IFA has been aware of the impact of George Soros on our judicial system for some time. We have assembled excerpts here that will give you a clear and firm understanding of what Soros funding of district attorney candidates has accomplished.

In 2016, Peter Weir was re-elected District Attorney, Jefferson and Galpin Counties, Colorado after weathering more than $1.3 million in viciously negative and false ads funded by George Soros. That campaign was one of more than a dozen District Attorney campaigns nationwide where Soros funded political action committees poured in huge sums of money at the last minute to elect candidates sharing his political and social justice agenda, particularly regarding opposing incarceration. Now, California is in the crosshairs of Soros funded campaigns that target District Attorney races in San Diego, Alameda, Yolo and Sacramento counties.

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District Attorney elections used to be lightly financed campaigns largely focusing on personal qualifications. Definitions of criminal conduct and the proper penalties for that conduct were left to be decided in the political process by legislation or initiative. Now, as DA Weir notes, Soros has seized on District Attorney races to bypass the legislative process, seeking to elect candidates who support Soros’ political agenda and social views. A staple of these candidates is the promise not to enforce laws with which they disagree.

An example of this is the candidate Soros is now backing in San Diego County, who promises not to “enforce what we call the quality of life offenses” with which she disagrees. Similarly, in Florida Soros financed District Attorney Aramais Ayala announced she would refuse to seek the death penalty for any case prosecuted by her office. The Governor of Florida promptly removed all pending death penalty cases from her office, a move upheld by the Florida Supreme Court which commented Ayala’s decision “does not reflect an exercise of prosecutorial discretion, it embodies, at best, a misunderstanding of Florida law.”

in the jurisdictions where that protection does not exist Soros financed DA’s have engaged in wholesale purges of experienced prosecutors upon election to “change the culture” and send the message to those remaining that their jobs exist at the political whim of the newly elected DA. In Philadelphia,  Soros financed DA Larry Krasner fired 31 DDA’s in his first week of office; nearly one-third were in the homicide unit and included a prosecutor set to begin a murder trial the following Monday who was told “no” when asked to stay to complete that trial. In Houston, the Soros financed DA Kim Ogg (who ironically attacked Soros for supporting her primary opponent before accepting more than $500,000 from him in the general election) fired 37 veteran prosecutors in pursuit of her “culture change.”

Finally, as Soros backed candidates rail against “mass incarceration” it is noteworthy to look at who comprises the prison population in California. In 2008, 71% of California state prison inmates were serving time for a violent, serious, or sexual offense; as of 2016, 91% of state prison inmates are serving time for a violent, serious or sexual offense.

(Excerpt from Association of Deputy District Attorney. Article by Michele Hanisee.)

Diana Becton, is in her first term as elected District Attorney, one of a number of district attorneys heavily supported by lefty billionaire George Soros. Sources tell RedState that as soon as Becton took over she implemented major changes in the way the office was run and in the way crimes were charged and how aggressively cases were prosecuted. One recent change, which I’ll address further in a moment, has to do with charging people for “looting,” which is basically stealing during a state of emergency (i.e., protests or riots). Becton is BFF’s with St. Louis’ Kim Gardner and Chicago’s Kim Foxx, who’ve been in the news for their terrible policies. . . .

These prosecutors place a duty to enact societal change upon their deputies and believe they must “rectify past wrongs”:

The decisions that prosecutors make can either work to rectify the inherent harms in the legal system or perpetuate them. Part of our responsibility, as elected public servants, is to be self-aware and recognize that we are part of the problem. It is our moral and ethical duty to start advancing racial equity-minded policies—and community advocates and voters should hold us accountable for doing so.

Working from within, we have begun the steps to rectify past wrongs. We are implementing policies that include declining to prosecute minor offenses, overturning wrongful convictions, refusing to take cases from officers with a history of racial bias and expunging marijuana convictions. And we are currently working within our own offices to make the system fairer and more just.

Becton, the Contra Costa County DA, is already putting “racial equity-minded policies” in place and enforcing them in her office.

In California, a looting charge essentially increases the severity of a burglary or theft charge if it occurred during a State of Emergency.

According to Shouse California Law Group:Under Penal Code 463 PC, California law defines “looting” as taking advantage of a state of emergency to commit burglary, grand theft or petty theft. Looting charges can be filed as a misdemeanor or a felony and is punishable by up to 3 years in jail. . . .

https://twitter.com/jcfphotog/status/1267255591233220613?s=20

There are numerous cities/counties in which these Soros DA’s are up for election this year. Their potential constituents need to realize that these are not garden-variety leftists running for District Attorney; they are revolutionaries committed to destroying our justice system.

