Liberal billionaire George Soros has continued his bid to "overhaul" the criminal justice system in the United States by pouring nearly $1 million into local Virginia prosecutor races to prop up far-left candidates.
Soros's most recent round of donations include $580,000 to Parisa Dehghani-Tafti, a candidate for Arlington County commonwealth's attorney, and almost $400,000 to Steve Descana, a Fairfax County commonwealth's attorney candidate, for their June 11 primaries.
Soros pushed the contributions to Dehghani-Tafti and Descana from his Justice & Public Safety PAC, a committee used to fund local races across the country that could make an impact on the criminal justice system. The donations represent an overwhelming majority of what both candidates have raised, the Washington Post reports.
Soros, who has quietly flooded local district attorney and prosecutor races for some time now, puts his preferred candidates at a major money advantage for such a race. Soros typically sets up a "pop up" PAC in states where the races are taking place in order to push the money in to back their candidacy's. At the conclusion of the race, any remaining money in the PAC's coffers is refunded and the PAC is often shut down.
In recent years, the billionaire has pushed millions to numerous far-left candidates in a number of cities, including Philadelphia district attorney Larry Krasner, whom he helped win via nearly $2 million in contributions.
Krasner, a progressive defense attorney prior to being elected, joked during his campaign that he had built a career that made him "completely unelectable." Krasner had previously represented Occupy Philadelphia, Black Lives Matter, and sued the police department more than 75 times. However, Krasner's money advantage helped vault him out of a crowded Democratic field before defeating the Republican candidate, Beth Grossman, by 40 percentage points.
Days after taking over the position, Krasner purged more than 30 prosecutors from the district attorney's office. A list of those purged at the time showed that the individuals mainly came from the homicide division, drug enforcement, and civil asset forfeiture units. The terminations additionally stalled court cases, and a judge lambasted the office after they had asked for a murder trial to be postponed due to the assistant attorney general being one of the individuals released by Krasner.
Soros's preferred candidates have enjoyed quiet success in cities across the country until recent elections in California.
In San Diego, Soros poured $1.5 million into the district attorney race last year to back Geneviéve Jones-Wright, a far-left deputy public director in the county who was challenging incumbent Summer Stephan.
Jones-Wright, who at the time told the Free Beacon she was "thrilled" to have Soros's support, had previous ties to the financier. The year prior, in 2017, Jones-Wright appeared on a panel at a gathering of the Democracy Alliance, the left's largest dark money donor network, that took place 30 minutes outside San Diego. The panel was "hosted" by Soros and a handful of other prominent liberal donors where participants discussed ramping up district attorney efforts for 2018.
Stephan later made Soros a focal point of her campaign and launched a website based around his involvement. The Association of Deputy District Attorneys, the professional association for the Deputy DAs of Los Angeles County, also came out and condemned Soros for what they called his "radical agenda" that threatened public safety.
Soros ultimately pulled out of the race a week before the election, and Jones-Wright was defeated by nearly 30 percentage points. Soros-backed candidates in number of other counties across California also lost their respective races, which was the first time Soros was dealt a blow in such efforts.
Whitney Tymas, an attorney who acts as the treasurer of Soros's Justice & Public Safety PAC, could not be reached for comment. The email address listed on the PAC's statement of organization, which is an address at the Perkins Coie law firm, did not respond to inquiries on its most recent round of donations to the Virginia candidates by press time.