Last year, the FBI sent 30 armed agents to raid our house, waking myself, my husband, and our 2-year-old daughter in the early hours of the morning. I was 4 months pregnant at the time. In a press release later that day, Merrick Garland and the Biden DOJ painted myself, my husband, and our company, TENET, as Russian propagandists intent on sowing division and interfering in American elections.

Of course, those allegations were untrue. The FBI and DOJ may not appreciate the conservative and right-wing social media content we published, but it was solely the product of our creators’ sincerely held beliefs. We merely licensed their creative content, which they had complete control over.

Ultimately, we were never charged with any crime, much less brought to trial and convicted. But nonetheless, the FBI and DOJ, specifically the Southern District of New York, inflicted a huge amount of damage to our lives. That is why we now regrettably find ourselves asking for assistance towards our still-mounting legal costs.

Over the past year, we have accumulated over six figures worth of lawyers’ fees for ourselves and our company, not just in America, but in Canada as well.

What has made the burden of these legal fees even harder to bear is the fact that the FBI, during their raid on our house, also informed us that they were freezing (and later seizing) the contents of our bank accounts, which contained our life savings. Although the investigation into us and our company has closed with no charges or convictions against us, the SDNY has refused to return any of our funds.

To make matters worse, while at the time we did have some other bank accounts not touched by the FBI, those funds were quickly depleted by corporate costs we suddenly found ourselves personally liable for.

Specifically, because the FBI froze our bank accounts at the beginning of the month, our company payroll for the previous pay period and the payment for our corporate charge card, which covered an entire month of TENET's operations, did not go through from our then-frozen accounts. We pleaded with the SDNY to allow us to access some of the money they had seized to pay our employees, but they refused.

So, we spent much of the last of our own personal money to fulfil our obligations to our workers, and to cover all the expenses TENET had incurred during the previous month - tens of thousands of dollars.

And if this past year wasn't costly enough already, immigration issues have also contributed to our bills and legal challenges.

We have been on a work visa through our company since 2022, and that was up for another renewal in January of this year. Evidently, although the FBI said we were always free to continue to do business, their actions and public statements made this impossible in practice. We were de-banked by most institutions we held accounts with, most of our social media platforms were banned, and our public reputations were tarnished.

Still, we filed an application to renew our visa, and it was received by USCIS. However, for reasons that are unclear to us, but possibly connected to our legal case, this application was never processed. In April, we requested updates from our legal team, but there was still no movement on our case. In July, this culminated in our immigration lawyer’s team informing us that we had just days to get a passport for our infant child and leave the country, or risk an illegal overstay.

We would never want to be in violation of the immigration laws set forth by the United States, and so we immediately began preparing to leave. At tremendous cost to us, within a couple days we managed to get a passport for our newest daughter in another city, and have been abroad since, exploring every possible legal avenue to return to our home with our American children.

We are beyond the end of our funds. We have been de-banked, and cannot borrow from these institutions. Our extraordinary legal situation amassed staggering bills, while separately our life savings were stripped from us - despite having been charged with no crime. Lauren’s visa and path to American citizenship was torpedoed. And, we have not been able to generate revenue during this whole year due to the damage done by the Justice Department.

But that comes to an end now. We must be allowed to move on with our lives, so we are finally breaking our silence to ask for your help, and to try to get back to our lives before the SDNY’s investigation.

Anything you can give helps. We have lived humbly this past year due to financial difficulties and public vilification. Most of all, our family just wants to be able to return to the home we love, but that will come at its own cost. Your prayers are greatly appreciated, too.

Thank you,

Lauren, Liam, and the rest of the Donovan family.