Did Soros pull the strings to get Trump indicted?

The 92-year-old billionaire injected hundreds of millions of dollars in donations to support Democratic political campaigns, which came amid his scathing criticism of Trump.

A grand jury in Manhattan voted on Thursday to indict former US President Donald Trump in connection with hush payments made to an adult film star ahead of the 2016 election. The indictment, although still under seal, reportedly includes over 30 counts, which Trump will face at his arraignment on April 4.

In this vein, the 45th US president earlier accused Democratic Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg of being funded by George Soros. This was preceded by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis calling Bragg “Soros-backed,” in what was echoed by many other Republicans. But how exactly is the Hungarian-born billionaire involved in this drama? Sputnik explains.

What Exactly Did Trump Say About Soros?

In a recent all-caps Truth Social post, the ex-POTUS lashed out at Bragg for being “FUNDED BY GEORGE SOROS.”

“HE IS A SOROS BACKED ANIMAL WHO JUST DOESN’T CARE ABOUT RIGHT OR WRONG NO MATTER HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE HURT,” Trump e-shouted.

The 45th US president also argued that “Alvin Bragg received in EXCESS OF ONE MILLION DOLLARS from the Radical Left Enemy of ‘TRUMP,’ George Soros.”

Trump was echoed by Republican Senator J.D. Vance, who tweeted that Bragg “is bought by George Soros.” According to Vance, Bragg “allows violent criminals to walk the streets of New York City, but will prosecute the likely Republican nominee (and former president) on a baseless misdemeanor charge.”

The same tone was struck by Mark Dankof, a San-Antonio resident, former US Senate candidate and investigative journalist, who told Sputnik that “the Bragg connection to George Soros is self-explanatory.”

‘I Don’t Know Him’

The 92-year-old billionaire, who topped the list of individual political donors for 2021-2022, contributing more than $128.4 million to Democrats (and $0 to Republicans), was rather quick to distance himself from Bragg following Trump’s claims.

“As for Alvin Bragg, as a matter of fact I did not contribute to his campaign and I don’t know him,” Soros told a US media outlet.

“I think some on the right would rather focus on far-fetched conspiracy theories than on the serious charges against the former president,” Soros claimed.

But the story is not as simple as it may seem at first glance.

Soros and Color of Change PAC

Most of the GOP members’ criticism of Bragg pertains to support he received from the political action committee (PAC) Color of Change, a “racial justice” non-profit group, which tries to influence government and corporate policy across the US.

While campaigning to become the next Manhattan DA ahead of his nomination in 2021, Bragg received in May of that year more than $1 million in support from the Color of Change PAC, which receives funding from Soros.

As a result of the vote, Bragg became the first Black person to ever lead the Manhattan district attorney office.

Federal Election Commission records showed that Soros’ donation was the largest the Color of Change PAC received throughout the 2022 election cycle and ultimately made up roughly 25 percent of the $3.9 million the group hauled in.

Soros’ Son, Daughter-in-Law Shore Up Bragg

The billionaire’s son, Jonathan Soros, and Jonathan’s wife, Jennifer Allan Soros, also donated directly to Bragg’s campaign, New York campaign finance records have revealed.

On April 26, 2021, Jonathan Soros sent a $10,000 check to the Bragg committee’s coffers, while three days later, Jennifer Allan Soros added a $10,000 contribution to the campaign. With other individuals providing more direct cash to the Bragg committee, the couple became one of its biggest donors.

Soros’ Support of DAs

Bragg is reportedly merely one of at least 75 district attorneys Soros has supported in recent years as part of his efforts “to reshape American society in his liberal vision.”

Soros’ Open Society Foundations have pumped millions of dollars into liberal DAs, either with direct donations or those that were funneled through political action committees. The apparent goal was to effectively buy elections to install prosecutors who support the billionaire’s leftist agenda.

As for Soros himself, many perceive him as a financier who has made billions of dollars through investments and currency speculation, and a “philanthropist” who seeks to spread his vision of a liberal “open society” internationally.

On Trump, the billionaire minced no words in February, when he told the 2023 Munich Security Conference that the former US president had turned into a “pitiful figure” and could lose the 2024 Republican presidential nomination to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Soros enjoys enormous influence in Europe with only a handful of countries resisting his influence, Hungary and its Prime Minister Viktor Orban being the first among them.

Over the years, the relationship between Orban and Soros has been fraught with mutual hostility, if not outright hatred. Once fellow-travellers in their struggle against the country’s communist regime, two Hungarian natives have grown apart over the years, with Soros financing a wide range of left-wing causes, such as unrestrained immigration and libertine social mores, which according to Orban, serve to undermine the country’s national tradition and the Christian way of life.

Soros is also disliked by some in Asia. The 1997 Southeast Asia financial crisis saw Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad accuse the billionaire of ruining Malaysia’s economy with “massive currency speculation.”

The 92-year-old is also known for signaling his opposition to the US Supreme Court decision last year to roll back abortion rights nationally, overturning a near-50-year precedent.

“The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn #RoeVWade ends federal protections for abortion, diminishes human rights, and greatly threatens reproductive care. We have invested in reproductive rights organizations that are fighting back at this moment,” the billionaire tweeted at the time.

Soros is also notoriously known as “the Man Who Broke the Bank of England”, a nickname that is related to the UK Black Wednesday currency crisis in 1992, when Soros, in one night, borrowed and sold $10 billion worth of the British pound, putting Britain’s Central Bank in distress.

What is Color of Change?

The non-profit civil rights organization was formed in 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in order to use online resources to strengthen the political voice of African Americans.

Proclaiming itself “the nation’s largest online racial justice organization,” the Color of Change PAC says that it “moves decision-makers in corporations and government to create a more human and less hostile world for Black people in America.”