Bristol Palin Responds: Legally Required Nonprofit Disclosure Part Of An Anti-Palin Conspiracy

Yesterday, several major news outlets reportedthat Bristol Palin, Sarah Palin’s celebrity daughter, was paid $262,500 for work at an abstinence nonprofit called the Candie’s Foundation. ThinkProgress reviewed the Candie’s Foundation 990 forms and found that the nonprofit spent only $35,000 in grants to health clinics and teen counseling organizations — meaning that Bristol’s salary from the nonprofit was seven times the amount spent on actual teen pregnancy prevention.

Speaking with E! Online, anonymous representatives for Bristol responded to the story. A spokesperson claimed that the Candie’s Foundation disclosure was somehow engineered by an “anti-Palin organization that says Trigg isn’t Sarah Palin’s son”:

“She shot PSAs, print and Internet ads and did town hall meetings, as well, and the money she made was an accumulation of all of that. This is not out of the ordinary for a celebrity to make an income off of a charity they represent. “If you do your research you’ll find that most nonprofits compensate their celebrity spokespeople and Bristol’s no different.” Furthermore, our Bristol source says, “this is clearly something that was leaked by the same anti-Palin organization that says Trigg isn’t Sarah Palin’s son.”

The spokesperson appears to be referring to the blog “Palingates,” which posted a link to the Candie’s Foundation 990 forms yesterday. However, the 990 form for the Candie’s Foundation is widely available with the IRS, or any charitable foundation database website. For instance, the form can be downloaded by anyone within minutes from websites like Guidestar.com.