Another day, another revelation of exactly how the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has unethically spent tens of millions of dollars. Over $27 million in “foreign aid” was allocated to groups right here in the United States to “support legal defense efforts for leftist protesters” reports the Daily Caller News Foundation.
A DCNF investigation found federal spending records show USAID awarded funds to the left-wing Tides Foundation and Tides Center across several presidencies. Along with the State Department, USAID “allocated the funds as early as 2014 to groups under the Tides label that help drive anti-police, anti-Israel activism”.
The purposes of the awards allegedly include “humanitarian activities,” supporting “civil society organizations” and other projects both foreign and domestic, according to official descriptions. However, the government has paid the Tides groups 72% of the grants so far.
Just what does the Tides Center promote? DCNF reports:
Among other philanthropic programs, the Tides Center and Tides Foundation fund left-leaning groups that provide attorney representation or other legal support for people accused of unlawful conduct at protests. In some cases, the sponsored groups have helped activists under federal investigation – meaning the U.S. government funded a movement trying to undermine its own law enforcement…
The Tides Center is a fiscal sponsor for Palestine Legal, an organization giving legal defense and advice to anti-Israel activists facing “repression” from universities or law enforcement. A senior attorney at Palestine Legal told a leftist magazine in January that the group “has represented or advised hundreds of students since” the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7, 2023.
Tides-funded organizations also include the National Lawyers Guild and Center for Constitutional Rights, which directly assist anti-police protesters tied to the Black Lives Matter and Antifa movements. DCNF writes:
The National Lawyers Guild gives legal representation to activists and sends “legal observers” to watch for alleged police misconduct against protesters. Some legal observers have gotten arrested along with them.
The group boasted in 2021 that it “provided training and education to thousands of organizers and attorneys,” helped fight “federal prosecution and grand jury investigations” and “organized legal representation” for around 20,000 arrestees throughout 2020. In July 2023, New York City agreed to pay $13 million to rioters who clashed with law enforcement to settle a National Lawyers Guild lawsuit.
The Center for Constitutional Rights similarly came to the defense of Antifa-linked rioters who allegedly lit fires and attacked law enforcement in Atlanta, Georgia in 2023 to protest the construction of a police facility dubbed “Cop City.”
As recently as August of 2023, the center wrote, “We are working closely with local and national partners to challenge law enforcement’s labeling of activists protesting Cop City as terrorists and ‘domestic violent extremists,’ and to provide resources and support to communities on the ground who are fighting to ensure that Cop City will never be built.” The group has also lobbied authorities not to prosecute the Antifa agitators on domestic terrorism charges.
OMG, so that’s where a lot of my tax money goes! First I paid taxes during the 55 years that I worked and now taxes were ny retirement. Sure am glad I have helped all these low life’s…..NOT.
Keep going DOGE!
…and now taxes on my retirement….