Billionaire Soros gets handout from U.S. taxpayers

Billionaire hedge fund manager George Soros is known for donating hundreds of millions of dollars to support progressive causes.

Last year, investigative journalist Matthew Vadum, senior vice president of the think tank Capital Research Center, observed Soros thinks of himself as a god.

"Somehow Soros began to think that he was a god because he had all this money that he earned from hedge funds – he made a billion dollars overnight in one transaction. He's on record saying he began thinking of himself as a god. Initially, this troubled him, but then eventually he got used to and became fine with the idea," Vadum wrote. "But he views himself as a kind of deity, which is interesting in that he is an atheist."

Now it's been revealed that American taxpayers are helping foot the bill for Soros causes.

Washington watchdog Judicial Watch obtained 32 pages of records "showing the Obama administration sent U.S. taxpayers' funds to a group backed by billionaire George Soros, which used the money to fund left-wing political activities in Albania."

Such work included "working with the country's socialist government to push for highly controversial judicial 'reform,'" Judicial Watch said. "The records also detail how the Soros operation helped the State Department review grant applications from other groups for taxpayer funding."

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said the Obama administration "quietly spent at least $9 million in U.S. taxpayers' dollars in direct collusion with left-wing billionaire George Soros' backing of a socialist government in Albania."

"It is particularly outrageous that the State Department allowed the Soros operation to help direct taxpayer funds to other groups," he said.

"George Soros is a billionaire and he shouldn’t be receiving taxpayer support to advance his radical left agenda to undermine freedom here at home and abroad."

The watchdog group also thinks Obama may have helped Soros with similar moves in Macedonia, Romania and Colombia, and it is seeking details on those transactions.

The new documents show USAID funds were funneled through that agency's Civil Society Project to back Soros' left-wing Open Society Foundations in Albania, "particularly the Soros operation efforts to give the socialist government greater control of the judiciary," Judicial Watch said.

USAID reportedly gave $9 million in 2016 to the Justice for All campaign, which is overseen by Soros' East West Management Institute.

The records were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that was filed last year against the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The lawsuit was dropped after the documents were released, the watchdog group said.

"In March 2017, a group of six U.S. senators led by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, sent a letter to then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson asking that he investigate charges that the U.S. government was using taxpayer funds to assist Soros in Albania," Judicial Watch said.

The senators charged that the government had helped Soros in the development of "reforms" that ultimately are aimed at taking control of the judiciary there.

"The new records released by Judicial Watch include an April 2016 memo from the U.S. Embassy in Tirana that reveals that the embassy 'sponsored' a survey along with Soros' Open Society Foundation to measure Albanian citizens' 'knowledge, support, and expectations on justice reform,'" the report said.

"The Soros group survey reported that 91 percent of respondents either 'fully support' or 'somewhat support' the need for judicial reform."

But nobody mentioned what "reform" was thought to mean in that context.
Tax money later was used for another poll, and officials noted they "frequently" asked officials with the Open Society Foundation to work with them.

"The U.S. Ambassador to Albania Donald Lu, a holdover from the Obama administration, has been closely linked to Soros and the socialist government in Albania. In May 2017, Lu helped undermine Albanian opposition party plans to protest the upcoming parliamentary election by declaring that the U.S. would recognize the election results even if opposition parties refused to participate," Judicial Watch said.

Judicial Watch also is seeking information from the government about its financial support for Soros operations in Macedonia, Romania and Colombia. WND reported when Judicial Watch brought a series of lawsuits against USAID and the State Department over the issue.

The former prime minister of Macedonia, Nikola Gruevski, at one point called for a "de-Sorosization" of society, Judicial Watch noted.

Vadum charged Soros is using social engineering to destroy American sovereignty.

"Soros is a truly deranged, dangerous individual whose beliefs are antithetical to the core principles of America," Vadum said at the time. "It is amazing he has gotten away with doing so much damage to America's free institutions over the years."

He said the core of Soros' plan to destabilize the United States is "abolishing borders" and eliminating distinctions between illegal aliens and American citizens.