Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hudson Valley This Morning with Ed Kowalski is the new
voice in the Hudson Valley.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Hi, this is Ed.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
I am so grateful for the support you've already given us.
We are creating a platform that gives you our listeners
a voice. Together, we can build the best local community
talk program in the Hudson Valley.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
We'd love it if you tuned into Hudson Valley This
Morning with Ed Kowalski from six to nine am Monday
through Friday on fourteen fifteen thirteen seventy AM or ninety
eight five FM WKIP.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Seven O seven on Wednesday morning, I am pleased to
welcome to the WKIP microphones the president of the Law
Enforcement Legal Defense Fund based out of Alexandria, Virginia, Jason Johnson. Jason,
thank you very much for a calling insert Good morning, Ed.
(00:53):
How you feeling. I understand you have a little bit
of a cold there as I did, so I'm glad
to see that you're up and about.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
If you will, thank you, I'm pretty close to one
hundred percent now, thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Hey, listen, I was very fascinated by being able to
research your organization, specifically after the George Soros Medal of
Freedom Award, and I was very very heartened to see
that your organization, the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, back
in June of twenty two, put together a white paper
(01:24):
that I thought was fascinating entitled Justice for Sale. And
I want to get into that. But before we do, Jason,
can you tell our listeners what the Law Enforcement Legal
Defense Fund is all about and what your organization is
committed to being able to do.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Sure? Absolutely, thank you. So. Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund
has been around for about thirty years, just over thirty
years actually, and our primary mission was then and is
now to support the legal defense of law enforcement officers
who have been wrongfully charged with crimes related to their work.
And so used to be a relatively small problem that
(02:02):
we might have, you know, a few cases a year
around the country that would come up where we have
cops that were being targeted for political reasons. It's no
longer a small problem. It's a pretty big problem, which
has caused our organization to fund many, many cases. In fact,
last year twenty twenty four, we raised and spent just
on direct legal defense costs over a million dollars around
(02:25):
the country, defending, defending, cops that you know, like, we don't.
We're not going cir cases where we think the cop
did something wrong. We don't. We look for cases where
the major motivating factor is you know, political, and there's
been you know, sort of a war on cops since
twenty twenty and maybe just maybe before twenty twenty. And
(02:45):
that's that's really what our main reason for existing is
secondary to that, and as you kind of hinted at
with our white paper on source Prosecutors, is we have
a growing role in really just trying to research and
write about and expose those problems impediments in the criminal
justice system that impact the ability to promote good, sound
(03:07):
public safety policies to protect the public.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
It's incredible because you know, there was a story last
week specific to New York City in so far that
they were having a hard time. New York City is
having a hard time filling its next Academy class, and
there's a lot of people who are just in effect
taking a look at the profession and they want to join,
you know, as you did at one point in time
(03:30):
you're a former law enforcement individual. But they don't want
to do it, and they don't want to do it
for a lot of the reasons that you've just mentioned.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
How big.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
I mean, this is a huge problem.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
It's an enormous problem. It's that we did another white
paper about that, about the real challenge in recruiting young people,
the best among us, which is really what we want
in law enforcement to join the profession. They're turned off
by it. They're turned off by the treatment of law
enforcement offers have received lately. And uh and also the
(04:03):
portrayal by the media of law enforcement as sort of
being the bad guys. Uh. No one signs up to
be a bad guy. We don't. You know, that's not
an attracted thing. And so, uh yeah, absolutely, it's a
huge prices. It's been well documented cities across America having huge,
huge problems recruiting law enforcement officers. And I'll just say that,
(04:24):
you know, they're going to hire somebody that this is
the problem. They will hire somebody to fill their academy
classes at some point. The question is how much or
will they have to reduce standards in order to be
able to do that. And that's the real concern. I
think that should be the main concern by the public
is we want to elevate standards, we want our tops
to be great. We want them to be well trained, uh,
(04:45):
you know, public servants and do a great job as
typically they always did. The concern here and it's a
reality that standards have to be reduced in order to
still patrol cars and academy classes. And that's I think
that's the real, the real challenge to the public.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Now on your website, the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund,
which by the way, I think is a very well
