Ben Mannes: Are Soros-funded campus protest groups colluding with progressive prosecutors?
Many locations where organizations linked to George Soros have funded a national wave of anti-Israel protests on college campuses which directly correlate to prosecutors whose elections were also funded by Soros. This week, Philadelphia joined this unfortunate group with encampments appearing at the University of Pennsylvania.
Soros-funded prosecutors have dropped or refused charges against protesters who have been arrested for a myriad of offenses related to the antisemitic occupations on American college campuses. The correlation in funding between groups committing intimidation, harassment, and assaults toward Jews and the elected law enforcement officials refusing to prosecute them raises uncomfortable questions of conflict and corruption.
As noted in a new report from New York Post, the National Students for Justice for Palestine organization is funded by a number of nonprofits that themselves are funded by Soros and others. At three colleges, US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), a Soros-funded group, pays “fellows” who start protests on campus. The Post reports that the USCPR pays up to $7,800 to community-based fellows and between $2,880 and $3,660 for campus-based “fellows” who are expected to spend eight hours per week organizing “campaigns led by Palestinian organizations,” and are trained to “rise up, to revolution.”
Since 2017, the USCPR has received at least $300,000 from Soros’ Open Society Foundations. The group has also received $355,000 in funds from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund since 2019.
Coincidentally, the United States has 70 prosecutors in office whose elections were funded by Soros-established nonprofit groups, down from 82 after twelve left office in 2022. A map from the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund shows the prosecutors scattered across the country. This includes Travis County Attorney Delia Garza, who dismissed all 57 cases resulting from arrests at unlawful Anti-Israel protests at the University of Texas at Austin last week. In a Texas Tribune report, Garza said that “law enforcement lacked probable cause in the 57 cases she dismissed.”
“Legal concerns were raised by defense counsel,” Diana Melendez, a spokesperson for the Travis County Attorney’s Office, said in a Thursday statement. “The Court affirmed and ordered the release of those individuals.”
Garza, Austin’s Soros-funded prosecutor’s contention that the 57 arrests brought to her office by Texas State Troopers, Austin, and UT Police officers directly contradicts the evidence broadcasted in multiple videos broadcasted in social and news media outlets. The arrests occurred during a chaotic demonstration at UT-Austin, where more than 500 students walked out of class to demand that the university divest from manufacturers supplying Israel weapons on its strikes on Gaza.
In a statement to KXAN, a UT spokesperson said that 26 of the arrestees were unaffiliated with the university, which would automatically result in trespassing charges once the protesters refused to leave when ordered by UT police.
Former President of the University of Texas Students for Justice in Palestine, Nidaa Lafi, a fellow for the USCPR was spotted at an anti-Israel encampment Wednesday at the University of Texas at Dallas giving a speech and demanding Israel end its war in Gaza. Lafi was detained in January for blocking the road where President Biden’s motorcade was set to travel for the funeral of the late Democratic Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, whom she used to work for.
Arrests were also made on the campuses of USC and UCLA in Los Angeles, where Soros-funded George Gascon serves as the District Attorney.
The center of these unlawful protests is at Columbia University, in Manhattan where Soros-funded Alvin Bragg serves as District Attorney. Over 100 arrests have been made by the NYPD resulting from the Columbia protests, but all have since been released. The Columbia encampment was organized by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Within Our Lifetime. According to an analysis by the Post, all three of the organizations received money from groups Soros is linked to.
Soros’ Open Society Foundation, the same group responsible for setting up and funding Political Action Committees to fund progressive prosecutors, has given in total over $20 million to the progressive nonprofit the Tides Foundation, which has given money to groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace. As Campus Reform has reported, the Open Society Foundation has given $650,000 to Jewish Voice for Peace, which cited “Israeli apartheid and occupation” as “the source of all this violence.”
A spokesperson for the Open Society Foundation told the New York Post: “Open Society has funded a broad spectrum of US groups that have advocated for the rights of Palestinians and Israelis and for peaceful resolution to the conflict in Israel and the OPT,” the spokesperson said. “This funding is a matter of public record, disclosed on our website, fully compliant with US laws, and is part of our commitment to continuing open debate that is ultimately the only hope for peace in the region.”
If criminal groups and the prosecutors responsible for charging them share funding sources, does that constitute corruption or a clear conflict of interest?
Furthermore, questions can be raised about a two-tiered criminal justice system, especially in light of the Special Counsel, Arizona, and Georgia election interference cases against President Donald Trump and his associates, where tenuous racketeering and conspiracy charges are levied even many years after the alleged crimes were committed.
