Montana lawmaker to donate $500 received from white supremacist

HELENA – U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke of Montana is among a group of Republicans who received donations from the leader of a white supremacist group cited by Charleston, South Carolina, church murder suspect Dylann Roof.

Documents show Earl Holt, the leader of the Council of Conservative Citizens, made a $500 donation to Zinke’s election campaign in October 2014. Holt listed “slumlord” as his occupation on the document.

Zinke spokeswoman Heather Swift said last week that Zinke will donate the money to a fund set up for the families of the victims of the Charleston shooting.

“It’s being donated to the Mother Emanuel Hope Fund,” she said.

The Guardian newspaper first reported that Holt made $65,000 in donations to Republicans, including several to Republican presidential candidates. The paper reported that candidate Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas will return the $8,500 he received from Holt.

Holt also donated to current and former GOP members of Congress, including Iowa Rep. Steve King, Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake and former Minnesota representative and presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, according to the Guardian.

A manifesto purportedly written by Roof says he learned about “brutal black on white murders” from the Council of Conservative Citizens website.

Holt said in a statement posted online last Sunday that it “was not surprising” that Roof credited his group with his knowledge of black-on-white crime.