Hundreds of millions of tax dollars are being given to organizations run by billionaire George Soros to pursue a “radical leftist agenda” that is undermining American values, according to Washington watchdog Judicial Watch.
The organization’s special report documents the financial link between U.S.-funded entities and Soros’ Open Society Foundations, which is “seeking to destabilize legitimate governments, erase national borders, target conservative politicians, finance civil unrest, subvert institutions of higher education and orchestrate refugee crises for political gain.”
Judicial Watch said that in 2018, the Open Society Foundations “projected expending more than $530 million to promote Soros’ radical globalist agenda in every corner of the world under the guise of supporting democratically elected governments, strengthening the rule of law and promoting fairness in political, legal and economic systems.”
“The reality is far different, the report shows. Soros, with the help of American taxpayer dollars, bolsters a radical leftwing agenda that in the United States has included: promoting an open border with Mexico and fighting immigration enforcement efforts; fomenting racial disharmony by funding anti-capitalist racialist organizations; financing the Black Lives Matter movement and other organizations involved in the riots in Ferguson, Missouri; weakening the integrity of our electoral systems; promoting taxpayer funded abortion-on-demand; advocating a government-run health care system; opposing U.S. counterterrorism efforts; promoting dubious transnational climate change agreements that threaten American sovereignty; and working to advance gun control and erode Second Amendment protections.”
Last year, Judicial Watch exposed a “collaborative effort between the U.S. government and Soros to destabilize the democratically elected, center-right government in Macedonia. Records obtained by Judicial Watch in that investigation show that the U.S. ambassador to Macedonia worked behind the scenes with OSF to funnel large sums of American dollars for the cause, constituting an interference of the U.S. ambassador in domestic political affairs in violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. The cash – about $5 million – flowed through the State Department and USAID.”
Other attacks on sovereign governments have been orchestrated in Albania, Romania, Hungary, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico, the report said.
Judicial Watch’s report “identifies OSF affiliates worldwide that receive U.S. government funding as well as the alarming figures.”
“The Soros operations are highly sophisticated and work across academia, the legal system, labor, agriculture and ‘social justice’ organizations as well as religious and political groups,” Judicial Watch said.
Some of the people behind the use of tax money for far-left objectives are former members of the Obama administration.
They includes Obama’s domestic policy council director, Cecilia Muñoz, who currently serves on OSF’s U.S. Programs board, and OSF President Patrick Gaspard, director of political affairs in the Obama White House and the U.S. Ambassador to South Africa.
Others are OSF Director of Global Security Denis Reynolds, a former supervisory special agent with the Diplomatic Security Service at the State Department, and OSF Senior Policy Advisor Emily Renard, a former State Department foreign service officer and Africa Policy Officer.
“Leftist” groups who receive “hefty sums” from the U.S., including Catholic Legal Immigration Network and the American Constitution Society, also are funded by OSF. Those groups are promoting and organizing illegal immigrant caravans to the U.S., Judicial Watch said.
Judicial Watch already has filed four lawsuits in federal court to uncover the facts about the Soros-funded network. So far, they have revealed that the Obama State Department turned over key activities to OSF.
“Judicial Watch reporting suggests the Deep State continues to be aligned with Soros as career and holdover State Department officials in countries such as Albania, Colombia, Guatemala, Macedonia and Romania help OSF push its radical agenda.”
So what do taxpayers actually fund?
Soros’ East-West Management Institute has received nearly $73 million in tax money for various projects since 2004, the report said. And nearly $119 million in grants has been issued.
The Natural Resource Governance Institute has received $5.5 million, the National Fair Housing Alliance nearly $16 million, the International Crisis Group more than $4.2 million and Casa de Maryland more than $5 million, which preceded an outright condemnation of President Trump’s efforts to secure America’s border.
It said of plans to deny illegal aliens access to the U.S.: “This is one more disturbing and dangerous development in a string of xenophobic attacks on immigrant communities. With this threat to ban Latinx (sic) immigrants, Trump is once again showing us that his racism-driven cruelty has no bounds, as he did with the implementation of the Muslim ban and separation of families at the border.”
Judicial Watch said: “Perhaps most notoriously, U.S. taxpayer subsidies and OSF funding assisted United We Dream in launching a smartphone application to help illegal immigrants avoid federal authorities. The app, Notifica (Notify), is described in a Texas news article as a tool to protect immigrants living in the U.S. illegally by utilizing high tech and online social communications. With the click of a button, illegal aliens can alert family, friends and attorneys of encounters with federal authorities.”
Other organizations linked closely to Soros also are getting money, including the Vera Institute of Justice, $23 million; The New America Foundation, $4.5 million; and Society for Research in Child Development, $6 million.
The OSF influence comes in large part from the fact many staffers are former Obama administration officials. The new executive director of OSF’s U.S. Programs office is even former Rep. Tom Perriello, a Democrat from Virginia.
It goes the other way too, with Lauren Troy, a former OSF employee, now in the office of State Policy Adviser in the Department of Justice, the report noted.
One of the influence operations happened in Albania, the report said.
Documents Judicial Watch obtained showed “USAID funds were funneled through that agency’s Civil Society Project to back OSF political operations in Albania, particularly OSF efforts to give the socialist government greater control of the judiciary.” USAID reportedly gave $9 million in 2016 to the “Justice for All” campaign, which is overseen by Soros’s EWMI.
“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,” charged Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch.
“It is particularly outrageous that the State Department allowed the Soros operation to help direct taxpayer funds to other groups. 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.”