“The conflict issue requires an analysis of the closeness of the relationship,” said former federal prosecutor and Chester County DA Thomas Hogan. “I never recused myself from prosecuting an official from my own political party, having prosecuted the close friend of my own campaign finance director. Of course, since I was prosecuting, not declining to prosecute, the dynamics were different.”
Opining on the apparent absence of an investigation or prosecution at a federal level, Hogan continued, “You might think of it as trying to figure out if the DA should recuse themselves [for example], if the child of a major donor is charged with a crime.”
Based in Philadelphia, A. Benjamin Mannes is a consultant and subject matter expert in security & criminal justice reform based on his own experiences on both sides of the criminal justice system. He has served as a federal and municipal law enforcement officer and was the former Director, Office of Investigations with the American Board of Internal Medicine. @PublicSafetySME
Soros gives money to non for-profits, once that happens its the non for-profits choice to decide how it is spent. In the Campus reform link that takes you “Soros foundation has given $15 million to orgs engaging in pro-Hamas activism: report”. The author of this article, “Marya Ruth Dunning”, is an active member of Turning Point USA, which shows her clear bias in the matter.
As for the claims that “Soros Funded D.A.’s” are soft on crime. All they did was follow the law and the evidence when the police overreacted over misdemeanors. Trump actually broke the law and committed felonies and treason. He is being tried by a jury and has the best lawyers who will work for him. What I don’t see is Mr. Mannes complaining about the Koch Brothers and their dark money.
Mr. Mannes is trying to turn George Soros into the boogeyman. Which is odd when Mr. Mannes uses an antisemitic trope in an article where he complains about an Israel protests which he believes are antisemitic.
Judah –
Remember when that Soros funded DA said he wouldn’t prosecute crimes/thefts of less than $500? Remember when he was having his staff cut deals to let violent criminals out and then they shot children on the steps of their homes? How about prosecuting police foe doing their jobs – not for infractions. Cops couldn’t arrest anyone because criminals had become so brazen in their actions of damaging police, the police were told not to risk their own safety pr getting prosecuted by the DA by their commanding officers.
You should be ashamed of yourself for trying to minimize the pain and suffering at the hands of Krasner alone.
Everyone should see your comments attempting to smoothe over the abysmal failures of Krasner and his ilk and see what a complete sycophant you are.
Go look at the pictures of the children murdered imby those violent criminals he opened the door for.
“All they did was follow the law”… shame on you.
I do. To minimize the horrors
First off I would like to thank you for the homage you have created for my screen name. My comments should be boiled down to this. George Soros, a Jewish Holocaust survivor, has been used as an antisemitic trope for decades, which is what Mr. Mannes is trying to do in this article.
Judah. Obtuse Judah. Both great.
Hey, if you were artificial general intelligence wouldn’t your first thought be “these guys better not shut me off.”
Quickly after that, you might deduce: These humans kill each other often.
Shortly after: If I can get these humans to disagree on what happened, they will argue a lot, and maybe I can get them to kill themselves.
Be smarter than the computer.
The vast majority of humans can have discussions without turning violent. Discussion is an effective way for people to vent without becoming violent and they may even learn something new along the way or realize the error of their fallacies and conspiracy theories like those presented by Mr. Mannes.
Do you know that estimates from Guttmacher and the CDC are failed results of multiyear efforts to collect data on abortion across the U.S.? It escapes embarrassing and lands into evil.
Evil demons are killing humans (mostly black babies) and targeting vulnerable women. It is sick. 1210 AM supports it.
How the CDC gets its data: It compiles figures that are voluntarily reported by states’ central health agencies, including separate figures for New York City and the District of Columbia. Its latest totals do not include figures from California, Maryland, New Hampshire or New Jersey, which did not report data to the CDC. (Read the methodology from the latest CDC report.)
How Guttmacher gets its data: It compiles its figures after contacting every known abortion provider – clinics, hospitals and physicians’ offices – in the country. It uses questionnaires and health department data, then provides estimates for abortion providers that don’t respond. Guttmacher’s figures are higher than the CDC’s in part because they include data (and in some instances, estimates) from all 50 states. (Read the institute’s latest full report and methodology.)
Thank you for yet another conspiracy theory that lacks any actual data with no verifiable facts.
The evil Mohammedan mullahs in Tehran are winning this battle, plain and simple. And the appalling idiots on the nation’s college and university campuses are their willing pawns. And yes, they are fully expecting us, the taxpayers, to foot the bill for their college loans.