well designed and certainly very informative website. You know, you've
actually listed a number of the cases that your organization
has helped defend. I mean, you've got cops in Henrico County, Virginia,
You've got a cop in Newark, New Jersey, Atlanta, Georgia,
(05:22):
goes on and on, Kansas City. It's incredible in terms
of just being able to provide the support. Can you
can you share some of these stories in terms of
some of the cases that you've actually helped defend.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Sure. Absolutely, we are very proud of We very recently
finally achieved some measure of justice for a detective named
Erica vaul can aar and Kansas City, Missouri. He was
just he was actually it's a long and complicated story,
but I'll try to try to describe it as briefly
as I can. Even involved in an armed confrontation with
(05:57):
a convicted feller who was driving stolen truck carrying a
stolen gun. He wound up having to use dead lead
force on this person to protect his partner, his gun
was being pointed at his partner. The prosecutor, who was
a Soros prosecutor in Kansas City, charged him. He elected
(06:17):
a bench trial, so he didn't have a jury. Typically judges, historically,
the reason why an officer might pick a judge over
a jury is the judges, you know, are supposed to
not be influenced by politics and public opinion and things,
and that's the reason why the officer selected a bench trial. Unfortunately,
it didn't quite work out that way and he was
convicted sentence to six years. Very worked really really hard
(06:41):
to lobby the outgoing governor of Missouri, Mike Parson, who
did commute his sentence just before Christmas, which we're really
exciting about. He's a great guy, outstanding police officer. Another case,
just very briefly is the case of a Washington, DC
Metro police officer who was involved in it's hard to
even call it a pursuit. It was a gentleman on
(07:02):
a U and he actually call him a gentleman. He's
a gang member, very very thoroughly documented gang member who
was operating a moapad. The officer went to stop him.
The gang member on the mop head got onto the
sidewalk on the street, ran through stop signs. Uh just
basically refused to stop, went several blocks, and then ultimately
was struck by an uninvolved civilian vehicle. Was not their
(07:26):
fall at all. He ran through a stop sign and
was struck by a car and killed. A Biden appointed
United States Attorney in DC charged that officer with murder
and he was convicted of murder and so we're working
very very hard to get his conviction reverse. His name
is Terrence Sutton. He teached on our website and he
(07:48):
just a very very egregious case of prostitutorial overstone.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Jason, I'm going to ask if you can to hold
through a quick break and we're going to pick this
back up. I want to be able to talk a
little bit more more about the work of your organization.
I want to be able to direct our listeners to
your website. I want to talk a little bit about
how they can help your organization. More importantly, I want
to go When we come back, I want to talk
about your white paper specific to George Soros. Can you
hang around for a couple of seconds, sure, absolutely, Thanks Jason.
(08:15):
We'll be right back with Jason Johnson, the president of
the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund. This is Ed Kowalsky
on wk IP. Be right back, folks, We are back
with mister Johnson from the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund.
Thank you so much for sticking through break. I appreciate
your your patients.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Jason absolutely. Hey.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Let me let me just ask you this question, and
this is a sort it may be a little bit
of a naive question, but the cops that you ended
up getting, you know, you know, acquitted, do they rejoin
their agencies or or are there or have they been
so turned off by what they went through that they've
just moved on with their lives.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
You know, it really depends on individual circumstances. That it
does very body whether their law enforcement careers continue, either
with their current agency or in some other capacity, or
in many cases not at all. And I think that's right.
I think you know, even an alicor who's been completely
acquitted and has the opportunity to return to law enforcement.
Oftentimes they will not just because of the you know,
(09:17):
the trauma that they go.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Yeah, no, I get it, I get it. And forgive
me for asking that question, but it's certainly a certain
I'm sure our listeners would want to know the answer
to that particular question. Jason. Give our listeners the website
and how they can help your organization by by by
assisting or donating. Can you just just to do that
one more time for us if you don't mind, sure, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Our website is police Defense dot org. Police Defense dot org.
We're also very active on social media. We have lots
of content that we put out on a daily basis,
and our handle on social media Facebook, s and Instagram
is l E l D sild material e Yes. Correct
(10:02):
in terms of how it can help, I mean, obviously,
we are a nonprofit organization. We are only funded by donors. Fortunately,
we've got just thousands of very generous pro law enforcement
donors across the country that we've built over decades, and
that's the best way to help it. But you know,
if you have any listeners that aren't necessarily prepared to
do that just general awareness, spread the word of the
(10:23):
challenges that law enforcement stations really is is a huge thing.
