George Soros has halted funding for several unpopular liberal prosecutors that he helped elect as they face uphill battles to remain in office.
The billionaire, 93, funneled more than $5 million into his fundraising PAC, the California Justice & Public Safety PAC, from 2018 to 2020, but has not spent a penny since the start of 2023.
Namely, the U-turn has hit Los Angeles County DA George Gascon and Alameda County DA Pamela Price ahead of their re-elections, with both seen as being at risk of being booted from office.
The prosecutors are often cited by critics for their role in a perceived deterioration of California, with their soft-on-crime policies leading to soaring crime rates across the state.
Soros’ decision to turn off the money tap comes as he provided the vast majority of funding through his PAC, campaign finance records reported by the Daily Caller showed.
In his 2020 election campaign, Gascon received more than $4.5 million in funding from the PAC, as he rode a wave in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests to enter office on an extreme liberal platform.
He angered conservatives with his reluctance to prosecute a number of crimes, announcing to the public he would not seek to imprison anyone for cases including resisting arrest.
Other crimes that Californians were immune from prosecution for included disturbing the peace, driving without a license, public intoxication, making criminal threats and loitering to commit prostitution.
Gascon’s memo also discouraged even handing out fines for the offenses – with the only exceptions for repeat offenders, domestic violence cases and using physical force against officers.
In his first year in office, crime rates skyrocketed in Los Angeles, with homicide rates increasing by 11.8 percent from 2020 to 2021, as burglaries and gun offenses also soared.
Gascon made limiting the number of people in jail one of the cornerstones of his platform, as he also halted cash bail and fought to protest immigrants from ICE.
As Gascon fights for his future, he won an open primary in May with 25.2 percent of the vote, but faces a challenge to remain in office when he faces former federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman in November – without Soros’ money.
His soft-on-crime policies are cited by many critics as one of the reasons Los Angeles has seen a staggering increase in homelessness and open-air drug use as the city’s streets rapidly deteriorated.
Gascon survived two recall efforts already, with fellow Soros-reject Price also facing a recall less than two years since she took office.
Price reportedly received around $700,000 from Soros’ PAC when she first ran for Alameda County DA in 2018, a race that she lost.
In her first ten months as District Attorney, Oakland, the largest city in her county, saw its violent crime rate surge by 21 percent, as she pushed for many of the same soft policies as Gascon.
Organizers of the ongoing recall effort against Price blame her for rising crime rates, with the Alameda County Prosecutors’ Association, a union representing some of her employees, voting earlier this year to support removing her from office.
The recall effort successfully gathered enough signatures to go ahead, and Price faces being booted from office in November.
The California Justice & Public Safety PACC did not immediately respond to a request for comment as to why it has halted its funding.