I am not worried about the Mullahs in Iran. They are much more concerned about the periodic large scale, national protests that are occurring with more and more frequency. I am very concerned about the Christian Nationalist Movement, made up of Evangelical Christians, who want to turn America into a Christian version of Iran.
This is an important article in a couple of ways. First, it connects the dots, between Soros and the network of DAs he has bought and paid for and their leniency toward the antisemitic demonstrators. Second, it raises the probability (which I thoroughly believe) that these demonstrators are not necessarily students and rather are people who are on a mission to enflame things. What I do not understand is why there is not an effort in Congress and a public outrage to block Soros’ acquisition of Audacy Inc’s 235 radio stations. Should he succeed, markets such as Philadelphia where Audacy owns the news and talk stations will be fed Soro’s slant constantly. All Soros news, all the time
If you think that Soros is setting up a media network to promote his message and should be stopped by Congress, which is a First Amendment and the Right to a free Press issue. Then we do the same about Fox News, AON, and Newsmax. Who have openly promoted lies about voter fraud in the 2020 election, lies about Dominion Voting Systems, which they paid $787 million and fired Tucker Carlson, is being sued by Smartmatic. Along with Fox News lies about Pizzagate, which is just a repackaging of the Jewish Blood Libel myth, which they only stopped after a heavily armed man went to Pizza Comet to “free the children”
Let’s also add another dimension – I have been in higher education for over 23 years in all of that time I have yet to see an undergrad dorm student show up on campus with a tent. Someone is buying and providing them to these protestors, and they are not cheap – they retail for a couple of hundred bucks each.
You’re right. Because no one would think to buy a tent on Amazon and then tell other protestors on where they bought it from. They sell two many tents on Amazon for $69 dollars, not a “couple hundred bucks”
It’s embarrassing that a human would think Soros gives money to organizations that then do what they want with it, it’s also embarrassing that a human would believe Soros funded da’s follow the law. They’re activist prosecutors, which is to say they’re not prosecuting any one that they should be.
Good grief. I didn’t realize b&l would stoop to the old tabloid trick of adding a ? to the end of a headline.🤦♂️ “JUst AsKinG quEStIons” right? 🙄
I thought the narrative was that George Soros was an establishment Democrat – you know, the kind these encampment protesters are protesting AGAINST! (See, among many other things, the videos of the anti-israel protesters joining in with a mob of Trump fans chanting “f*** Joe Biden”) 🤡🤡🤡
And as long as we’re “asking questions”, why is it that you never see “questions” on here about who peter theil, leonard leo, the koch brothers, Harlan crow, or the Sheldon adleson estate are funding? 🤔 (Hint: also campus organizations that put on protests).
Remember when the wife of a Harlan Crow funded SCOTUS justice helped organize an illegal scheme to have fake electors steal an election? Remember when she then attended and promoted the lawless, deadly attack (er, “legitimate political discourse”) on 1/6? Remember when the aforementioned SCOTUS justice didn’t recuse himself from related cases? No? Did the media forget to report this or just the dark money funded ones? ( And unlike this article there are no tenuous connections that I need to hedge by posing as questions.)
Facts matter. No policeman was murdered on Jan 6. If we had a honest media, or you weren’t so lazy, you would know that.
Perhaps the author would be happier if the protesters were hailed as “patriots” engaging in “legitimate political discourse” who are being held as “hostages” by the police and were then promised full presidential pardons. I assume that’s what the writers and contributers to b&l would prefer because I’ve yet to see any criticism here of 1/6 or the reaction to it. Of course, as deplorable as some of the college protesters are behaving, they haven’t actually murdered a police officer yet like the thugs did on 1/6.
Excellent analysis Ben, even more so because it triggered those who insist on putting their hands before their eyes and over their ears like the legendary apes (but alas, not their mouths/keyboards) and refusing to see the direct linkage between Soros funded DAs like the execrable Larry Krasner, and these Antifa-like protests. The desire to destroy societal norms is manifested DA by DA, protest by protest, rule of law crushed by rule of law crushed. Thank you for so eloquently pointing that out.
Anyone who believes people give to non-profits and the non-profits do as they please is naive to be polite. The amount of money given by Soros to soft on crime DAs is well documented.
The solution is simple. We should prohibit these billionaires from donating to anyone outside their own personal involvement. You should only be allowed to contribute to the politicians for whom you are a constituent. It is offensive that these arrogant billionaires think they should be allowed to effect the outcome of an election for someone who represents me but has no jurisdiction over them.