Left-wing dark-money megadonors, including George Soros, fund group organizing protests against Trump's DC crime crackdown
Free DC, a 'fiscally sponsored special project' of progressive nonprofits Community Change and Community Change Action, brought 150 demonstrators near the White House Monday to protest Trump's plan to deploy National Guard troops in the district and federalize the city's police department.
'Do not obey in advance' and 'Take up space' are among Free DC's 'guiding principles,' and the group urges supporters to 'go outside at 8:00 PM and bang pots and pans, sing, chant, or make noise for five minutes' every night 'of this occupation.'
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Free DC has scheduled multiple events since Monday's anti-Trump protest, including a 'Cop Watch Training,' suggesting further protests are planned amid Trump's effort to make DC the 'safest, cleanest and most beautiful cities anywhere in the world' – by ramping up law enforcement efforts and removing homeless encampments from public places.
3 Free DC has called for protests every night 'of this occupation.'
REUTERS
Community Change and Community Change Action, the groups bankrolling Free DC's activism campaign, have been the beneficiaries of millions of dollars in donations from hedge-fund tycoon George Soros' Open Society Foundations and Tides Foundation, and the dark-money Arabella Advisors network, according to an analysis shared with The Post.
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'It is ironic that a protest to ostensibly 'Free DC' was hosted by Community Change, a group funded by massive amounts of outside dark money to push a pro-crime agenda,' Caitlin Sutherland, the executive director of nonprofit watchdog Americans for Public Trust, said in a statement.
'DC is facing shootings, carjackings, and assaults, and yet progressive groups like The Pritzker Foundation, George Soros, and the Arabella Network all spend millions of dollars to manufacture protests that weaken our communities,' Sutherland added.
In 2023 alone, Community Change and Community Change Action received $4 million from Soros' Open Society Foundations, $680,000 from the Arabella network, and $145,000 from the Tides Foundation, Americans for Public Trust found in publicly available financial disclosures.
Arabella Advisors, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm, manages several funds that finance left-wing groups, including the Sixteen Thirty Fund, Windward Fund, New Venture Fund, which have all given money to Community Change and Community Change Action since 2020.
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Similarly, Soros' Open Society Foundations and Tides Foundation and Tides Advocacy (part of the billionaires' Tides Network) are far-left grantmaking organizations.
3 Free DC is project of two Soros-backed progressive groups.
AFP/Getty Images
3 Free DC organized a protest against Trump's order in district on Monday.
AP
Between 2020-2023, Community Change and Community Change Action received $12.6 million from Open Society Foundation, $5.6 million from the Arabella network, and $1.9 million from the Tides network – under numerous grants labeled for such purposes as 'civil rights, social action, advocacy' and 'social welfare activities.'
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Additionally, Community Change received $1 million across 2021 and 2022 from Future Forward USA Action, a Democratic Party-aligned super PAC affiliated with Future Forward PAC – one of the major political groups that backed former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.
It's unclear how much of this money has been directly used by Free DC, which says on its website it began organizing in 2023, in response to a congressional effort to block a controversial update to DC's criminal code.
Free DC and Community Change did not respond to The Post's requests for comment.
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