Giants owner Charles Johnson asks QAnon-backing Rep. Lauren Boebert for refund

Giants owner Charles B. Johnson, criticized by many of the team’s fans for supporting Rep. Lauren Boebert, said Monday night he asked for his and his wife’s donations to be returned.

In a statement released by the Giants, Johnson said he and his wife, Ann, also will request refunds from others who “engaged in similar behavior.”

Boebert, a freshman House Republican from Colorado, has expressed her support for the QAnon conspiracy theory group and tweeted about the location of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi amid the Jan. 6 violent attack on the U.S. Capitol building.

Johnson, 88, and his wife each donated $2,800, the maximum amount, to the Boebert campaign, according to Federal Election Commission filings. The Giants said Johnson, the team’s principal owner, contacted Boebert to request the refunds for the September contributions.

“As I stated last week,” Johnson said in the statement, “I am appalled by the violence that erupted at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and the destructive efforts to interrupt the certification of the 2020 Presidential Election. My wife Ann and I reject and denounce any individuals, candidates or elected officials who do not honor our constitution or who espouse or assist in violence of any kind. I have contacted the office of Representative Lauren Boebert to request a full refund of our contribution. I will continue to follow the ongoing investigation closely and will request refunds from any other individuals who are found to have engaged in similar behavior. And I pledge to do my part in helping to heal our nation and restore peace and respect in our democratic system.”

Friday, Johnson released his first statement and said he “would never have imagined that any legitimate candidate would participate in undermining the core values of our great country. Nor was I aware that any candidate to whom I contributed was associated with QAnon.”

In the initial statement, Johnson did not say he would ask for a refund.

Thursday, the Giants released a statement condemning the attack and saying the team’s policy prohibits company contributions to candidates for federal office and added, “Individual contributions of employees and investors are considered personal in nature.”

Christine Pelosi, Nancy’s daughter who is on the Giants’ Community Fund board, told the Sacramento Bee she was livid with the Giants’ response and called for Johnson to demand a refund. She said she’d quit the board if Johnson and the Giants don’t apologize and if Johnson didn’t “take back” the money by Monday, the day honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

“They claim to be powerless,” Christine Pelosi told the Bee. “They say it’s one lone owner. OK, buy him out.”

After Johnson’s Saturday night statement, Pelosi said she appreciated the “public pressure and concern that led to this,” according to the Bee, and thanked Johnson and the Giants “for their commitment to justice and healing.”

Johnson also asked in 2018 for a donation to be returned. He supported then-Senate candidate Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., who said she’d be in “the front row” if invited to a public hanging. Civic rights leaders called for a boycott of the Giants, and Johnson said in a Chronicle interview that her comments were “stupid” and “offensive.” He said the donation was returned.

Johnson donated nearly $11 million to Republican candidates and political action committees in federal elections since 2015, according to a 2020 analysis by ESPN and FiveThirtyEight.

John Shea covers the Giants for The San Francisco Chronicle. Email: jshea@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JohnSheaHey

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