Capital Research Center finds Soros-backed groups spent $29 million since 2016 on district attorneys
George Gascon, Kim Foxx and Larry Krasner get most of the attention, but they are far from the only left-wing prosecutors whose campaigns were bankrolled by Democratic megadonor George Soros.
A report from the conservative Capital Research Center revealed that 24 district attorneys have been elected since 2015 with help from political action committees funded by the billionaire activist. Most of them are pursuing liberal policies that critics blame for soaring crime rates.
Parker Thayer, the researcher who wrote the report, said Mr. Soros’ “influence on left-wing DA candidates is often wildly underestimated.”
Since 2016, he said, Mr. Soros’ “personal network of political action committees formed specifically to back left-wing DA candidates” has doled out at least $29 million.
“Most Americans have no idea what happened,” Mr. Thayer told The Washington Times. “They see the headlines, they see the crime taking over cities, but regrettably few know that these crime surges are largely the direct result of George Soros’ influence and his generous funding of the left-wing ‘Rogue Prosecutor’ movement.”
Critics have countered that violent crime shot up even in jurisdictions where far-left prosecutors are not in charge, including some cities run by Republicans, and that overall crime has declined slightly, even though homicides have spiked.
Mr. Krasner, who won his 2017 and 2021 elections for Philadelphia district attorney with more than $2 million from Soros-supported PACs, was slammed last month after declaring, “We don’t have a crisis of crime.” He later said he was referring to overall violent crime.
Philadelphia recorded 559 homicides in 2021, the most since the city began keeping records in the 1960s.
“Under Krasner’s watch, crime rates have soared, and in 2021, Philadelphia became the murder capital of the United States with the highest per capita homicide rate of the country’s 10 largest cities,” the center’s report said.
All but one of the two dozen Soros-supported prosecutors cited in the report still hold office. A third have won reelection despite the mounting criticism over policies popular with the left such as down-charging defendants and eliminating or reducing cash bail.
Newly elected Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose campaign received $1.1 million from Soros-funded groups, kicked off his tenure this month by declaring he would no longer seek prison sentences for low-level crimes and would downgrade some felonies, including drug crimes and armed robbery, to misdemeanors.
The policy prompted a petition backed by former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa seeking an amendment to the state constitution giving New Yorkers the ability to recall officeholders.
Other Soros-backed prosecutors in the news include Chicago’s Kim Foxx, who declined to prosecute actor Jussie Smollett for faking a 2019 hate crime. A special prosecutor found “substantial abuses of discretion and operational failures” in her office’s handling of...