So we all stay tuned into that.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Now, we will do that, and we will certainly promote
what your organization is doing. But we're going to have
you back from time to time too. I can tell
you that right now. Tell us a little bit about
the which which prompted me to reach out to your organization,
the whole George Soros Radical Prosecutors and Powers. Tell us
a little bit about the the the the white paper
that you guys put out.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Sure, so we actually have been There are a number
of think tanks and others that attract the George Soros
impact on prosecutor elections, but I feel like we have
sort of led the way in many ways. We've produced
a couple of different reports. The one that you're talking
about was in twenty twenty two called Follow the Money.
You know, we just chronicle the passage of money from
(11:12):
George Soros through a number of different organizations that he controlled,
such as the Tide Center, Fare and Dust Prosecution. It's
almost the shell game, really. The Sorest money filters through
these organizations and ultimately finances campaigns for very very progressive
prosecute you know, candidates for district attorney and other prosecutor offices.
(11:34):
Once those prosecutors are elected, and many have. We we've
tracked up to seventy five individuals who are Soros affiliated
who have been elected as prosecutors across the country. Once
they're elected, they almost swear our bloodos to follow this
Sous doctrine, which, you know, to distill it down into
its simplict form is don't really prosecute criminals, find reasons
(11:55):
not to prosecute criminals, go after the cops with reckless
abandon and absolutely try not to put people in prison
no matter what, even for violent criminals. And it's it's
had a disastrous impact on the cities and when the
other jurisdictions in which source prosecutors have been elected. So
our whole goal for the white paper was just to
kind of expose it provides some transparency. It's it's all
(12:18):
quoted in a veil of secrecy because the money travels
through these various organizations, and so we really just try
to through lots hundreds and hundreds of hours of research
to just chronicle that whole thing, put it in a
very concise paper and put it out there for all
for all to see.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
And Jason, I have to tell you something. You your
paper is one of the better written papers white papers
that I've that I've that I've read and studied in
terms of just being able to do exactly what you
just said. You followed the money from the Soros contributions
to these district attorneys, and more importantly, you actually one
of the things that that that I loved about the
white paper is you actually highlighted the number of citizens
(12:57):
who are who are who are directly impacted by these
secutors in terms of the in terms of their constituents,
if you will, I mean, these prosecutors are representing large
swats of the population.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
And absolutely I mean the of the ten that we
focus on in the paper. I mean, you've got you know,
Alvin Braggs. You should be very familiar with your audience. Yep.
But George Gascon recently lost his election for reelection in
Los Angeles County, Larry Krasner and Philadelphia. I mean, these
are major jurisdictions and lots and lots of folks are
(13:31):
impacted a lot of violent prime unfortunately in those jurisdictions.
So really a lot of states.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
Well, what you said is Soros link prosecutors oversee twenty
percent of all Americans and over forty percent of all
US homicides.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
And you know, see what sous has figured out. And
he was you know, I mean from his perspective, he
was very smart. He realized that it's much less expensive
to get a prosecutor elected you're chosen prosecutor elected than
it is to get a governor or a senator, secuitar
elections tend to be you know that he needs to
be relatively nonpartisan. It wasn't really based much on politics.
(14:07):
It was more based on qualifications. Historically and elected prosecute
had a long history as a line prosecutor prosecuting criminal
cases no longer the case. So he's been able to
get former public defenders and attorneys who made a career
suing police departments elected prosecutor and they have an entirely
(14:27):
different philosophy. He's been able to do this relatively inexpensive,
although he's spent you know, probably well over fifty million
dollars for him, that's relatively inexpensive. He's made a major
impact on the system.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Wow, we're talking to Jason Johnson. From the Law Enforcement
Legal Defense Fund. This is a fascinating conversation. We're joined
Jason by my partner here, Uncle Mike, who's been our
producer and our show co host here, who has been
a very big supporter of law enforcement in the Dutchess
County area here, so he's very happy to be able
(15:00):
to speak to you as well.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
Good morning, sir. We haven't right across the river here.
