A nongovernmental organization that defends illegal migrants and is backed by progressive billionaire George Soros received grants from the Biden administration’s Department of Justice, according to a report issued by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.
The report found that the Vera Institute collected nearly $7 million in DOJ contract money in 2022 and 2023 to go along with tens of millions of dollars from left-leaning foundations, including Soros’ Open Society Foundations.
The money was used to support left-wing district attorneys who allegedly prioritized violent criminals over victims and declined to fully prosecute felony charges that included assault, kidnapping, rape, and murder, according to the committee’s majority staff report.
Grassley said Vera partnered with progressive local prosecutors in New York, Virginia, Georgia, Wisconsin, Missouri, and Massachusetts.
“Many of them gave Vera space in their office and nearly unfettered access to their case files. They allowed Vera to redesign their prosecutor offices around Soros’ progressive vision,” the senator said, The Washington Times reported.
“Guided by Vera, these prosecutors failed their communities. The sad stories of their failures played out in the courtroom, where rape victims and families who lost loved ones to violence never saw an ounce of justice.”
Another NGO, Impact Justice — which houses the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) Resource Center — was awarded $7.45 million. But instead of helping to combat sexual abuse in prisons and ensure the integrity of the PREA audit process, the money was used to encourage the housing of transgender inmates in female prisons, the report said.
The Trump administration has since terminated the grants to the Vera Institute and Impact Justice to ensure DOJ awards align with the administration’s priorities.
“The Biden-Harris administration awarded millions of taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars to advance left-leaning agendas that ultimately put lives at risk,” Grassley said in a statement Thursday. “The American people overwhelmingly rejected these soft-on-crime, defund-the-police policies in the last election because they undermined the safety and security of their communities.
“Organizations like the Vera Institute and Impact Justice that promote radical ideology have no business collecting another dime from the federal treasury. Americans are safer without their influence in the criminal justice system.”
In April, the Trump administration’s DOJ moved to cut more than 360 grants it said didn’t meet stated goals. Organizations affected by the cuts were given 30 days to prove the money was not going toward liberal causes.
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