(Excerpt from RedState. Article by Jennifer Van Laar.)

Soros, through the Justice & Public Safety PAC and other groups, has been spending millions of dollars on prosecutorial races in recent years, with a number of beneficiaries making headlines since their elections.

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, who was boosted by Soros in her campaign, drew controversy when she announced her office was bringing felony charges against Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the couple who brandished guns outside their home as protesters marched by in June.

The McCloskeys have said many times they were defending themselves, with tensions high in St. Louis and other cities over race and law enforcement. They said the crowd of demonstrators broke an iron gate marked with “No Trespassing” and “Private Street” signs, and that some threatened them. . . .

Another high-profile prosecutor who has been backed by Soros in the past is Cook County, Ill. State’s Attorney Kim Foxx. Foxx drew national attention when she dismissed the case against actor Jussie Smollett, who had been accused of faking a hate crime attack against himself. The case was later taken over by a special prosecutor who filed new charges.

Foxx is seeking reelection this year and already won her Democratic primary. Regarding ongoing protests in her jurisdiction, she has said that her office will lean toward dismissing cases coming from protests or curfew violations (Mayor Lori Lightfoot imposed a curfew between May 30 and June 6 after a George Floyd protest). . . .

San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, another beneficiary of Soros-tied contributions, recently defended the movement to defund police. In a discussion with Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., earlier in July, Boudin questioned whether money going to police was “the most effective” use of taxpayer dollars.

Boudin is also one of a number of district attorneys participating in “Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commissions,” teaming with the Grassroots Law Project, an organization co-founded by activist Shaun King that calls for defunding police.

The other district attorneys who are participating in these commissions are Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner and Suffolk County, Mass., DA Rachael Rollins, who have both benefited from Soros’ support.

Krasner, who was elected after Soros put $1.45 million into a political action committee that supported him, has also taken a public stance regarding events that have spun out of the protests over Floyd’s death, particularly the federal response to violent demonstrations in cities like Portland. . . .

In Contra Costa County, Calif., District Attorney Diana Becton – also backed by Soros – changed how her office handles police shooting cases, removing deputy district attorney Barry Grove from his role as the main prosecutor in such cases, switching to a team approach, according to the Mercury News.

Becton also announced earlier this month that she was filing hate crime charges against Nichole Anderson and David Nelson, White people who were allegedly caught painting over a Black Lives Matter mural.

Orlando State Attorney candidate Monique Worrell is also backed by a group linked to Soros in her quest to fill the seat that will be vacated by Aramis Ayala, who was also supported by Soros. Worrell’s platform calls for an end to cash bail, which would result in more defendants being released before their trial. She also says that incarceration should be a “last resort,” and that those who do not pose “a threat to the physical safety of others” should not be placed behind bars.

Worrell’s opponent Ryan Williams has cited the Soros connection as a point of attack, and Worrell has accused Williams of playing on anti-Semitic tropes by mentioning Soros’ involvement. But the Jewish political philanthropist is not the only player in the game of prosecutorial campaigns.

Real Justice PAC, also co-founded by Shaun King, has supported 29 head prosecutors and state attorneys general since 2018, including several who were also backed by Soros, such as Gardner, Boudin, Rollins and Becton. The organization is also backing the 2020 campaigns of Foxx and 13 other candidates seeking office.

The organization’s goals include electing – and recruiting – candidates who would make changes to criminal justice systems such as ending cash bail and “rolling back practices that lead to mass incarceration.”

One 2020 candidate Real Justice succeeded in getting elected already is Multnomah County, Ore., District Attorney Mike Schmidt, who will be in a key position when he takes office on Aug. 1, given that his jurisdiction includes Portland, where riots have been taking place amid months of protests following Floyd’s death.

Schmidt has said that he would potentially drop charges against nonviolent protesters when he is in office, according to local NBC affiliate KGW.

Delia Garza, who won the Democratic primary in Travis County, Texas, and will run unopposed in November, is also backed by Real Justice. Garza has already said that her office will decline to prosecute certain types of cases.

(Excerpt from Fox News. Article by Ronn Blitzer.)

While America’s political kingmakers inject their millions into high-profile presidential and congressional contests, Democratic mega-donor George Soros has directed his wealth into an under-the-radar 2016 campaign to advance one of the progressive movement’s core goals — reshaping the American justice system.

The billionaire financier has channeled more than $3 million into seven local district-attorney campaigns in six states over the past year — a sum that exceeds the total spent on the 2016 presidential campaign by all but a handful of rival super-donors.

