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Politifact: No, George Soros and his foundations do not pay people to protest
Politifact ^ | 06/01/2020 | By Emily Venezky

Posted on 06/08/2020 5:46:30 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

If Your Time is short

Billionaire philanthropist George Soros has been accused for years of directly funding and even orchestrating protests.

This includes false claims that Soros financially supported the first national Women’s March and organized the Charlottesville, Va., protests and counter-protests in 2017.

In a series of tweets, Candace Owens, a conservative commentator, claimed that George Soros and his Open Society Foundations had hired the protesters that started fires and raided stores during protests in Minneapolis over the death of George Floyd.

The Minneapolis chief of police just confirmed that many of the protesters that are burning down the city are NOT FROM MINNEAPOLIS.

My guess: As he did with Antifa, Democrat George Soros has these thugs on payroll.

He is funding the chaos via his Open Society Foundation. pic.twitter.com/ZWDQfLUjfa— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) May 28, 2020

She at first tweeted that it was her "guess" that "Democrat George Soros has these thugs on payroll. He is funding the chaos via his Open Society Foundation." She went on to tweet that the foundation had to "throw money at black Americans to riot" and that Soros and the foundation "got what you wanted in Minnesota." We reached out to Owens for additional comment and did not hear back.

Open Society Foundations is a liberal grant-making network that is "the world’s largest private funder of independent groups working for justice, democratic governance, and human rights." Their network funds programs in more than 120 countries, including work in the United States that "focuses on immigration and criminal justice reform, improving democratic participation, and supporting free and independent media."

The Open Society Foundations’ official Twitter account responded to her tweet that they "oppose all violence and do not pay people to protest" and that these were "baseless allegations."

Hi Candace, Mr. Soros and the Open Society Foundations oppose all violence and do not pay people to protest.

We lament the effort, through baseless allegations, to distract from the crisis of police brutality in Minneapolis and in too many other parts of the country.

Featured Fact-check

Facebook posts
stated on June 1, 2020 in a Facebook post
true false
By Madison Czopek • June 2, 2020
— Open Society Foundations (@OpenSociety) May 28, 2020

An Open Society Foundations representative told PolitiFact that the foundation "supports the First Amendment right of all Americans to make their voices heard and petition their government for redress of grievances." However, when it comes to rioting, "George Soros and the foundations oppose violence in any and all forms," they said.

The foundation does give grants every one or two years to U.S. organizations that work to "advance racial justice and to make police forces more accountable to the communities they serve." They then listed a few, including the Community Resource Hub for Safety and Accountability, a website that keeps a database of resources and grassroot organizations related to policing in the United States.

PolitiFact could find no evidence that Soros or the Open Society Foundations had contributed to any organization that financed street protests in Minneapolis.

Owens also claimed that the Open Society Foundations gave $33 million to the Black Lives Matter movement.

The claim that George Soros funded the Ferguson protests and Black Lives Matter was checked by Snopes in 2015, and it received a mixed rating. Snopes said that Open Society Foundations has donated $33 million to organizations that have worked with Black Lives Matter or worked to raise awareness during the Ferguson-related protests. However, they had never given money to groups for the express purpose of organizing protests with the movement.

The representative from Open Society Foundations said that their grants are made to organizations to help them "support communities and advance policy change."

We didn’t find any evidence that the foundation has given money directly to the Black Lives Matter movement. The most recent connection they have with the organization is their 2018 grant of $279,860 to Release Leads, a UK organization that mostly focuses on international drug use education and policy reform, but also organizes public speaking events that feature the Black Lives Matter movement in the UK.

Our ruling

Owens’ tweet that Soros was "funding the chaos" in Minneapolis through Open Society Foundations is unproven. She continued to claim that the foundation had paid protesters after Open Society Foundations denied it on Twitter.

There is no evidence that Soros or the foundation had given any grants to organizations that funded and organized "the chaos" in Minneapolis. We rate this claim False.


TOPICS: Conspiracy; Society
KEYWORDS: antifa; blm; georgesoros; protests
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1 posted on 06/08/2020 5:46:31 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind
See also here from NBC News:

The right is trying to link George Soros and George Floyd protests. Don't let it.


2 posted on 06/08/2020 5:47:52 AM PDT by SeekAndFind (look at Michigan, it will)
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To: SeekAndFind

He’s not stupid enough to leave his fingerprints all over it


3 posted on 06/08/2020 5:49:28 AM PDT by Mr. K (No consequence of repealing obamacare is worse than obamacare itself.)
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To: SeekAndFind
Open Society Foundations denied it

Oh. Well. There you go. Totally debunked. Move along.

4 posted on 06/08/2020 5:49:53 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (If White Privilege is real, why did Elizabeth Warren lie about being an Indian?)
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To: Mr. K

didnt they catch one of the dudes from Veritas video handing out money to protestors


5 posted on 06/08/2020 5:50:17 AM PDT by RummyChick (Don't be offended because I don't care anymore. Realize I once did but your hatred blinded you.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Why does Emily repeatedly conflate “protesting” with “rioting”, and First Amendment rights with violence?

