A top official at the Department of Justice reportedly directed top prosecutors across the country to criminally charge George Soros after Donald Trump called for the billionaire philanthropist to face racketeering charges and be thrown in jail.
Trump, who had publicly urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to swiftly seek criminal charges against his political enemies just days earlier, has baselessly alleged that Soros and his Open Society Foundations support “violent protests” as the president gins up prosecutions of his political enemies.
This week, a lawyer for the office of deputy attorney general Todd Blanche — who also served as Trump’s personal criminal defense attorney — directed U.S. attorney’s offices in California, New York and Washington, D.C., among other places, to open a criminal case against Open Society Foundations.
The directive from Justice Department lawyer Aakash Singh suggests a wide range of charges, including racketeering, arson, wire fraud and material support for terrorism, according to a copy of the directive obtained by The New York Times.
A spokesperson for the Justice Department would not comment to The Independent on potential investigations but stated that the attorney general “is committed to the safety of every American.”
“If organizations threaten the safety of Americans and violate U.S. law, we will pursue every lawful avenue — investigations and prosecutions to hold them accountable. Terror has no place here,” the spokesperson said.
The alleged evidence comes from a right-wing watchdog group called the Capital Research Center, which accused the Open Society Foundations of pouring more than $80 million into “groups tied to terrorism or extremist violence” over the last decade.
In a statement to The Independent, a spokesperson for Open Society Foundations said they “unequivocally condemn terrorism and do not fund terrorism.”
“Our activities are peaceful and lawful, and our grantees are expected to abide by human rights principles and comply with the law,” the spokesperson said.
“These accusations are politically motivated attacks on civil society, meant to silence speech the administration disagrees with and undermine the First Amendment right to free speech,” the statement added. “When power is abused to take away the rights of some people, it puts the rights of all people at risk. Our work in the United States is dedicated to strengthening democracy and upholding constitutional freedoms. We stand by the work we do to improve lives in the United States and across the world.”
Earlier this month, Trump called Soros a “bad guy” and the group’s work amounted to “agitation” against the government.
In August, Trump told Fox & Friends that Soros “should be in jail” and that the billionaire and “his wonderful Radical Left son” Alex — who is now running his father’s nonprofit organization — should face charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO Act, famously used to target organized crime.
“We’re not going to allow these lunatics to rip apart America any more, never giving it so much as a chance to ‘BREATHE,’ and be FREE,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The Open Society Foundations fund progressive causes around the world, with a focus on justice, human rights and combating corruption in elections.
Soros, with his affiliated super political action committees, is also one of the biggest spenders when it comes to funding campaigns for Democratic candidates and causes, according to records with the Federal Election Commission.
But Trump-allied figures have argued, without evidence, that Soros and his group are the shadowy financial powerhouse promoting civil unrest and protests that have devolved into property destruction.
In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, the president and his allies have threatened to use the levers of government to target Democratic officials and causes as well as the left-leaning groups that support them.
The Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor has long been a boogeyman for the president and his allies and other right-wing figures. While Blanche was representing Trump in his hush-money case in New York, Trump baselessly asserted that Soros “hand-picked and funded” the district attorney who brought the case against him.
His name has also become a dog-whistle or shorthand for a sprawling, centuries-old antisemitic conspiracy theory alleging a global Jewish plot to manipulate political and financial systems.
Last week, Blanche suggested anti-Trump protesters and the groups that support them could be charged under RICO, and the president has threatened an executive order to disrupt what he has called “domestic terror networks” he alleges are behind violent opposition to his agenda.
The president has also recently directed investigations into longtime foes including former FBI director James Comey and New York attorney general Letitia James, whose bombshell fraud lawsuit against the president’s real-estate empire resulted in nearly half a billion dollars owed to the state in fraudulently obtained financing terms.
