Democrat Bob Casey Meets with Soros Connected, Soft-on-Crime Group

Sen. Bob Casey’s (D-PA) office met with a group that receives donations from George Soros and opposes measures to crack down on America’s crime epidemic.

Celeste Trusty, the Pennsylvania state director for the Families Against Mandatory Minimums Foundation (FAMM), met with Casey’s office last week during the organization’s lobbying day.

Political groups often employ lobbying days to let elected officials know their views on issues, which is commonly referred to as lobbying.

FAMM advocates for soft-on-crime policies such as ending mandatory minimum sentencing, increasing the minimum threshold for selling crack cocaine, and removing fentanyl from Schedule I.

The group wrote about why they oppose mandatory minimums:

Mandatory minimum sentences are not necessary to ensure sufficient punishment – and actually create unjust, excessive results that make us less safe. Eliminating mandatory minimum sentences does not mean that people will not be punished or imprisoned – it means courts won’t have to imprison people indiscriminately, without considering factors that matter. Mandatory minimum sentences require courts to send people to prison even if prison is unnecessary to keep the public safe, or keep people in prison past the point at which they pose a danger to others. Mandatory minimum sentences deny courts the ability to use more cost-effective alternatives to incarceration, like drug or mental health court programs. Mandatory minimum sentences make the public less safe by wasting expensive prison resources on the wrong people – money that can’t be spent preventing crime.

FAMM wants to make the threshold for selling crack cocaine equal to that of powder cocaine, alleging the disparity between the two is “racially discriminatory:”

Crack cocaine and powder cocaine are two forms of the same drug. Despite this, under federal law we impose the same harsh penalties for the possession of one amount of crack cocaine and an amount of powder cocaine that is 18 times larger. This makes it much easier to trigger a mandatory minimum for sale of crack cocaine than if the same offense were committed with powder cocaine. This disparity is not based in science and has a racially discriminatory impact. Congress should eliminate the disparity and apply the reform retroactively so all people get fair sentences.

FAMM also opposes H.R. 467, the HALT Fentanyl Act, a bill that would “permanently schedule fentanyl related substances on schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act (meaning it has a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical value).”

The HALT Fentanyl Act passed through the House in late May on a strong bipartisan basis.

FAMM also receives funding from George Soros.

FAMM is a nonpartisan organization that has had significant success in bringing people from across the ideological spectrum together on sentencing and prison reform,” a press release from 2016 states, “It receives funding from both the Koch Brothers and George Soros, for example.”

Casey’s office met with FAMM as crime in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has spiked.

When Casey announced his reelection campaign in April, David McCormick, a likely Senate Republican candidate, slammed Casey for doing “nothing to fight crime.”

He said:

Bob Casey votes for Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer’s failing, far-left agenda 100% of the time. Thanks to Casey’s support for open borders, 5,000 Pennsylvanians lost their lives to fentanyl in 2020 alone. Pennsylvania is the second biggest gas-producing state in the country, yet Casey’s support for leftist energy policies has cost our state thousands of jobs. And even though Philadelphia has one of the highest murder rates in the country, Casey has done nothing to fight crime and instead has supported dangerous policies. A vote for Casey is a vote for Biden and Schumer — he’s a Washington insider and not a leader we can count on to deliver a better future for our great commonwealth.

In September 2022, a video depicting juveniles ransacking a Philadelphia WaWa store became viral: