Reviews of the more than 2,500 documents hacked from the servers of George Soros’s Open Society Foundations highlight the undue influence the billionaire financier exerts domestically, from attempting to remake the American electorate to successfully lobbying for changes in U.S. immigration policy to funding initiatives targeting local police forces.
While many of the documents spotlight Soros’s global network, focus on the hacked materials from his Foundations’ U.S. contingent begins to expose the many tentacles of the Democratic Party mega-donor’s operation and its deep impact over the policy objectives of the Obama administration, often utilizing a slew of U.S.-based progressive groups and activist organizations. The revelations in the hacked documents also raise questions about Soros’s future influence over presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, especially since the billionaire is one of Clinton’s top donors.
Remaking the American electorate
One leaked memo highlighted the goal of expanding the U.S. electorate by “at least 10 million voters.” The document, reviewed by the Free Beacon, revealed this policy aim would be accomplished “by lowering barriers to voter registration through the various forms of modernization and increased ballot access while sustaining and expanding the franchise by establishing strong protections against vote suppression, denial and dilution.” Indeed, Soros-financed activists have been leading the drive against Voter ID laws.
Breitbart News further reported Soros’s Open Society Foundations is funding key progressive groups with the stated goal of attempting to “influence appropriations for the (U.S.) Census Bureau” while pushing to change the methods by which racial categories are counted for the coming 2020 Census.
The 2020 Census is critical in determining the gain or loss of districts and the reapportionment of the numbers of House seats allotted to each state, otherwise known as redistricting. The Census could determine whether Democrats have a better chance at gaining control of the House in the next decade.
Soros’s group clearly understands the centrality of the 2020 Census and is apparently seeking to influence the outcome.
A memo identified four progressive groups as funded to help influence the methodology of the 2020 Census: The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO), the Leadership Conference, Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC), and Demos.
The memo was direct when it came to the purpose of the funding, specifically to influence 2020 Census counting procedures:
Advocates have about a year and a half to influence appropriations for the Census Bureau, the redesign of racial categories on the 2020 Census instrument, and policy regarding how to count persons who are incarcerated. Census topics must be presented to Congress in April 2017 with final questions by April 2018.
NALEO’s Education Fund runs a program to “educate” policymakers about issues related to the 2020 Census and what the group calls the “persistent problem of the under-representation of Latinos.”
The Soros-funded Demos has long pushed for what it calls “fair redistricting” and an end to “prison gerrymandering” in the 2020 Census; in other words, counting incarcerated people in the census. At issue is whether to count incarcerated people as “residents” of prison locations.
A 2014 study examining voter trends of prisoners in three states found that in each state – New York, New Mexico, and North Carolina – the majority of convicts voted for Democrats.
Lobbied Obama to Accept 100,000 Refugees Per Year — and Succeeded
Other hacked memos show Soros and his foundation helped to successfully press the Obama administration into increasing to 100,000 the total number of refugees taken in by the U.S. annually.
As Breitbart News first reported, the documents reveal that the billionaire personally sent President Obama a letter on the issue of accepting refugees.
The hacked memos also show that the billionaire’s foundation pressed the U.S. government to enact two other major policy objectives regarding the intake of Syrian refugees. A timeline demonstrates that at last one of those policies – providing more financing to overseas refugee efforts – was indeed implemented by the Obama administration, while it isn’t clear whether the administration was reacting directly to the Soros group’s campaign in that case.
The information was contained in a detailed 69-page Open Society report on the agenda of an Open Society U.S. Programs board meeting held in New York from October 1 to October 2, 2015.
Regarding the increase in the total number of refugees accepted annually by the U.S., the board meeting memo states that, before the meeting, Soros himself, as well as the Open Society Foundations and a coalition of groups supported by Soros, had already helped to successfully lobby the Obama administration to take in 100,000 refugees starting in 2017 as opposed to the earlier quota of 70,000.
“In the face of this pressure, the Obama administration announced Sept. 20 that by 2017, it would raise to 100,000 the total number of refugees the U.S. takes worldwide each year,” the document states.
Secretary of State John Kerry announced last September that the U.S. would increase from 70,000 to 100,000 the number of worldwide refugees that it accepts.
A section of the Open Society document relates that Soros and the foundation “pushed for three specific policy objectives” from the Obama administration:
Working in close coordination with our colleagues in the DC Advocacy office, we (in support of George Soros) have pushed for three specific policy objectives: (1) an increase in the worldwide refugee authorization from the pre-existing 70,000 to one commensurate with the need, (2) an increase in resources to the relevant government agencies to expand their ability to process individuals under the existing numbers (noting that the United States has only processed 1,500 Syrians since 2011 even though existing authority allows 10,000 as of now), and (3) an increase in the financing for efforts overseas, recognizing that the United States is and remains the largest funder of support for these efforts. George Soros’ letter to President Obama is included here.
Regarding the third policy objective of an increase in financing to overseas refugee efforts, the Obama administration announced in September 2015, one month before the Open Society’s board meeting of that year, that it would inject $419 million more in humanitarian aid to, as the Washington Post reported, “assist Syrian refugees and the countries that are hosting them.”
Attempted to Influence Supreme Court Ruling On Illegal Immigration
A 75-page Open Society Foundations U.S. Programs memo discussed how to “influence” Justices in the Supreme Court case of U.S. versus Texas, which dealt with the constitutionality of the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA) program.
“Grantees are seeking to influence the Justices (primarily via a sophisticated amicus briefs and media strategy) in hopes of securing a favorable ruling in U.S. v Texas,” the memo stated.
The Daily Caller noted a “favorable ruling” from the Court “would have upheld President Obama’s executive order, a scenario which the organization was preparing for, according to the memo.”
Financing Black Lives Matter while debating whether to ‘shape’ the radical group
One hacked document from 2015 confirmed that Open Society last year approved $650,000 to “invest in technical assistance and support for the groups at the core of the burgeoning #BlackLivesMatter movement.”
The investment was well worth it, it seems. A second document on the Open Society U.S. Programs board meeting February 11-12 of this year relates Black Lives Matter worked to influence the 2016 presidential campaign.
That hacked document states:
Leaders of #BlackLivesMatter and The Movement for Black Lives worked to influence candidate platforms during the 2016 primary season. This came alongside the recent acknowledgement by political strategists that African-American voters may be much more pivotal to the 2016 general election than previously forecasted.
A memo from the Open Society’s board meeting last year, meanwhile, called for a discussion on whether it would be appropriate for the Soros group to try to “shape” Black Lives Matter in the future.
Black Lives Matter claims to be against racism toward black people. However, earlier this month, the movement unveiled its latest platform, which goes beyond anti-police sentiment and reaches into generalized, global Occupy-esque territory, including a call for “progressive restructuring of tax codes”; “public financing of elections and the end of money controlling politics”; and “universal access to the internet without discrimination and full representation for all.”
The new platform’s 40 policy proposals also demand free tuition to public universities, reparations to black people for slavery, and socialist-style “protections for workers in industries that are not appropriately regulated.”
BLM further wades into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, outrageously and baselessly accusing Israel of “genocide” against Palestinians, while calling for activists to “build invest/divestment campaigns that ends US Aid to Israel’s military industrial complex.”
Breitbart reported earlier this month on the latest signs the radical group has a significant international influence and is seeking to take its signature brand of troublemaking global.
A review of the hacked documents, meanwhile, finds the Open Society viewed the 2015 Baltimore unrest following the death of Freddie Gray as opening a “unique opportunity” to create “accountability” for the Baltimore police while aiding activists in reforming the city.
Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio.” Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook.
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