Vengeance? Justice? Performance art? Could be all three. And all three may have some justification.
It's no secret that the Right has demanded more accounting for George Soros' politicking in the US for years. The Left used to hyperventilate about the Koch Brothers, with much less justification, as the Koch Brothers tended toward small-L libertarianism more than conservatism. Both entities, along with others, provided plenty of fodder for both sides of the political spectrum to vent their spleen about the shadowy use of money in politics.
George Soros has served as the Right's bete noire for at least a couple of decades. Now, the New York Times reports, the Department of Justice has decided to get to the bottom of Soros' funding and the way in which he allegedly funds potentially violent activists. The development comes as political violence has hit a new crest in the US:
A senior Justice Department official has instructed more than a half dozen U.S. attorneys’ offices to draft plans to investigate a group funded by George Soros, the billionaire Democratic donor who President Trump has demanded be thrown in jail.
The official’s directive, a copy of which was viewed by The New York Times, goes as far as to list possible charges prosecutors could file, ranging from arson to material support of terrorism. The memo suggests department leaders are following orders from the president that specific people or groups be subject to criminal investigation — a major break from decades of past practice meant to insulate the Justice Department from political interference. ...
In recent days, Mr. Trump has revisited his grievances against Mr. Soros, long a boogeyman for the right, in part because he has backed progressive causes. After the killing of the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk in Utah this month, the president threatened to use the levers of government to silence liberal protesters and donors to progressive groups, including Mr. Soros.
Call it a return serve. The Biden DoJ went after Trump more directly in an attempt to prevent him from running in the 2024 presidential election, but they also went after his political allies. And in the Obama years, the IRS tried to suppress conservative funding for activism by refusing to grant the normal tax-exempt status for such groups, a campaign to which they later admitted and reversed after many months of interference.
But is it more than just a case of petty revenge? Last week, the Capital Research Center released a report on Soros and his Open Society Foundation that alleged that the group was funding political violence. According to Ryan Mauro, as much as $80 million has gone to "groups tied to terrorism of extremist violence" (via Conservative Brief):
Since 2016, George Soros’s Open Society Foundations (OSF), now run with his son Alexander, has poured over $80 million into groups tied to terrorism or extremist violence. The evidence is stark: Open Society has sent millions of dollars into U.S.-based organizations that engage in “direct actions” that the FBI defines as domestic terrorism. These groups include the Center for Third World Organizing and its militant partner Ruckus Society, which trained activists in property destruction and sabotage during the 2020 riots, and the Sunrise Movement, which endorsed the Antifa-linked Stop Cop City campaign, in which activists currently face over 40 domestic terrorism charges and 60 racketeering indictments. At the same time, Open Society awarded $18 million to the Movement for Black Lives, a group that co-authored a radical guide that glorifies Hamas’s October 7 massacre and instructs activists in the use of false IDs, blockades, and economic disruption.
Nor is the danger confined to America’s streets. Open Society has funneled more than $2.3 million into Al-Haq, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) based in the West Bank and long accused of ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which the European Union and the United States designate as a foreign terrorist organization. Grants to Al-Haq between 2016 and 2023 ranged from $400,000 in general support to an $800,000 institutional award. In September 2025, the U.S. State Department sanctioned Al-Haq, citing its role in advancing campaigns that “directly engaged in the [International Criminal Court’s] illegitimate targeting of Israel.” That means Soros’s foundation has not only financed extremist groups within the United States but also funneled millions abroad to entities now formally sanctioned by Washington.
This investigation documents how Open Society’s philanthropy blurs into complicity—fueling groups that celebrate violent uprisings, train militants, and endorse terrorist movements.
Mauro identifies $23 million in Soros funding that went to groups that participate directly or indirectly in domestic political violence, according to the FBI's definition of the term. Those include:
- Center for Third World Organizing / Ruckus Society / BlackOUT Collective
- Grassroots Global Justice Alliance
- The Sunrise Movement
- Movement for Black Lives & Dream Defenders
- Dissenters
- U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights
The recent declaration by Trump of Antifa as a terrorist organization may have given the DoJ even more interest in this report. Mauro links Sunrise to Antifa activities in Atlanta, specifically Stop Cop City and Defend the Atlanta Forest. Mauro reminds us of the "street action" of those groups, which has already produced terrorism indictments for dozens of extremists:
The coalition has engaged in arson, property damage and violence against law enforcement personnel and utility workers to try to stop construction of this local police training center. Attacks include setting a police vehicle ablaze; throwing Molotov cocktails, bricks and rocks at police; setting construction equipment on fire; blocking roads with obstacles like tires; harming police officers’ eyes with lasers; and attacking the Atlanta Police Foundation’s building with fireworks.
Over 40 of the anarchists were being prosecuted on domestic terrorism charges as of February 2024, and over 60 were indicted in August 2023 on racketeering charges.
Mauro also links the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance to Antifa in multiple ways, as well as anti-Semitic terrorism targeting Israelis as a liberation campaign for Palestine. And that's just a small taste of the connections that Mauro published between Soros' funds and violent extremism, both inside and outside the US.
The sudden interest in Open Society Foundation activities and the Mauro report cannot be a coincidence. On the other hand, it's hardly an unknown, either. Soros has funded these activities without much subterfuge, and without much accountability, either politically or legally. Why? Maybe it never crossed the line into outright illegal financing, or maybe it's just that previous DoJs and Attorneys General never wanted to look too closely at Soros.
With violence ramping up now, however, the gloves are coming off. Mauro's research certainly appears to clear the bar of reasonable suspicion of ties to violent groups, which would justify an investigation. If that's all there is, federal prosecutors won't be able to get an indictment anyway. But this certainly looks like enough to warrant a much closer inspection of Open Society Foundation and its potential nexus to political violence inside and outside the US. With every new act of violence coming from the Left, it's clear that we have to uncover and uproot any network financing radical extremists that use violence to intimidate their political opponents -- and worse.
