As Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg moves to bring an expected indictment against Donald Trump, Republicans lawmakers leaping to the former president’s defense have fixated on what they call Bragg’s ties to billionaire George Soros.
Rep. Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican and the party’s fourth-ranking leader in the House, tweeted Monday that Bragg “took one million dollars from George Soros.” Sen. J.D. Vance, an Ohio Republican whose 2022 campaign received millions of dollars in support from GOP megadonor and investor Peter Thiel, said in a tweet that “Alvin Bragg is bought by George Soros.”
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, is talking to allies about using his panel to scrutinize Bragg’s links to Soros as Trump targets Bragg ahead of a likely indictment, according to a GOP strategist close to Jordan. It fits into a larger GOP strategy to discredit the Manhattan probe: Jordan co-signed a letter calling on Bragg to testify before Congress, and questioned whether the Manhattan DA’s investigation into Trump used federal funds.
As Bragg prepares the expected first-ever indictment of a former president, Trump’s allies have launched a barrage of attacks against the Democratic district attorney. They have found a familiar target in Soros, whose hundreds of millions of dollars in donations to back Democratic political campaigns and scathing criticism of Trump have made him a boogeyman in Republican circles for well over a decade.
But the reality of Bragg’s links to Soros does not entirely match the picture painted by Republican lawmakers who aim to use ties between the men to discredit the probe, according to records and people familiar with both men.
Representatives for Bragg and Jordan did not return requests for comment.
Soros’ connection to Bragg — and possible influence on his investigation into Trump — are not as clear as Republicans leaders would make them sound. There’s no proof Bragg is “bought by Soros,” as Vance puts it.
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