Speaker 5 (15:04):
In Ulster County, they had a assistant DA who had
been in the office for years and years, grew up
in the office and ran for election against a no
name Sorrows supported inexperienced lawyer who ended up winning and
changing that the whole the whole county, just out of
(15:26):
the blue.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
You know, this guy had spent his entire career thinking
at some point he was going to be the DA
and did his job, and he lost because of the
one hundred and eighty five or two hundred thousand dollars
whatever it was at Sorrows poured into the other, the
other attorney's campaign fund, and it was enough to beat him.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
And this same scenario repeats itself over and over across
the country. And you know, we as you mentioned in
Ulster County. We you know, there are many of these
sorost prosecutors have never tried a case ever, that was.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
The case with this gentleman, that's right, and no litigation
experience at all.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
So the qualifications. Unfortunately, that used to be the qualification
and now it's just it's all about money and it's
it is a true and direct threat to public safety, unfortunately,
and I don't take that lightly. We don't sound the
alarms just for no reason. It's a big deal.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
And unfortunately, as you mentioned earlier, I was listening on
the way, and the media is perpetuating this. Unfortunately, the
media is almost as much to blame the soros Is
in some cases because it's it's ridiculous the way the
media portrays some of these cases.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Oh absolutely, and the way the media has unfortunately, much
of the legacy media has ignored the whole source impact entirely,
or were cast it in a positive light. Eat it is.
Speaker 4 (16:48):
And then of course we gave them the meddal of
freedom on top of it, which is that range. I
almost I almost lost it. I almost broke my time.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Well that's how I found Jason. I was I was
so intensive I began to research this and I always say
and I was so lucky enough to be able to
find his organization who's already done the research on this thing. Jason,
We're up against the heartbreak right now, but I want
to be able to make sure that our listeners know
how to be able to support your organization. Can you
just give us your website again and how folks can
help you donate.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
The website is Police Defense dot Org. Lots of information
including all of our research reports, including all the information
on every case that we're currently supporting and have supported
in the past number of years. There's also an ability
to donate through our website if anyone who feels so inclined.
We certainly are very very grateful for that. Apart from that, again,
(17:36):
following us on social media, we put lots of information
out really on a daily basis, and that's our handle
is l e LDS on all the main platforms.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
And you have the ability of being able to take
a recurring monthly donation and we're going to promote this
as well as as our show continues broadcasting. Jason, and
I'd like to be very much able to keep in
touch with you and have you back for an extended interview.
If that's if that's all.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Possible, I'd be thrilled too, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Thank you so very much. We've been talking to Jason Johnson,
the CEO and president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund,
who is It's a fascinating organization, organization that is so
important to support.
Hudson Valley This Morning with Ed Kowalski is the new
voice in the Hudson Valley.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Hi, this is Ed.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
I am so grateful for the support you've already given us.
We are creating a platform that gives you our listeners
a voice. Together, we can build the best local community
talk program in the Hudson Valley.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
We'd love it if you tuned into Hudson Valley This
Morning with Ed Kowalski from six to nine am Monday
through Friday on fourteen fifteen thirteen seventy AM or ninety
eight five FM WKIP.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Seven O seven on Wednesday morning, I am pleased to
welcome to the WKIP microphones the president of the Law
Enforcement Legal Defense Fund based out of Alexandria, Virginia, Jason Johnson. Jason,
thank you very much for a calling insert Good morning, Ed.
(00:53):
How you feeling. I understand you have a little bit
of a cold there as I did, so I'm glad
to see that you're up and about.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
If you will, thank you, I'm pretty close to one
hundred percent now, thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Hey, listen, I was very fascinated by being able to
research your organization, specifically after the George Soros Medal of
Freedom Award, and I was very very heartened to see
that your organization, the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, back
in June of twenty two, put together a white paper
(01:24):
that I thought was fascinating entitled Justice for Sale. And
I want to get into that. But before we do, Jason,
can you tell our listeners what the Law Enforcement Legal
Defense Fund is all about and what your organization is
committed to being able to do.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Sure? Absolutely, thank you. So. Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund
has been around for about thirty years, just over thirty
years actually, and our primary mission was then and is
now to support the legal defense of law enforcement officers
who have been wrongfully charged with crimes related to their work.
And so used to be a relatively small problem that
(02:02):
we might have, you know, a few cases a year
around the country that would come up where we have
cops that were being targeted for political reasons. It's no
longer a small problem. It's a pretty big problem, which
has caused our organization to fund many, many cases. In fact,
last year twenty twenty four, we raised and spent just
on direct legal defense costs over a million dollars around
(02:25):
the country, defending, defending, cops that you know, like, we don't.