His money has supported African-American and Hispanic candidates for these powerful local roles, all of whom ran on platforms sharing major goals of Soros’, like reducing racial disparities in sentencing and directing some drug offenders to diversion programs instead of to trial. It is by far the most tangible action in a progressive push to find, prepare and finance criminal justice reform-oriented candidates for jobs that have been held by longtime incumbents and serve as pipelines to the federal courts — and it has inspired fury among opponents angry about the outside influence in local elections. . . .

Soros has spent on district attorney campaigns in Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico and Texas through a network of state-level super PACs and a national “527” unlimited-money group, each named a variation on “Safety and Justice.” (Soros has also funded a federal super PAC with the same name.) Each organization received most of its money directly from Soros, according to public state and federal financial records, though some groups also got donations from nonprofits like the Civic Participation Action Fund, which gave to the Safety and Justice group in Illinois.

The Florida Safety and Justice group just poured nearly $1.4 million — all of which came from Soros and his 527 group — into a previously low-budget Democratic primary for state attorney in Central Florida before Tuesday’s vote. The group is backing Aramis Ayala, a former public defender and prosecutor, in her campaign against incumbent Jeff Ashton, whose jurisdiction covers over 1.6 million people across two counties in metro Orlando.

One TV ad from Florida Safety and Justice boosts Ayala, touting her “plan to remove bias so defendants charged with the same crime receive the same treatment, no matter their background or race.” The Soros-funded group is also attacking Ashton with ads saying he “got rid of protections that helped ensure equal treatment regardless of background or race. … Take two similar traffic incidents that happened on the same night. A white man got off with a slap on the wrist, while the black man faces prison.”

Opponents of Soros’ favored candidates have laced into the billionaire, saying that his influence has wildly tipped the scales of local elections and even charging that he made residents less safe.

“As a candidate and citizen of Caddo Parish, if an outsider was that interested in the race, I wanted to know exactly what he had in mind for the criminal justice system if he were to win,” said Dhu Thompson, a Louisiana attorney who lost a district attorney race to a Soros-backed candidate, James Stewart, in 2015. Soros gave over $930,000 — more than 22 times the local median household income — to the group boosting Stewart.

“I know some of his troubling opinions on social issues, especially the criminal justice system,” Thompson said. “I’ve never known him as an individual who was very strong on some of our crime and punishment issues. I felt it was very detrimental to the safety of Caddo Parish, and that’s why I took such a strong stand against him.”

A Soros representative declined to comment on his involvement in the DA races. . . .

Armed with that knowledge, progressive groups including Color of Change began researching potentially interesting district attorney races around the country, multiple sources said.

“It’s hard to find this information!” exclaimed Steele, the Emerge America president. “You can’t just Google ‘hot DA races.’ So part of the issue is identifying what potential races there are.”

Soros’ spending started on these races about a year ago, when he put over $1 million into “Safety and Justice” groups that helped elect two new district attorneys in Louisiana and Mississippi and reelect a third — Hinds County, Miss., DA Robert Shuler Smith — who has since been charged by the Mississippi attorney general with improperly providing information to defendants.

The other Mississippi district attorney Soros’ spending helped elect, Scott Colom, has now represented a four-county stretch of the eastern part of the state for eight months. Colom said in an interview that he has focused on prosecuting violent crime in his new position while trying not to burden local prisons with first-time, low-level drug offenders.

“I’ve expanded the charges eligible for pre-trial diversion,” Colom said, adding that the number of people in the program in his jurisdiction has doubled since he took office seven months ago. “It’s all focused on the individual person, on trying to find a plan with the best chance possible of avoiding criminal behavior.”

“I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who think prison is too nice and we need to spend more on it,” Colom continued. “But it seems like a large majority of people out there get it and realize there have to be priorities. Just because a fella commits a crime doesn’t mean the best outcome is sending them to jail. … As much as possible, I want to take people from being tax burdens to taxpayers.”

After the Louisiana and Mississippi races, Soros next piled money into two of the biggest jurisdictions in the country: Houston’s Harris County (his lone losing effort so far) and Chicago’s Cook County, where he funded one of several groups that helped Kim Foxx defeat incumbent state’s attorney Anita Alvarez in a high-profile primary campaign dominated by the 13-month delay between the police shooting of Laquan McDonald and the indictment of the police officer involved.

In late spring, $107,000 from a Soros-funded New Mexico super PAC helped Raul Torrez win his Democratic district attorney primary by a 2-to-1 margin in Albuquerque’s Bernalillo County. Torrez’s Republican opponent dropped out of the general election soon after, citing the potentially exorbitant cost of opposing the Soros-backed candidate in the general election.

(Excerpt from Politico. Article by Scott Bland.)

What do you think about all this information on how Soros has been successful in infiltrating the judicial systems across the country?