Trump’s attacks on Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s backing by George Soros: What to know

Facing a potential indictment over hush money payment to Stormy Daniels, part of Donald Trump’s strategy is to portray the prosecutor, Manhattan District attorney Alvin Bragg, as being driven by partisan intent.

News reports Bragg’s office could soon charge Trump with falsifying business records related to the $130,000 hush payment to Stormy Daniels. Trump has denied wrongdoing, and he’s gone on the offensive on social media.

In a March 21 Truth Social post, Trump described Bragg as "George Soros backed," referring to the billionaire who has funded many liberal causes. Soros has been a target of conservatives for years.

A day earlier, Trump wrote a post that said Bragg had received "IN EXCESS OF ONE MILLION DOLLARS from Radical Left Enemy of Trump, George Soros."

Soros did give a progressive racial justice group called Color of Change $1 million in May 2021, and in the same month, Color of Change endorsed Bragg and pledged to spend over $1 million supporting his campaign.

However, Soros’ $1 million wasn’t earmarked for Bragg; Color of Change was supporting other progressive district attorney candidates that year in different cities, and had done so in previous election cycles as well.

It’s impossible to know whether Soros or Color of Change swayed Bragg’s decisions on investigating Trump, though the group’s longstanding focus has been on criminal justice policy and racial equity rather than on Trump’s legal situation. 

We emailed a spokesperson for Trump asking for his evidence and did not get a response. We also did not get a response from Bragg’s office.

Soros, who has funded some pro-democracy or progressive causes, which has made him a lightning rod for conservative criticism. He has been the target of multiple falsehoods including that he endorsed Ron DeSantis for president, funded protests in Minneapolis and funded voting machines in the U.S. 

Soros' Open Society Foundations has previously donated to the Poynter-owned International Fact-Checking Network. PolitiFact is a Poynter subsidiary.

Soros is Jewish. Although criticizing his politics is not antisemitic, according to the Anti-Defamation League "when Soros is used as a symbol for Jewish control, wealth, and power, the criticism may be an updated version of traditional antisemitic tropes," the ADL wrote.

Bragg announced his bid for Manhattan district attorney in 2019, vowing to overhaul the criminal justice system. Bragg argued that the system has a separate standard of justice for the rich and powerful than for everyone else. 

Bragg’s agenda aligned with that of Soros. The billionaire has long supported prosecutors who seek to reform the criminal justice system. In a July 2022 op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, Soros called for spending more money on proven crime-prevention strategies and prioritizing spending within the criminal justice system on violent offenders. 

In turn, Soros’ position on criminal justice policy aligned with that of Color of Change, a group that backs candidates with those policy priorities, with a focus on racial justice. Since 2018, the group has endorsed multiple candidates for Congress, district attorney, state supreme court justice and governor, as well as Joe Biden for president. 

In 2021, the group endorsed district attorney candidates in Philadelphia and Portsmouth, Virginia, along with Bragg.

According to records filed with the Federal Election Commission, Soros contributed $1 million to Color of Change in May 2021.

Michael Vachon, a spokesperson for Soros, said the $1 million was not earmarked for Bragg.

He added that Soros and Bragg have never met in person or spoken by telephone, email or Zoom.  

That same month, Color of Change endorsed Bragg and pledged to spend over $1 million to support Bragg. The PAC said it would send direct mail and build a field campaign to support Bragg.

Legally, if the contribution to the PAC is not earmarked and if the contributor doesn’t control whose candidacies the PAC supports, then the contributor and the candidate have no connection, said Jerry H. Goldfeder, special counsel at Stroock and longtime New York election law expert.

This wasn’t the first time that Soros gave money to the PAC. Vachon said that between 2016 and 2022, Soros personally and the Soros-funded Democracy PAC contributed roughly $4 million to Color of Change’s PAC. But neither Soros nor Democracy PAC contributed to Bragg’s campaign directly. 

However, Bragg’s campaign finance reports show donations from relatives of Soros: Jonathan Soros, George’s son, as well as Jonathan’s wife, Jennifer Allan Soros. Combined, the two donated about $20,000 in April 2021. 

Overall, Color of Change received about $3.9 million between 2021-22, with Soros being the largest donor, FEC records show. The PAC’s disbursements showed in 2021 it spent much of their money on direct mail, digital ads and staff salaries. 

Color of Change sent PolitiFact a statement that the group has "many funders who invest in our broad strategy to root out injustice in our criminal legal system. Independent of these funders, Color of Change PAC runs a review and interview process to endorse reform minded district attorneys each election cycle."

The group also sent PolitiFact a statement by its president, Rashad Robinson, saying it supported "reform-minded prosecutors, particularly those that come under attack by the right wing." On Twitter, Robinson and Color of Change have pushed back on the criticism.

Bragg won the Democratic primary in June 2021 by more than three points, beating Tali Farhadian Weinstein, who raised about $13 million, far more than Bragg’s $2 million through the primary. Much of Weinstein’s support came from a loan as well from the hedge fund industry, including leaders at her husband’s fund.

In a primary, "money matters, but it really is about the ability to mobilize a relatively small percentage of the most active partisans," said Blair Horner, executive director of the New York Public Interest Research Group, a nonprofit that promotes policies to strengthen democracy. In the race for Manhattan DA, candidates are "looking at activating some of the most liberal activists in the country, a lot of that is driven by policy positions — not necessarily who has the most advertising."

The New York Times’ editorial board endorsement of Bragg cited his experience as a former city rights lawyer and prosecutor, and it noted that he would become Manhattan’s first Black district attorney.

Given its Democratic leanings, New York City elections are often effectively decided in the primary. In the general election Bragg sailed to victory with 83% of the vote.

PolitiFact researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this article.

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