George Soros has invested tens of millions of dollars into getting progressive district attorneys elected in 75 cities across the United States, according to a new report.
Analysts with the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund (LELDF) found that Soros, a progressive billionaire and founder of the Open Society Foundations, has invested about $40 million over the past decade to elect dozens of progressive prosecutors, including many in the most populated U.S. cities. Soros-backed prosecutors represent one-fifth of all Americans, and they hold office in half of the top 50 most populated U.S. cities and counties.
Cities with Soros-backed district attorneys are responsible for 40% of criminal activity in the U.S, according to the LELDF. Soros-backed candidates are known for their support of “social justice” and lax criminal justice reform proposals.
“Soros is using that campaign money and the hundreds of millions more for supporting organizations to quietly transform the criminal justice system for the worse, promoting dangerous policies and anti-police narratives to advance his radical agenda,” LELDF President Jason Johnson told The Washington Examiner, the first to publish the analysis.
“Over the past decade, George Soros has spent $40 million to elect 75 of his chosen prosecutors. In campaigns from Houston and Los Angeles to Philadelphia and Orlando, Soros was the campaign’s biggest spender by far — as much as 90% of the dollars spent in some races. Soros isn’t done yet — he’s already spent another million so far this year on his hand-picked district attorneys,” Johnson said.
Soros-backed DAs include such prosecutors as George Gascón in Los Angeles, Kim Foxx in Cook County, Illinois, and Larry Krasner in Philadelphia, and Alvin Bragg in Manhattan.
According to the LELDF analysis: “Over the past decade, a wave of “social justice” candidates have been elected as the chief prosecutor in jurisdictions across the United States. Most of these prosecutors pursue radical justice policies upon assuming office including eliminating bail, dismissing felony cases, and seeking lenient sentences while creating antagonistic relationships with their public safety partners, especially the police.”
“Crime and violence surged following the election of many of these reform prosecutors. And critically, the rise in most of these prosecutors’ jurisdictions predates the nation-wide 2020 crime spike,” the study adds.
Soros has prioritized reshaping the American criminal justice system over the past decade, supporting candidates for major district attorney roles that support such policies as reducing penalties for non-violent offenders and rolling back or eliminating cash bail.