Freedom Convoy movement used to raise nearly $10 million, has been hacked, exposing a massive amount of data about the movement’s donors.

The Intercept examined the data, and we found that while more money total came from Canadians, almost 60 percent of individual donations to the convoy came from the U.S.

Hundreds of donations came from members of the extremist paramilitary organization the Oath Keepers, while the largest single donation is from a conservative American billionaire.

Many donors have also supported anti-vaccine movements and other extremist causes, including legal defense funds for January 6 rioters, the legal defense fund for Kyle Rittenhouse, and various funds supporting the Proud Boys, an American hate group that also played a role in the January 6 Capitol attack.

We’re continuing to report on the far-right movement behind disinformation and violence in the U.S. and abroad. But digging through leaked data is time-consuming and expensive — and going up against right-wing extremists brings on additional security costs.

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