US Lawmakers Are Probing Soros’ Involvement In European Politics

from ZeroHedge:

After years of tangential accusations, which never amounted to anything concrete, George Soros’ alleged meddling in European politics has finally caught the attention of Congress.

As we first observed in early January, concerns about Soros’ involvement were most recently raised by the Hungarian prime minister, who last week once again lashed out at the Soros “empire” and accused it of deploying “tons of money and international heavy artillery.” But what was not reported, is that just days earlier, Republican lawmakers in Washington had started asking questions about whether U.S. tax dollars also were being used to fund Soros projects in the small, conservative-led country of Macedonia.

Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., led a group of House lawmakers in writing to Ambassador Jess Baily, an Obama appointee, demanding answers. Smith voiced concerns that tax dollars are supporting Soros’ activities in trying to have a socialist government replace the current conservative government in the small nation.

” … it seems that the U.S. government funded organizations that have taken sides, specifically, the side of the socialists, which is absolutely unacceptable. I think this is illegal and we will examine this case to the fullest extent,” he said.

“We need to have a detailed oversight into what the administration has been doing over the past eight years because we have been taking sides politically in other countries as well, and there have been other similar incidents. That undermines U.S. public diplomacy and our diplomacy in general. It is against the law and is unheard of,” Smith added.

As Fox News reported, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, also expressed concerns about USAID money going to Soros’ Open Society Foundations as part of a broader concern that the U.S. Embassy has been taking sides in party politics.

“I have received credible reports that, over the past few years, the US Mission to Macedonia has actively intervened in the party politics of Macedonia, as well as the shaping of its media environment and civil society, often favoring groups of one political persuasion over another,” Lee said in his letter.

These concerns reflect growing conservative pushback against Soros’ operations in Europe.

And then there is Soros’ old nemesis, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who last week ripped the Hungary-born billionaire’s “trans-border empire.” Orban has been one of the central European voices speaking out against the push by E.U. leaders to absorb Syrian refugees and has been criticized for his hardline stance.

Soros’ Open Society Foundations – the billionaire’s largest group operating across the globe – fired back, saying Orban was trying to deflect attention from other issues.

“The Open Society Foundations for over 30 years have supported civil society groups in Hungary who are addressing profound problems in education, health care, media freedom and corruption,” Laura Silber, the organization’s chief communications officer, said in a statement to The Associated Press. “Any attacks on this work and those groups are solely an attempt to deflect attention from government inability to address these issues.”

The group’s stated goal is “to build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable to their citizens” but critics claim it’s a front for Soros’ hard-left political maneuverings.

One such voice belongs to former Macedonian PM Nikola Gruevski who said Soros has a “decisive influence” on his country’s politics. “If it were not for George Soros behind it with all the millions he pours into Macedonia, the entire network of NGOs, media, politicians, inside and out … the economy would be stronger, we would have had more new jobs,” he said in a recent interview with Macedonia’s Republika newspaper.

Macedonia is a small, broadly conservative country. It has a flat rate tax of 10 percent, a small-government philosophy and a ruling conservative party (VMRO-DPMNE) that has greeted the election of President Trump warmly and pledged to work with him. Lee’s staff recently met with Macedonia lawmakers, who also passed on a white paper from a citizen’s initiative called “Stop Operation Soros” which alleges U.S. money has been funding hard-left causes in the country – including violent riots in the streets, as well as a Macedonian version of Saul Alinsky’s far-left handbook “Rules for Radicals.”

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