BOSTON — State Sen. Liz Miranda's Monday defense of the $200,000 taxpayer earmark she co-sponsored for a nonprofit founded by her twice-max donor did not dispute a single fact of Mass Daily News' Monday reporting. Instead, she confirmed them — and demanded to know why anyone was asking.
In a Facebook post tagged with the earmark's recipient, Boston day spa owner Akou Diabakhate, the Roxbury Democrat said she "proudly" co-sponsored the amendment, insisted "even if I filed it, it's not nefarious," described Diabakhate's spa as part of an "ecosystem of Black barbers, stylists, and beauty entrepreneurs we've been organizing with" who are "reaching back to help the next generation," and dismissed Mass Daily News' coverage as a "manufactured scandal out of a routine process" from a "right-wing republican outlet."
Miranda's account of the amendment did match the Massachusetts Senate docket, which lists Sen. Lydia Edwards as the amendment's primary sponsor. What Miranda chose not to address was more instructive.
The word "file" appears three times in her quoted response. The word "donor" does not appear once.
Sen. Liz Miranda in a photo posted to her Instagram. Photo: Miranda's Instagram.
The reaching back, in this case, included two $1,000 checks written directly to Miranda's campaign — plus a seat on the host committee of two of Miranda's annual "Black Boston for Liz Miranda" fundraisers.
Total documented contributions from Diabakhate to Miranda's campaign committee: $2,000. Total taxpayer earmark from Miranda's Senate to Diabakhate's institute: $200,000. That is a one-hundred-to-one ratio.
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Diabakhate's total documented contributions to any other Massachusetts political committee across the same period, per OCPF records: $50, to Mayor Michelle Wu. She is, in the political-giving universe visible to state regulators, a Miranda donor.
What she did not refute
Miranda's Facebook defense did not refute a single item in Mass Daily News' Monday reporting. Not the two $1,000 checks Diabakhate wrote to her campaign committee in January 2024 and April 2025 — both maximum-allowed contributions under Massachusetts state law. Not Diabakhate's seat on the host committee of the "Black Boston for Liz Miranda" fundraiser in both 2024 and 2026.
About the 'institute'
Bold Skin Babe Cosmetology Institute, Inc. received its IRS ruling on August 1, 2025 — ten months before Miranda's Senate voted to send it $200,000. It has no publicly available tax filings, per ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer. Mass Daily News located no separate website for the institute; the domain boldskinbabe.com belongs to Diabakhate's day spa business.
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The $200,000 was not distributed through a competitive state grant program. It was included as a line-item earmark in the Massachusetts Senate budget — a legislative mechanism that directs public funds to a specific recipient named in the amendment text itself.
The part where she called us 'right-wing'
Anonymous journalism in Boston isn't new — Ben Franklin's first newspaper columns ran under a pseudonym in 1722.
Miranda called this reporting a "manufactured scandal." Mass Daily News disagrees. We think the receipts, the trademark filing, the OCPF entries, the Senate docket, and Miranda's own Facebook post did most of the "manufacturing."
Miranda's post did not identify any specific factual claim in Monday morning's article that she disputes. Not one.
She just doesn't like being asked.
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