We're not going cir cases where we think the cop
did something wrong. We don't. We look for cases where
the major motivating factor is you know, political, and there's
been you know, sort of a war on cops since
twenty twenty and maybe just maybe before twenty twenty. And
(02:45):
that's that's really what our main reason for existing is
secondary to that, and as you kind of hinted at
with our white paper on source Prosecutors, is we have
a growing role in really just trying to research and
write about and expose those problems impediments in the criminal
justice system that impact the ability to promote good, sound
(03:07):
public safety policies to protect the public.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
It's incredible because you know, there was a story last
week specific to New York City in so far that
they were having a hard time. New York City is
having a hard time filling its next Academy class, and
there's a lot of people who are just in effect
taking a look at the profession and they want to join,
you know, as you did at one point in time
(03:30):
you're a former law enforcement individual. But they don't want
to do it, and they don't want to do it
for a lot of the reasons that you've just mentioned.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
How big.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
I mean, this is a huge problem.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
It's an enormous problem. It's that we did another white
paper about that, about the real challenge in recruiting young people,
the best among us, which is really what we want
in law enforcement to join the profession. They're turned off
by it. They're turned off by the treatment of law
enforcement offers have received lately. And uh and also the
(04:03):
portrayal by the media of law enforcement as sort of
being the bad guys. Uh. No one signs up to
be a bad guy. We don't. You know, that's not
an attracted thing. And so, uh yeah, absolutely, it's a
huge prices. It's been well documented cities across America having huge,
huge problems recruiting law enforcement officers. And I'll just say that,
(04:24):
you know, they're going to hire somebody that this is
the problem. They will hire somebody to fill their academy
classes at some point. The question is how much or
will they have to reduce standards in order to be
able to do that. And that's the real concern. I
think that should be the main concern by the public
is we want to elevate standards, we want our tops
to be great. We want them to be well trained, uh,
(04:45):
you know, public servants and do a great job as
typically they always did. The concern here and it's a
reality that standards have to be reduced in order to
still patrol cars and academy classes. And that's I think
that's the real, the real challenge to the public.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Now on your website, the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund,
which by the way, I think is a very well
well designed and certainly very informative website. You know, you've
actually listed a number of the cases that your organization
has helped defend. I mean, you've got cops in Henrico County, Virginia,
You've got a cop in Newark, New Jersey, Atlanta, Georgia,
(05:22):
goes on and on, Kansas City. It's incredible in terms
of just being able to provide the support. Can you
can you share some of these stories in terms of
some of the cases that you've actually helped defend.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Sure. Absolutely, we are very proud of We very recently
finally achieved some measure of justice for a detective named
Erica vaul can aar and Kansas City, Missouri. He was
just he was actually it's a long and complicated story,
but I'll try to try to describe it as briefly
as I can. Even involved in an armed confrontation with
(05:57):
a convicted feller who was driving stolen truck carrying a
stolen gun. He wound up having to use dead lead
force on this person to protect his partner, his gun
was being pointed at his partner. The prosecutor, who was
a Soros prosecutor in Kansas City, charged him. He elected
(06:17):
a bench trial, so he didn't have a jury. Typically judges, historically,
the reason why an officer might pick a judge over
a jury is the judges, you know, are supposed to
not be influenced by politics and public opinion and things,
and that's the reason why the officer selected a bench trial. Unfortunately,
it didn't quite work out that way and he was
convicted sentence to six years. Very worked really really hard
(06:41):
to lobby the outgoing governor of Missouri, Mike Parson, who
did commute his sentence just before Christmas, which we're really
exciting about. He's a great guy, outstanding police officer. Another case,
just very briefly is the case of a Washington, DC
Metro police officer who was involved in it's hard to
even call it a pursuit. It was a gentleman on
(07:02):
a U and he actually call him a gentleman. He's
a gang member, very very thoroughly documented gang member who
was operating a moapad. The officer went to stop him.
The gang member on the mop head got onto the
sidewalk on the street, ran through stop signs. Uh just
basically refused to stop, went several blocks, and then ultimately
was struck by an uninvolved civilian vehicle. Was not their
(07:26):
fall at all. He ran through a stop sign and
was struck by a car and killed. A Biden appointed
United States Attorney in DC charged that officer with murder
and he was convicted of murder and so we're working
very very hard to get his conviction reverse. His name
is Terrence Sutton. He teached on our website and he
(07:48):
just a very very egregious case of prostitutorial overstone.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Jason, I'm going to ask if you can to hold
through a quick break and we're going to pick this
back up. I want to be able to talk a
little bit more more about the work of your organization.
