Rebekah Jones now has two active six-figure GoFundMe campaigns

by | Dec 9, 2020



Rebekah Jones has two active fundraisers that have received more than $450,000 in donations.

Jones, a former Florida Department of Health (DOH) employee that claimed she was fired for refusing to manipulate data to support Governor Ron DeSantis‘ plan to reopen Florida, launched her second GoFundMe page this week, just hours after Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) officers executed a search warrant Monday at her home in Tallahassee. During the search, police seized computer equipment as part of an ongoing investigation.

The search warrant made national headlines after Jones set up a web camera facing the door and published the confrontation on Twitter. The video shows officers entering the home and alerting her that they have a “search warrant” before escorting Jones out of the residence. The 30-second clip also shows law enforcement telling Jones’ to “calm down” and telling her husband to “come down the stairs.”

Following the search and seizure, Jones accused DeSantis of being the mastermind behind the operation in a follow-up tweet, saying his administration sent the “Gestapo” after her. Jones also alleged officers pointed their guns at her family — including her 2-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son.

But according to a statement provided by FDLE spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger, FDLE launched an investigation in early November after receiving a complaint from the DOH that someone at Jones’ residence illegally accessed a state emergency-alert messaging system.

The message in question, according to the Tampa Bay Times, reads:

“Speak up before another 17,000 people are dead. You know this is wrong. You don’t have to be a part of this. Be a hero. Speak out before it’s too late.”

Plessinger went on to say that agents attempted to “minimize disruption to the family” when they first arrived at Jones’ home. Jones, however, refused to comply.

“Ms. Jones refused to come to the door for 20 minutes and hung-up on agents. After several attempts and verbal notifications that law enforcement officers were there to serve a legal search warrant, Ms. Jones eventually came to the door and allowed agents to enter,” Plessinger said. “Ms. Jones’ family was upstairs when agents made entry into the home.”

Following the viral video, Jones was once again thrust into the spotlight, with legacy media outlets like CNN giving Jones an exclusive interview to tell her side of the story. She told CNN’s Chris Cuomo on Monday that she didn’t send the text, saying that message in question was “not the way I talk.”

Jones also capitalized once again on her story, setting up a “legal defense fund” on GoFundMe. The new page, according to Jones, was set up to raise money to replace the computer that was taken by FDLE and pay her legal fees.

“Looks like I need a new computer and a hell of a good lawyer,” she wrote on the page. “And if the governor manages to invent something to lock me away, my family will need help.”

Initially, her goal was to raise $150,000. Since setting up the page, Jones has raised over $200,000 and has adjusted her new fundraising goal to $1,000,000.

 

This isn’t the only fundraiser currently active on the website. Jones’s initial fundraiser — created on May 23 after she was terminated — is still active, despite her most recent update on the page claiming that the last day to donate was on Sept. 30. The page was set up to “help Rebekah Jones, Florida Whistleblower and scientist, pay her bills after she was fired for refusing to manipulate COVID19 data for the Florida plan to prematurely reopen the state.”

 

“Today is the last day of my GoFundMe fundraiser,” Jones wrote on Sept. 30. “Fundraising takes time and energy. Between my work volunteering with COVID Action and The Covid Monitor, raising two kids, suing the state, writing a book, and searching for a job whenever ‘after’ finally arrives, I’m not flush with time.

“If you could share this site in the next 15 hours to those who may willing to help pay my salary, buy any needed equipment, and buy/keep cloud space for our national program, I would be very thankful,” the message continues. “And to everyone who has already donated – more than 5,000 people across the country! – thank you so much. I never imagined anything like this would happen to me, and because of all of you, I believe it was for the better.”

At the time of this article, people are still donating to Jones’ first fundraiser. The page has raised over $250,000, with a goal of $300,000. Combined, both pages have raised more than $450,000.

 

 

Jones was fired back in May from her job as a geographic information system manager for DOH’s Division of Disease Control and Health Protection over claims of insubordination.

Jones does have an extensive history of misconduct. In 2016, she was arrested on the campus of her employer, Louisiana State University, for refusing to obey the orders of a police officer:

On June 13, 26-year-old University staff member Rebekah Jones was booked on one count of battery on a police officer, one count of remaining after forbidden and two counts of resisting arrest, Scott said. Scott said officers arrived at the Sea Grant building when Jones refused to leave at the request of LSU Human Resources. Scott said Jones initiated physical contact against two LSUPD officers while resisting arrest and officers were forced to subdue her.

Jones also has a criminal history in Leon County, where she’s been arrested and has one charge of misdemeanor cyberstalking — from an incident with her ex-boyfriend in 2019 — still pending in the courts.

She was also fired from Florida State University in 2017.

15 Comments

  1. BruceS

    Nice smear job. Did you folks manipulate the monitor images behind her? Nice manipulation but when they are so skewed, it is rather obvious.

  2. Crystal B

    Who is actually manipulating?
    She is no angel, despite her claims. She has a history of firings and cyberstalking. She is 26 with two kids.

    It is ridiculous that in this time of crisis, people are actually funding this woman to the tune of more than half a million dollars!! How about support your local business to keep THEM alive?

  3. Jack Serolf

    Who is bank-rolling this leaflet, magazine, rag, or whatever it is? I mean no one could be buying it for the news or the writing.

  4. I'm a Lawyer

    Glad to see I’m not the only one who spotted this money grab scam. “I’m the victim” doesn’t really cut it when you scream it over and over and over.

  5. Mark Dillon

    When you have to say you’re a lawyer, it’s obvious you’re nothing more than a paper pusher.

  6. Mark Dillon

    You’re name is Crystal. How can anybody take you seriously?

  7. Mark R

    @Crystal: First off, Ms. Jones is 31. If you can’t even get that basic fact correct, how can we trust any of your claims?

  8. Rick

    So she’s 26 with two kids. What the heck does that have to do with your argument?

  9. Bob Jones

    Pretty obvious you changed the monitor images. Trying to have an agenda are you. It’s so obvious it’s not funny.

  10. Tom Joad

    Great job by the MAGAts shooting the messenger.

  11. Steve Rabson

    If you have to resert to manipulating images to gain clicks then your whole article is suspect.

  12. KidByte

    Ron DeSantis is a YUGE criminal. She will need those two funds to defend herself, not only against Ron DeSantis, but the entire retrumplican party.
    Go get ’em, Rebekah!

  13. Andy Opel

    Hey look – a media hack pretending to do journalism! Kirkland has to photoshop images to try to make his point. What a pathetic excuse for a “reporter” trying to write for a “news” site.

  14. srayle

    Are we just supposed to ignore the fact that a third grader could have photoshopped this photo better than you did? It’s not even straight. I don’t even care what the rest of your “article” says. You’ve lost all credibility right away with that.

  15. Sky Net

    I loved your article. Keep up the good work.

 

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