Soros-Funded Fake News Site Falsely Identified Abdul El-Sayed as 'Veteran' in Mailer Sent to Michigan Voters

A left-wing dark money network funded by the Democratic megadonor George Soros sent voters in Michigan unsolicited mailers resembling a newspaper that falsely identified Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed as a "veteran."

The mailer, from the Michigan Independent—part of a national left-wing organization founded by the Democratic operative David Brock, the American Independent—is designed to look like a nonpartisan local newspaper. Partisan content aimed at propping up Democrats is peppered amid recipes for "Blueberry Streusel Coffee Cake" from "The Mitten Kitchen." The partisan content includes a piece on El-Sayed's primary win headlined, "El-Sayed — veteran, doctor, and former health official — is Democratic Senate pick." El-Sayed has never served in the military, and while he attended medical school and has described himself as a "physician," he has never been licensed to practice medicine, Politico reported.

The mailer is the latest example of Brock's outfit attempting to influence elections through misleading mailers masquerading as news. In 2021, the "Virginia Edition" of the American Independent sent unsolicited mailers to voters falsely claiming that then-Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin called COVID relief "unnecessary," the Washington Free Beacon reported. The following year, in 2022, the group's state arms in Pennsylvania and Arizona ran paid Facebook ads pushing articles like "Arizona Republicans out of touch with constituents on abortion rights."

In addition to the mailer, the Michigan Independent started running a Facebook ad on August 14 targeting El-Sayed's Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, with a headline reading, "Rogers, Trump support bridge delay to bully Canada."

Joe Conason, the president of the Washington, D.C.-based American Independent Foundation, which founded the Michigan Independent and received $500,000 from Soros's Open Society Foundations in 2022, confirmed that the group sent the mailer calling El-Sayed a "veteran." He said the error was a typo rather than an attempt to deceive voters.

"The error occurred when a new headline was written for the print edition," Conason told the Free Beacon. "It was supposed to say that he was a 'veteran doctor and public health official,' ie, 'veteran' modifying those two terms." Asked whether it was accurate to call El-Sayed a "veteran doctor," Conason said, "Well he's been a physician for a long time." When the Free Beacon noted that El-Sayed has never been a licensed physician, Conason said, "Whether he's a physician or not, he's a doctor."

Conason often accuses other media outlets of spreading misinformation on X, writing in 2023 that there "has never been a media outlet with a worse record for accuracy than Fox. They get it as wrong as the dumbest supermarket tabloid. And their intentions are far worse." Conason also claimed the New York Times was biased in favor of President Donald Trump, denouncing front-page editors at the paper as "poltroons" who "dishonor journalism nearly every day now."

"I'm so done with journalism that laments a misinformed public rather than informing Americans of what's true -- and NOT true," he griped in another 2023 post on X.

El-Sayed's campaign condemned the Michigan Independent for the mistake.

"Abdul has never claimed to be a veteran, he never would out of his respect for those who served, and any outlet or group writing about our campaign should do their homework and not allow this to happen again," said Roxie Richner, a spokeswoman for the El-Sayed campaign.

The Michigan Independent's article on El-Sayed's primary win was first published online under the headline, "Abdul El-Sayed wins Democratic nomination for Michigan open Senate seat." The "reporter" with a byline on the piece is Alyssa Burr, a former New York Times news assistant who studied journalism at Michigan State University and pursued a master's in journalism from Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications, according to her LinkedIn account. She also worked as a news reporter for the Michigan news outlet MLive, which covered the Michigan Independent's launch in a May 2024 piece that labeled the group "pink slime."

"The term, which refers to a meat filler that resembles real meat, describes partisan publications masquerading as local news," the outlet wrote. It also reported that the Michigan Independent had delivered mailers to nearly 1 million readers as of May 2024.

The group appears to determine who receives those mailers based on their political preferences—the Michigan Independent's website does not allow prospective readers to subscribe to the print edition, only the digital one. Asked about the Michigan Independent's circulation, Conason told the Free Beacon, "It's mailed to people in Michigan." He said he did not know how recipients are chosen.

The New York Times did not respond to a request for comment. Burr directed the Free Beacon to an editors note the Michigan Independent affixed to the online version of the piece after the Free Beacon reached out for comment noting that a  "headline in The Michigan Independent’s August print edition included a misplaced comma suggesting that Abdul El-Sayed is a veteran." Conason said Burr was not responsible for the print headline.

Brock, the liberal operative behind Media Matters for America, launched the American Independent in 2016. The group operates under two nonprofit entities, the American Independent Foundation and American Independent Media. The former is a 501(c)(3) and is not permitted to support or oppose candidates for public office. The latter is a 501(c)(4), a distinction that comes with fewer limits on lobbying and political activity.

Though the Michigan Independent says it's "a project of American Independent Media," there is significant overlap between the two groups.

The Michigan Independent's donate page, for example, leads to a donation site for the American Independent Foundation rather than American Independent Media. Conason is the principal officer of both entities, and the American Independent Foundation provided American Independent Media with $11.2 million in funding in 2024, tax filings show. The American Independent Foundation is funding the Michigan Independent's active Facebook ads, which cost between $20,000 and $26,000, according to Meta's ad library. The two entities paid Conason a combined $231,000 in fiscal year 2024.

Conason is the former executive editor of the New York Observer. He is also the author of numerous books decrying the alleged dishonesty of conservatives, including Big Lies: Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How it Distorts the Truth and The Longest Con: How Grifters, Swindlers, and Frauds Hijacked American Conservatism. He has claimed to have no affiliation with Brock and the operative's left-wing research group, American Bridge, though the group's cofounder, Bradley Beychok, was the American Independent Foundation's highest-paid officer in 2022.

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