Claim: DA Kimberly Gardner backed by Soros

Question

Could not find any info on George Soros backing for this District Attorney.

And what is "backing"? Financial? Publicity?

Answer 1

The claim that St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner is backed by George Soros is true. Soros currently supports and has previously supported Gardner financially by funding her election campaign in 2016 as well as her re-election campaign in 2020. 

According to “Meet Kimberly Gardner, the Rogue Prosecutor Whose Policies Are Wreaking Havoc in St. Louis” by Zack Smith and Charles Stimson for The Heritage Foundation, “Like many other rogue prosecutors around the country, she was swept into office by winning her 2016 election with a wave of money from George Soros and tech billionaire-funded entities, who again contributed heavily to help her win reelection in 2020.” 

It was difficult to find the exact value of Soros’ financial support but in an article titled, “Follow the money: Soros pumps $116K into St. Louis prosecutor's campaign and other donations of note,” by Christine Byers for KSDK News, “New York-based billionaire George Soros pumped $116,000 into the Missouri Justice & Public Safety Political Action Committee, which is supporting Gardner.” While the financial support doesn’t seem to be going directly to Gardner herself, records indicate Soros is financially supporting organizations directly linked to Gardner. It was incredibly difficult to find exactly how much Soros has given to Gardner’s campaign but according to the KSDK article, Soros is no stranger to financial backing with previous donations going to Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx for $2 million and almost $4 million to political action committees in support of prosecutors in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Missouri, New Mexico, Texas, and Wisconsin.

https://www.heritage.org/crime-and-justice/commentary/meet-kimberly-gardner-the-rogue-prosecutor-whose-policies-are-wreaking 

https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/crime/byers-beat/campaign-donations-st-louis-local-2020-races/63-bdeaccfe-0cde-43a5-9e5f-72979725cb88

Comments

From the sources you sight, it seems like Soros supports various organizations who support various candidates, not just Gardner in particular.

Also, in your sources I could not find their citations of primary sources, except for "campaign finance reports."

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Hi! Good observation, I did mention later in my response that the KSDK article written by Christine Byers does reference George Soros is no stranger to financial backing with previous donations going to Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx for $2 million and almost $4 million to political action committees in support of prosecutors in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Missouri, New Mexico, Texas, and Wisconsin. I apologize if that caused any confusion, Soros does not only support Gardner but Gardner has been on the receiving side of his financial support.

The Capital Research Center published a piece by Parker Thayer titled, “Living Room Pundit’s Guide to Soros District Attorneys” in January of 2022. This article displays the names as well as the values received by more than fifteen different people who have been on the receiving end of Soros’ donations. This article does also list several different sources and references.
https://capitalresearch.org/article/living-room-pundits-guide-to-soros-district-attorneys/

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Thanks much, I appreciate the research you did. I did find some primary sources on that page, so no reason to doubt the accuracy. But to single out one person, when he gives to multiple orgs that disperse the money still seems a little misleading to me.

Thanks again for the fact-check!