Why does she accept the word of “An Open Society Foundations representative” as unquestionable fact, but not the word of Candace Owen?


6 posted on 06/08/2020 5:50:37 AM PDT by rightwingcrazy (;-,)
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To: SeekAndFind

One way to find out if Soros is involved is to eliminate him. By any means necessary.


7 posted on 06/08/2020 5:51:10 AM PDT by unixfox (Abolish Slavery, Repeal the 16th Amendment)
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To: SeekAndFind

Just ignore it when the DA of St. Louis, elected largely because of massive Soros support, releases everyone arrested during the riots. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/06/soros-backed-st-louis-circuit-attorney-releases-rioters-looters-jail-without-charges-following-mondays-mass-rioting/


8 posted on 06/08/2020 5:52:59 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: rightwingcrazy

Probably because Soros owns her boss. But you’ll never be able to prove it.


9 posted on 06/08/2020 5:54:23 AM PDT by Vigilanteman (The politicized state destroys aspects of civil society, human kindness and private charity.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Same people who say there is no proof of voter fraud.


10 posted on 06/08/2020 5:54:26 AM PDT by Lizavetta
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To: SeekAndFind

No, George Soros and his foundations do not pay Politifact to print lies.


11 posted on 06/08/2020 5:55:15 AM PDT by MarvinStinson
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To: SeekAndFind

They say “protest” in the headline, and only talk about violence later.

Soros did give $33,000,000 to Black Lives Matter. He says he did not fund protest, but protest is what Black Lives Matter does.

Soros did spend a lot of money getting DAs elected in these cities, and the DAs he got elected are letting protesters out of jail immediately and putting them back on the street.


12 posted on 06/08/2020 5:55:50 AM PDT by Haiku Guy (It's Winnie-the-Flu / Put the blame where it belongs / On Winnie-the-Poo)
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To: SeekAndFind

No they pay people to pay people....


13 posted on 06/08/2020 5:56:09 AM PDT by BigEdLB (BigEdLB, Russian BOT, At your service)
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To: SeekAndFind
Utterly stupid.

You cannot prove a negative, yet she attempts to do so.

14 posted on 06/08/2020 5:57:22 AM PDT by marktwain (President Trump and his supporters are the Resistance. His opponents are the Reactionaries.)
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To: SeekAndFind

and yet, if at least one member of the Soros family
was taken to Gitmo for every city torched,
its funding would end ... IMMEDIATELY.


15 posted on 06/08/2020 5:58:11 AM PDT by Diogenesis ( WWG1WGA)
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To: SeekAndFind

Who to believe? Who to believe?

Soros SAYS he isn’t funding the riots. Candace Owens SAYS he is through the Open Society. I believe Owens. But none of the ‘factchecking’ (Left) Organizations will go with Candace. She is a black who thinks for herself so must be ignored. The ‘factchecking’ orgs don’t like minorities who think for themselves.


16 posted on 06/08/2020 5:58:29 AM PDT by originalbuckeye ('In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act'- George Orwell..?)
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To: Haiku Guy

Makes sense now why DA’s were releasing criminals during the corona lockdowns. Prepping for the riots.


17 posted on 06/08/2020 5:59:22 AM PDT by Texas resident (Remember in November)
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To: SeekAndFind

“PolitiFact could find no evidence that Soros or the Open Society Foundations had contributed to any organization that financed street protests in Minneapolis.”

How hard did they look? It sounds like all they did is check the website, and ask someone if they were financing the rioting. Do you think Soros would actually admit to doing this?

You can smell the Soros stink all over the riots.


18 posted on 06/08/2020 5:59:36 AM PDT by euram
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To: originalbuckeye

Soros SAYS he isn’t funding the riots.


lying is an art. He isn’t funding the riots officially. He can truthfully say that.


19 posted on 06/08/2020 6:00:57 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Politifact is a soroznazi disinformation site ——. “ 8. Politifact is run by liberal media outlets in Florida and is a project of the Poynter Institute (funded by liberal billionaire George Soros). Poynter last year was exposed for trying to take down almost 30 conservative web sites:
Poynter, the journalism institute responsible for training writers and reporters, decided to promote a left-wing smear of conservative groups online. The result was a hit job written by someone who works for the anti-conservative Southern Poverty Law Center for a journalism organization funded by prominent liberal billionaires such as George Soros and Pierre Omidyar.
Poynter is funded by Open Society Foundations, liberal billionaire George Soros’ massive foundations, as well as the Omidyar Network. The two combined for “$1.3 million in grant funding.” Funds were sent to Poynter specifically to establish the International Fact-Checking Network. The ‘UnNews’ list was started to help fact-checking organizations determine what was ..”.( Lifenews )


20 posted on 06/08/2020 6:01:51 AM PDT by faithhopecharity (Politicians are not born, theyÂ’re excreted. Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 to 43 BCE))
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