I want to be able to direct our listeners to
your website. I want to talk a little bit about
how they can help your organization. More importantly, I want
to go When we come back, I want to talk
about your white paper specific to George Soros. Can you
hang around for a couple of seconds, sure, absolutely, Thanks Jason.
(08:15):
We'll be right back with Jason Johnson, the president of
the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund. This is Ed Kowalsky
on wk IP. Be right back, folks, We are back
with mister Johnson from the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund.
Thank you so much for sticking through break. I appreciate
your your patients.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Jason absolutely. Hey.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Let me let me just ask you this question, and
this is a sort it may be a little bit
of a naive question, but the cops that you ended
up getting, you know, you know, acquitted, do they rejoin
their agencies or or are there or have they been
so turned off by what they went through that they've
just moved on with their lives.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
You know, it really depends on individual circumstances. That it
does very body whether their law enforcement careers continue, either
with their current agency or in some other capacity, or
in many cases not at all. And I think that's right.
I think you know, even an alicor who's been completely
acquitted and has the opportunity to return to law enforcement.
Oftentimes they will not just because of the you know,
(09:17):
the trauma that they go.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Yeah, no, I get it, I get it. And forgive
me for asking that question, but it's certainly a certain
I'm sure our listeners would want to know the answer
to that particular question. Jason. Give our listeners the website
and how they can help your organization by by by
assisting or donating. Can you just just to do that
one more time for us if you don't mind, sure, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Our website is police Defense dot org. Police Defense dot org.
We're also very active on social media. We have lots
of content that we put out on a daily basis,
and our handle on social media Facebook, s and Instagram
is l E l D sild material e Yes. Correct
(10:02):
in terms of how it can help, I mean, obviously,
we are a nonprofit organization. We are only funded by donors. Fortunately,
we've got just thousands of very generous pro law enforcement
donors across the country that we've built over decades, and
that's the best way to help it. But you know,
if you have any listeners that aren't necessarily prepared to
do that just general awareness, spread the word of the
(10:23):
challenges that law enforcement stations really is is a huge thing.
So we all stay tuned into that.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Now, we will do that, and we will certainly promote
what your organization is doing. But we're going to have
you back from time to time too. I can tell
you that right now. Tell us a little bit about
the which which prompted me to reach out to your organization,
the whole George Soros Radical Prosecutors and Powers. Tell us
a little bit about the the the the white paper
that you guys put out.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Sure, so we actually have been There are a number
of think tanks and others that attract the George Soros
impact on prosecutor elections, but I feel like we have
sort of led the way in many ways. We've produced
a couple of different reports. The one that you're talking
about was in twenty twenty two called Follow the Money.
You know, we just chronicle the passage of money from
(11:12):
George Soros through a number of different organizations that he controlled,
such as the Tide Center, Fare and Dust Prosecution. It's
almost the shell game, really. The Sorest money filters through
these organizations and ultimately finances campaigns for very very progressive
prosecute you know, candidates for district attorney and other prosecutor offices.
(11:34):
Once those prosecutors are elected, and many have. We we've
tracked up to seventy five individuals who are Soros affiliated
who have been elected as prosecutors across the country. Once
they're elected, they almost swear our bloodos to follow this
Sous doctrine, which, you know, to distill it down into
its simplict form is don't really prosecute criminals, find reasons
(11:55):
not to prosecute criminals, go after the cops with reckless
abandon and absolutely try not to put people in prison
no matter what, even for violent criminals. And it's it's
had a disastrous impact on the cities and when the
other jurisdictions in which source prosecutors have been elected. So
our whole goal for the white paper was just to
kind of expose it provides some transparency. It's it's all
(12:18):
quoted in a veil of secrecy because the money travels
through these various organizations, and so we really just try
to through lots hundreds and hundreds of hours of research
to just chronicle that whole thing, put it in a
very concise paper and put it out there for all
for all to see.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
And Jason, I have to tell you something. You your
paper is one of the better written papers white papers
that I've that I've that I've read and studied in
terms of just being able to do exactly what you
just said. You followed the money from the Soros contributions
to these district attorneys, and more importantly, you actually one
of the things that that that I loved about the
white paper is you actually highlighted the number of citizens
(12:57):
who are who are who are directly impacted by these
secutors in terms of the in terms of their constituents,
if you will, I mean, these prosecutors are representing large
swats of the population.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
And absolutely I mean the of the ten that we
focus on in the paper. I mean, you've got you know,
Alvin Braggs. You should be very familiar with your audience. Yep.
