Enormous response to fundraiser for former congressman paralyzed in accident

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Enormous response to fundraiser for former congressman paralyzed in accident

A fundraiser for a Republican former congressman who was reportedly paralyzed in a fall from a horse throughout a polo occasion in September has raised greater than 1 / 4 of 1,000,000 {dollars} in two days.

Michael Grimm, additionally a former US marine and FBI agent who served seven months in jail for monetary fraud earlier than being launched in 2016, is receiving therapy on the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in New Jersey, in accordance to the New York Publish.

Ongoing care and therapy to assist him stroll once more will price tens of millions of {dollars}, a press release accompanying the fundraiser mentioned.

Grimm, 54, represented Staten Island and elements of Brooklyn earlier than resigning in 2015 after he was indicted on federal tax and monetary fraud costs regarding practices at a New York restaurant he co-owned. He pleaded responsible to a single rely of tax evasion.

“Your ethical compass, Mr Grimm, wants some reorientation,” US district courtroom choose Pamela Chen informed him at his sentencing.

He tried a political comeback after his launch from jail in 2016 however misplaced a Republican main to regain his previous seat. An avid equestrian who ceaselessly posted to social media images of himself with horses at polo occasions, Grimm has labored extra not too long ago as a pundit for the rightwing community Newsmax.

“Our good friend and former congressman Michael Grimm suffered a tragic accident that has rendered him paralyzed. He wants assist to cowl the substantial prices that insurance coverage doesn’t cowl on his lengthy highway to restoration,” his good friend Vincent Ignizio, a former Republican New York Metropolis council member, informed the Publish.

“I hate to even say it,” mentioned Ignizio, additionally a former New York state lawmaker. “Mike is paralyzed from the chest down. He’s at the moment immobilized and is at the moment being handled to attempt to give him the perform that he can get hold of. Loads of prayers are wanted.”

The GoFundMe web page gave few particulars of the accident aside from Grimm was thrown from a horse throughout a polo match in September. Newsmax cited its personal host, Greg Kelly, in saying that Grimm “sustained a neck harm that required surgical procedure, and that the previous congressman was in an unidentified Westchester hospital”.

Kelly was the primary to interrupt the information of Grimm’s accident on his radio present in September.

Ignizio informed the Publish that Grimm had been moved final week to the rehabilitation heart, the place the late Superman actor Christopher Reeve was handled after an identical life-changing accident in 1995 throughout an equestrian occasion in Virginia.

The Democratic former New York council member Domenic Recchia, who misplaced to Grimm in a 2014 congressional contest, informed the Publish he had contributed to the fundraiser for his previous political rival and good friend.

“This isn’t a Democratic or Republican difficulty. It’s a human difficulty. Michael Grimm gave his life for our nation within the armed providers. We have now to unite collectively,” he mentioned.

“It was a tragic accident. Hopefully sooner or later he’ll stroll once more.”

Since leaving politics, Grimm reinvented himself as a overseas correspondent, touring to Ukraine in 2022 for Newsmax and sharing his experiences on his web site grimmreporting.com.

A vocal supporter of Donald Trump, who gained a second presidency on 5 November, Grimm has posted to his X account messages about local weather denial and a conspiracy principle that the actor Mel Gibson had uncovered a pedophile ring working in Hollywood.


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