As Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg moves to bring an expected indictment against Donald Trump, Republicans lawmakers leaping to the previous president’s defense have fixated on what they call Bragg’s ties to billionaire George Soros.
Rep. Elise Stefanik, a Latest York Republican and the party’s fourth-ranking leader within the House, tweeted Monday that Bragg “took a million dollars from George Soros.” Sen. J.D. Vance, an Ohio Republican whose 2022 campaign received hundreds of thousands of dollars in support from GOP megadonor and investor Peter Thiel, said in a tweet that “Alvin Bragg is bought by George Soros.”
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, is talking to allies about using his panel to scrutinize Bragg’s links to Soros as Trump targets Bragg ahead of a probable indictment, in response to a GOP strategist near Jordan. It suits right into a larger GOP technique to discredit the Manhattan probe: Jordan co-signed a letter calling on Bragg to testify before Congress, and questioned whether the Manhattan DA’s investigation into Trump used federal funds.
As Bragg prepares the expected first-ever indictment of a former president, Trump’s allies have launched a barrage of attacks against the Democratic district attorney. They’ve found a well-recognized goal in Soros, whose tons of of hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to back Democratic political campaigns and scathing criticism of Trump have made him a boogeyman in Republican circles for well over a decade.
But the truth of Bragg’s links to Soros doesn’t entirely match the image painted by Republican lawmakers who aim to make use of ties between the boys to discredit the probe, in response to records and other people aware of each men.
Representatives for Bragg and Jordan didn’t return requests for comment.
Soros’ connection to Bragg — and possible influence on his investigation into Trump — will not be as clear as Republicans leaders would make them sound. There is no proof Bragg is “bought by Soros,” as Vance puts it.
A Soros advisor, who declined to be named to talk openly about private matters, said the billionaire “has never met or spoken to Alvin Bragg.”
A lot of the criticism of Bragg appears to stem from support, and later political pressure, he received from the racial justice group Color of Change, which tries to influence government and company policy across the country. Soros donated $1 million to the Color of Change PAC in 2021. The Soros-funded Open Society Policy Center also piled $7 million into the group’s separate 501(c)(4) arm that 12 months.
Yet, those aware of the contributions said that the cash the billionaire and his organization gave to Color of Change was not earmarked to back Bragg’s campaign, or intended to be utilized in an effort to pressure the DA.
Soros’ $1 million check to the Color of Change PAC, the most important individual donation it received within the 2022 election cycle, got here days after it endorsed Bragg for district attorney and pledged greater than $1 million in spending to support his candidacy, in response to records.
A Color of Change official, who declined to be named to talk openly about private matters, told CNBC that the group ended up spending around $500,000 to back Bragg.
There’s also no indication the Open Society Policy Center’s donation was directed toward an eventual Color of Change campaign to influence Bragg. In 2022, a 12 months after the Color of Change received the $7 million sum from the Soros-funded group, a nonprofit arm of the organization helped to pressure Bragg to not prosecute Tracy McCarter, who was charged with murdering her estranged husband.
As a part of the campaign, Color of Change twice printed open letters in The Latest York Times calling for Bragg to drop the fees, in response to a judge who pushed back on the Manhattan DA’s decision to not prosecute. The group also ran digital ads on Facebook, in response to the platform’s ad archive. One features people outlining the arguments of McCarter’s supporters for dropping the fees: that she acted in self-defense against domestic violence.
The funding from Soros’ nonprofit was not targeted toward the campaign to support McCarter, the Color of Change official told CNBC. Open Society’s website says the group’s donation was intended “to support [Color of Change]’s social welfare activities” over the course of 5 years.
Rashad Robinson, the president of Color of Change, didn’t return requests for an interview before publication of this story. Robinson has tweeted in recent days in an apparent response to Republican attacks against Color of Change and its funding from Soros.
“Make no mistake, over the subsequent couple of days as more news about potential consequences for Trump circulates, we’ll see a flood of anti-Black and antisemitic attacks from the previous President and his supporters and enablers,” Robinson said. “They may attack those of us doing the work like @ColorOfChange n allies & those funding it.”
Color of Change has focused its campaigns largely on policies that affect Black Americans. Soros is Jewish, and his Democratic allies have previously painted attacks on him as antisemitic.
While Soros’ involvement with Bragg appears to have come through his Color of Change donations, two of his relations have a more direct link to the Manhattan DA. Months before Bragg won a 2021 Democratic primary on his solution to becoming Manhattan DA, George Soros’ son, Jonathan, and his wife, combined to donate $20,000 to Bragg’s campaign, state records show.
Jonathan Soros didn’t return requests for comment.
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