Established Fact
Detroit’s CTCL grant (approx. 3.5-7.4 million dollars depending on tranche) included a clause granting CTCL the right, “in its sole judgment,” to demand return of funds if Detroit did not adhere to the grant’s conditions (e.g., implementing specified satellite offices, drop boxes, and staffing models). This placed core questions of compliance with election-administration plans under the NGO’s unilateral discretion, converting a “grant” into a control instrument over how statutory duties were executed.
Citations
City of Detroit, Office of Development and Grants, Request to Accept and Appropriate the Safe Voting Plan Grant, Aug. 17, 2020 (CTCL Grant Agreement, $3,512,000, executed by CTCL Executive Director Tiana Epps Johnson), FOIA-obtained, available at https://justthenews.com/sites/default/files/2021-04/CTCL%20-%203512000.pdf; John Solomon, Zuckerberg Group Gave Detroit $7.4 Million to ‘Dramatically’ Expand Vote in City Key to Biden Win, Just the News (Apr. 10, 2021), https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/zuckerbergs-group-gave-whopping-74-million-detroit-expand-voting-city-key.
The executed $3,512,000 CTCL–Detroit grant agreement, signed by CTCL Executive Director Tiana Epps Johnson, contains the following at §7:
“CTCL may discontinue, modify, withhold part of, or ask for the return all or part of the grant funds if it determines, in its sole judgment, that (a) any of the above conditions have not been met or (b) it must do so to comply with applicable laws or regulations.”
This language is unambiguous. CTCL’s determination of noncompliance — and consequent right to reclaim grant funds — was committed entirely to CTCL’s own unilateral assessment, without any role for a neutral arbiter, state election authority, or judicial review.
John Solomon, Detroit Bragged That Use of Zuckerberg Funding ‘Created a New Normal’, Just the News (May 12, 2021), https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/detroit-zuckerbergs-ctcl-election-funding-we-have-created-new-normal
The Wisconsin Purchase, The American Conservative (Dec. 24, 2021) (quoting Green Bay CTCL grant agreement), https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-wisconsin-purchase/