Crowdfunding campaign for fallen US soldier’s children raises more than $600k

An online crowdfunding campaign to pay for the college education of the children of a U.S. solider killed in Niger has surpassed $600,000 as of Saturday.

The Sgt. La David T Johnson Scholarship campaign on GoFundMe has raised more than $634,000 from over 13,000 individual donors.

The fundraiser was established by the 5000 Role Models of Excellence Project, a Miami, Fla.-based initiative that aims to “intervene in the lives of at-risk boys, in order to provide them with alternative (sic) that will lead them away from a life of crime and violence,” according to the organization’s website.

{mosads}The organization was founded in 1993 by Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.).

Johnson and three other U.S. soliders were killed in Niger earlier this month when a group of Islamic militants ambushed a joint patrol of U.S. and Nigerien troops.

Defense Secretary James Mattis confirmed on Thursday that the Pentagon had launched a formal investigation into the incident.

“The loss of our troops is under investigation,” Mattis told reporters. “We investigate any time we have our troops killed, whether it be in a training accident or combat.”

The FBI has also joined the investigation into the ambush. 

Wilson has been embroiled in a feud with President Trump’s White House after she said the president made remarks that were insensitive during a phone call with Johnson’s widow.

Wilson was in the car with the fallen soldier’s family when Trump called, and the family confirmed her description of the call, which took place on speakerphone.

Wilson said the president told the widow her late husband “knew what he signed up for … but when it happens it hurts anyway.”

White House chief of staff John Kelly later said he was “stunned” that Wilson would publicly criticize Trump for the call. Kelly also ripped into Wilson, calling her an “empty barrel” and criticizing her for her conduct at a 2015 event.

But video released Friday appears to show that Kelly was incorrect in his accusation that she took credit for the funding of an FBI building in Miami in 2015.

Wilson slammed the White House, saying it was trying to “assassinate [her] character.”

“They are assassinating their own because everything they say is coming out and shown to be a lie,” she told The New York Times.