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Manhattan District Attorney Democratic candidate Alvin Bragg speaks to the press after voting in the New York City elections in the borough of Manhattan, New York, Nov. 2, 2021.
Fresh Mike | Reuters
As Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg makes a predictable indictment against Donald Trump, Republican lawmakers who jumped to the ex-president’s defense are clinging to Bragg’s relationship with billionaire George Soros. .
Rep. Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican and the party’s fourth-largest leader in the House, tweeted on Monday that Bragg “stole $1 million from George Soros.” Senator JD Vance, an Ohio Republican whose 2022 campaign received millions of dollars in backing from Republican mega-donor and investor Peter Thiel, tweeted, “Alvin Bragg was bought by George Soros. ‘He said.
According to a Republican strategist close to Jordan, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) is using his panel because Trump is targeting Bragg ahead of possible indictments. We’re talking to allies about scrutinizing the Bragg-Soros connection. Jordan co-signed a letter asking Bragg to testify before Congress, questioning whether the Manhattan Attorney’s Office’s investigation into Trump used federal funds.
As Bragg prepares to indict the expected former president for the first time, Trump’s allies have launched a barrage of attacks against the Democratic district attorney. Hundreds of millions of dollars in donations to support Democratic political campaigns and scathing criticism of Trump have made him a boogeyman in Republican circles for more than a decade.
But the reality of Bragg’s link with Soros doesn’t quite match up A painting by a Republican congressman It aims to use connections between men to discredit the investigation. According to records and people familiar with both men.
Representatives for Bragg and Jordan did not respond to requests for comment.
Soros’ connection to Bragg, and his possible influence on the Trump investigation, is not as clear as Republican leaders persuade them. There is no evidence that
Soros’ advisers refused to speak publicly about personal matters.
Most of the criticism of Bragg seems to have stemmed from his endorsement, followed by the Color of Change, a racial justice group that seeks to influence the policies of governments and corporations across the country. Under political pressure. Soros has donated $1 million to the Color of Change PAC in 2021. Also, the Soros-funded Open Society Policy Center piled up his $7 million in another of his 501(c)(4) divisions of the group that same year.
But people familiar with the donations say the money the billionaire and his organization donated to Color of Change was not allocated to support Bragg’s campaign, but was used to put pressure on the DA. It was not intended to be
Records show that the $1 million check sent by Soros to the Color of Change PAC was the largest individual donation received in the 2022 election cycle, recommending Bragg to the District Attorney’s Office and supporting his candidacy. This was just days after pledging more than $1 million to
A Color of Change official, who declined to speak publicly about his personal issues, told CNBC that the group ended up spending about $500,000 in support of Bragg.
Nor is there any indication that the Open Society Policy Center’s donation was directed towards a Color of Change campaign to ultimately influence Bragg. In 2022, one year after Color of Change took her $7 million from a Soros-funded group, the organization’s nonprofit arm was charged with murdering her estranged husband. The accused Tracy helped put pressure on Bragg not to indict her McCarter.
As part of the campaign, Color of Change twice published an open letter in the New York Times asking Bragg to drop the charges, according to a judge who pushed back the Manhattan DA’s decision not to file charges. The group also ran digital ads on Facebook, according to the archives. One features people outlining the claims of McCarter’s supporters who dropped the charges. She acted in self-defense against domestic violence.
A Color of Change official told CNBC that the funding from the Soros nonprofit was not intended for a campaign in support of McCarter. According to the Open Society website, the group’s donations are ” [Color of Change]for five years.
Rashad Robinson, president of Color of Change, did not return interview requests prior to the publication of this article. Robinson recently tweeted a Republican attack on Color of Change and an obvious reaction to the funding from Soros.
“Undoubtedly, the next few days will be inundated with anti-black and anti-Semitic attacks from the former president and his supporters and supporters as news spreads about Trump’s potential consequences,” Robinson said. “They will attack us doing work like @ColorOfChange n allies and the people who fund it.”
Color of Change has focused its campaigns primarily on policies that affect black Americans. Soros is Jewish, and his Democratic supporters have previously painted attacks on Soros as anti-Semitic.
While Soros’ involvement with Bragg appears to have come through his Color of Change donation, two of his family members have more direct ties to Manhattan DA. Months before Bragg won his 2021 Democratic primary and became the Manhattan DA, George, his Soros son, Jonathan, and his wife joined Bragg’s campaign, according to state records. Together, we donated his $20,000.
Jonathan Soros did not respond to a request for comment.
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