But George Gascon recently lost his election for reelection in
Los Angeles County, Larry Krasner and Philadelphia. I mean, these
are major jurisdictions and lots and lots of folks are
(13:31):
impacted a lot of violent prime unfortunately in those jurisdictions.
So really a lot of states.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
Well, what you said is Soros link prosecutors oversee twenty
percent of all Americans and over forty percent of all
US homicides.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
And you know, see what sous has figured out. And
he was you know, I mean from his perspective, he
was very smart. He realized that it's much less expensive
to get a prosecutor elected you're chosen prosecutor elected than
it is to get a governor or a senator, secuitar
elections tend to be you know that he needs to
be relatively nonpartisan. It wasn't really based much on politics.
(14:07):
It was more based on qualifications. Historically and elected prosecute
had a long history as a line prosecutor prosecuting criminal
cases no longer the case. So he's been able to
get former public defenders and attorneys who made a career
suing police departments elected prosecutor and they have an entirely
(14:27):
different philosophy. He's been able to do this relatively inexpensive,
although he's spent you know, probably well over fifty million
dollars for him, that's relatively inexpensive. He's made a major
impact on the system.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Wow, we're talking to Jason Johnson. From the Law Enforcement
Legal Defense Fund. This is a fascinating conversation. We're joined
Jason by my partner here, Uncle Mike, who's been our
producer and our show co host here, who has been
a very big supporter of law enforcement in the Dutchess
County area here, so he's very happy to be able
(15:00):
to speak to you as well.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
Good morning, sir. We haven't right across the river here.
Speaker 5 (15:04):
In Ulster County, they had a assistant DA who had
been in the office for years and years, grew up
in the office and ran for election against a no
name Sorrows supported inexperienced lawyer who ended up winning and
changing that the whole the whole county, just out of
(15:26):
the blue.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
You know, this guy had spent his entire career thinking
at some point he was going to be the DA
and did his job, and he lost because of the
one hundred and eighty five or two hundred thousand dollars
whatever it was at Sorrows poured into the other, the
other attorney's campaign fund, and it was enough to beat him.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
And this same scenario repeats itself over and over across
the country. And you know, we as you mentioned in
Ulster County. We you know, there are many of these
sorost prosecutors have never tried a case ever, that was.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
The case with this gentleman, that's right, and no litigation
experience at all.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
So the qualifications. Unfortunately, that used to be the qualification
and now it's just it's all about money and it's
it is a true and direct threat to public safety, unfortunately,
and I don't take that lightly. We don't sound the
alarms just for no reason. It's a big deal.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
And unfortunately, as you mentioned earlier, I was listening on
the way, and the media is perpetuating this. Unfortunately, the
media is almost as much to blame the soros Is
in some cases because it's it's ridiculous the way the
media portrays some of these cases.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Oh absolutely, and the way the media has unfortunately, much
of the legacy media has ignored the whole source impact entirely,
or were cast it in a positive light. Eat it is.
Speaker 4 (16:48):
And then of course we gave them the meddal of
freedom on top of it, which is that range. I
almost I almost lost it. I almost broke my time.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Well that's how I found Jason. I was I was
so intensive I began to research this and I always say
and I was so lucky enough to be able to
find his organization who's already done the research on this thing. Jason,
We're up against the heartbreak right now, but I want
to be able to make sure that our listeners know
how to be able to support your organization. Can you
just give us your website again and how folks can
help you donate.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
The website is Police Defense dot Org. Lots of information
including all of our research reports, including all the information
on every case that we're currently supporting and have supported
in the past number of years. There's also an ability
to donate through our website if anyone who feels so inclined.
We certainly are very very grateful for that. Apart from that, again,
(17:36):
following us on social media, we put lots of information
out really on a daily basis, and that's our handle
is l e LDS on all the main platforms.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
And you have the ability of being able to take
a recurring monthly donation and we're going to promote this
as well as as our show continues broadcasting. Jason, and
I'd like to be very much able to keep in
touch with you and have you back for an extended interview.
If that's if that's all.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Possible, I'd be thrilled too, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Thank you so very much. We've been talking to Jason Johnson,
the CEO and president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund,
who is It's a fascinating organization, organization that is so
important to support.
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