Report: Soros foundation gave $80M to groups tied to ‘extremist violence’

By Sarah Roderick-Fitch
The Center Square

Amid President Donald Trump officially designating Antifa a domestic terror organization, a new report details how a prominent billionaire may be funneling millions to extremist groups engaging in violent uprisings nationwide.

A new report from Capital Research Center details how billionaire George Soros’s Open Society Foundations has given more than $80 million to groups “tied to terrorism or extremist violence.”

The foundation has awarded more than $23 million to seven groups “that directly assist domestic terrorism and criminality” in the U.S., including engaging or providing material support to “violence, property destruction, economic sabotage, harassment” among others that meet the domestic terrorism definition, according to the report.

The report, authored by Ryan Mauro, details a nexus between domestic terror activities and support for international terrorism, specifically Hamas, in addition to communist sympathizers.

“Open Society has sent millions of dollars into U.S.-based organizations that engage in ‘direct actions’ that the FBI defines as domestic terrorism,” according to the report. “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, 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.”

The report highlights the Sunrise Movement, which it says has received at least $2 million from Open Society, adding that it has “endorsed and solicited financial support” for Antifa-associated groups such as Stop Cop City/Defend the Atlanta Forest coalition. The coalition has been tied to arson and violence against law enforcement and utility workers, including an attack on the construction of a police training center by throwing Molotov cocktails, bricks and rocks, as well as setting construction equipment on fire.

As part of its outreach, the Sunrise movement has urged supporters to donate to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, which supports protestors in various capacities, including legal defense and physical supplies, according to the report.

“The Fund admits it posts bail and provides legal defenses for the arrested protestors. Prosecutors allege it also provides funds for ammunition, surveillance equipment, handheld radios, a drone, and an array of camping supplies for Stop Cop City terrorist activities,” according to the report.

Among the other groups Open Society supports, according to the report, is $400,000 since 2020 to the Center for Third World Organizing/Ruckus Society/BlackOUT Collective. The report claims the group “boasts it ‘threw down with people in the streets’” during the George Floyd riots in the summer of 2020.

“The Center says it ‘trained thousands, supported over 100 organizations’ in 2020-2021 and took part in ‘uprisings’ by teaching ‘new tactics for actions during lockdown.’ The Center offers training for ‘direct actions,’ a term that is used to refer to confrontational and usually violent and destructive protests,” according to the report. “The Center has unified three extremist groups into its ‘hub,’ including at least two that promote criminality: The anarchism-associated Ruckus Society, a militant ‘direct action’ group that boasts of its assistance to rioters, like those in Minnesota in 2020.”

The report indicates that one of the founders of Ruckus Society also founded an anarcho-environmentalist terror group, citing InfluenceWatch, which says the society’s “own training materials state that the group provides instruction in ‘tactics to resist the unjust system. Some of these may be legal strategies while others may be outside of the law, such as the use of civil disobedience.’”

The report goes on to claim that The BlackOUT Collective has “produced a pro-Hamas guide that glorifies the October 7 terror attacks in Israel.”

“The guide also provides Ruckus Society materials that advocate for and provide instructions for executing illegal ‘direct actions,’ including property destruction, evading law enforcement, using false IDs, occupying buildings and land, seizing assets, revealing the identities of government agents, blockades, interfering with governmental or industrial operations, and economic shutdowns. All of these actions qualify as acts of domestic terrorism,” according to the report.

The report argues that Open Society’s tax exemptions could be at risk because it funds “groups that brazenly acknowledge their prohibited behavior,” which could lead to investigation.

During an announcement in the Oval Office on Aug. 15, The Center Square asked the president if he was considering designating Antifa a domestic terror organization. The president fully supported the idea, leading to the designation one week later.

Trump told The Center Square that he would consider designating other groups, but wouldn’t indicate others by name. He said he’s talked with Attorney General Pam Bondi about bringing federal RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) charges against some of these organizations and their donors.

“There are other groups, yeah, there are other groups. We have some pretty radical groups, and they got away with murder. And also, I’ve been speaking to the Attorney General about bringing RICO against some of the people that you’ve been reading about that have been putting up millions and millions of dollars for agitation,” Trump said. “These aren’t protests. These are crimes. What they’re doing, where they’re throwing bricks at cars of the of ICE and border patrol.”

The report comes amid a rise in left-wing violence, including multiple attacks on ICE officials as well as facilities, specifically Wednesday’s shooting at a Dallas ICE facility, leading to the death of one detainee and injuring two others.