As Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg moves to bring an expected indictment against Donald Trump, Republican lawmakers who have jumped to the former president’s defense are focusing on what they say is Bragg’s relationship with billionaire George Soros.
Rep. Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican and the party’s fourth-ranking leader in the House, tweeted Monday that Bragg “took a million dollars from George Soros.” Sen. JD Vance, an Ohio Republican who received the 2022 campaign millions of support dollars from GOP megadonor and investor Peter Thiel, said in a tweet that “Alvin Bragg was bought by George Soros.”
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, is talking to allies about using his panel to examine Bragg’s links to Soros as Trump targets Bragg ahead of a likely accusation, according to a GOP strategist close to Jordan. It fits into a larger GOP strategy to discredit the Manhattan investigation: Jordan signed a letter calling on Bragg to testify before Congress, and questioned whether the Manhattan DA’s investigation into Trump used federal funds .
As Bragg prepares what is expected to be the first indictment of a former president, Trump allies have launched a series of attacks against the Democratic district attorney. They found a familiar target in Soros, whose hundreds of millions of dollars in donations to support Democratic political campaigns and fierce criticism of Trump have made him a boogeyman in Republican circles for more than a decade.
But the reality of Bragg’s links to Soros doesn’t quite match up the picture painted by Republican lawmakers which aims to use the relationship between the men to discredit the investigation, according to records and people familiar with both men.
Representatives for Bragg and Jordan did not return requests for comment.
Soros’ connection to Bragg — and possible influence on his investigation of Trump — is not as clear as Republican leaders would make them out to be. There is no proof that Bragg was “bought by Soros,” as Vance said.
A Soros adviser, who declined to be named to speak publicly about private matters, said the billionaire “never met or talked to Alvin Bragg.”
Much of the criticism of Bragg appears to stem from the support, and later political pressure, he received from the racial justice group Color of Change, which attempts to influence government and corporate policy across the country. Soros donated $1 million to Color of Change PAC in 2021. The Soros-funded Open Society Policy Center also raised $7 million to the group’s separate 501(c)(4) group that year .
However, those familiar with the contributions said the money given by the billionaire and his Color of Change organization was not intended to support Bragg’s campaign, nor was it intended to be used in an effort to pressure the DA.
Soros’ $1 million check to Color of Change PAC, the largest individual donation it has received in the 2022 election cycle, came days after it endorsed Bragg for district attorney and promised more than $1 million in spending to support his candidacy, records show.
A Color of Change official, who declined to be named to speak publicly about private matters, told CNBC that the group has spent about $500,000 to support Bragg.
There is also no indication that the Open Society Policy Center donation was directed to an eventual Color of Change campaign to influence Bragg. In 2022, a year after Color of Change received $7 million from the Soros-funded group, a nonprofit arm of the organization helped pressure Bragg not to prosecute Tracy McCarterwho was charged with murdering his estranged wife.
As part of the campaign, Color of Change twice printed open letters to The New York Times calling on Bragg to drop the charges, according to a judge who pushed back to the Manhattan DA’s decision not to prosecute. The group also ran digital ads on Facebook, according to the platform’s ad archive. One highlights the people who outline McCarter’s supporters’ arguments for dropping the charges: that he acted in self-defense against domestic violence.
Funding from the Soros nonprofit was not targeted at the campaign to support McCarter, a Color of Change official told CNBC. The Open Society website says the group’s donation is intended “to support [Color of Change]social welfare activities” for five years.
Rashad Robinson, the president of Color of Change, did not return requests for an interview prior to publication of this story. Robinson tweeted in recent days in an apparent response to Republican attacks against Color of Change and its funding from Soros.
“Make no mistake, over the next few days as more news about the potential consequences for Trump spreads, we will see a flood of anti-Black and anti-Semitic attacks from the former President and the his supporters and enablers,” Robinson said. “They will attack those who make us like @ColorOfChange n allies and funders here.”
Color of Change focuses its campaigns on policies affecting Black Americans. Soros is Jewish, and his Democratic allies have previously painted attacks on him as anti-Semitic.
While Soros’ involvement with Bragg appears to stem from his donations to Color of Change, two of his family members have more direct links to the Manhattan DA. months before Bragg won a 2021 Democratic primary on his way to becoming Manhattan DA, George Soros’ son, Jonathan, and his wife, combined to donate $20,000 to Bragg’s campaign, state records show .
Jonathan Soros did not return requests for comment.
