During a panel discussion featuring world leaders and philanthropists in Manhattan on Thursday afternoon, Alex Soros said the $23 billion philanthropic organization he leads would not cave to pressure from President Trump.
Mr. Soros, the son of the billionaire investor and Democratic megadonor George Soros, defiantly told attendees that it had done nothing wrong and would back away from its human rights work “over my dead body,” according to two people who attended the panel who spoke on the condition of anonymity because it was an invitation-only event.
The remarks came in response to a question about a report in The New York Times revealing that a senior Justice Department official had instructed more than a half dozen U.S. attorney’s offices to draft plans to investigate the Open Society Foundations, which was started by Mr. Soros’s father.
The nascent investigation comes as Mr. Trump is increasingly seeking to deploy federal law enforcement against his perceived enemies, including the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey, who was indicted on Thursday over the objection of career prosecutors. The targeting of Open Society, a pillar of the philanthropy and progressive worlds, is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to cripple the financial and organizational infrastructure supporting Democrat-aligned causes and candidates.
The effort has intensified since the assassination of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Mr. Trump and his administration have asserted without evidence that liberal groups are stoking a violent conspiracy against conservative values and the American way of life. He signed a presidential memorandum on Thursday ordering his administration to investigate what he claimed were rich people and organizations funding left-wing political violence around the country.
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The post Trump’s Targeting of Soros Foundations Elicits Fear and Defiance on Left appeared first on New York Times.
