PART ONE: The Vera Racket

How a Soros-backed nonprofit turned $10 million in foundation money into $1 billion in federal contracts while its prosecutor partners left a trail of bodies

On July 15, 2025, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley released a staff report on the Vera Institute of Justice. The report documented what Grassley called "the disastrous consequences" of federal grants to the organization. Vera received over $1 billion in federal contracts during the Biden administration while funding progressive prosecutors whose policies led to preventable murders, rapes, and mass casualty events.

The report connects Vera to six district attorneys. Their soft-on-crime policies led to the 2021 Waukesha Christmas parade massacre that killed six people and injured 62 others, among other preventable crimes.

Two months before Grassley's report, on May 7, 2025, an undercover journalist with O'Keefe Media Group captured Santiago Mueckay, Vera's client services coordinator, on camera. Mueckay admitted that Vera helps illegal immigrants evade Immigration and Customs Enforcement through notification systems that track ICE operations.

"We keep track of everything happening with ICE," Mueckay said. When asked directly if Vera helps illegals avoid ICE, he responded: "Yeah, we've been doing this for years."

Federal contract records and tax filings show a pattern. Progressive foundations seed nonprofits with private money. Those nonprofits build infrastructure. Policy papers get delivered to incoming Democratic administrations. Federal contracts flow within weeks. The same organizations that receive the contracts actively undermine federal law enforcement.

The bodies tell the story.

Waukesha

November 21, 2021. Darrell Brooks drove a red Ford Escape through a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Six dead. Sixty-two injured, including children.

Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm's office had released Brooks twice before the attack.

Chisholm partnered with Vera Institute to implement what the Senate report calls "several progressive, soft-on-crime policies." Vera received federal funding to provide this assistance. The American taxpayer paid for the policies that released Darrell Brooks.

Chisholm knew the risk. He told the Milwaukee Sentinel-Journal: "Is there going to be an individual I divert, or I put into a treatment program, who's going to go out and kill somebody? You bet."

Six people are dead because he was right.

Senate investigators found the same pattern in six different cities. Prosecutors partnered with Vera. Federal taxpayer dollars funded those partnerships. People died.

Fairfax

Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano partnered with Vera Institute. According to the Senate report, he "repeatedly released violent illegal immigrants back on the streets." His office repeatedly released an illegal immigrant with 29 run-ins with law enforcement and a documented history of sexual assault and indecent exposure.

October 2024. Upon release, the illegal immigrant raped a woman.

Athens

District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez partnered with Vera. She pledged to protect illegal immigrant defendants and release criminals on bonds requiring no money. The Senate report says she negotiated "a lenient plea deal for a sexual predator and serial rapist who preyed on women and children."

February 2024. An illegal immigrant murdered Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student. Gonzalez refused to pursue the death penalty. She had partnered with an organization that actively obstructs immigration enforcement. The refusal was not coincidental.

St. Louis

Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner partnered with Vera. She pledged to "expand diversion programs, decline to prosecute low level cases and decrease the number of people held on cash bail." Under Vera's guidance, Gardner dismissed more than 9,000 criminal cases. She refused to prosecute 90 percent of reported crime. This included cop killers and a child murderer.

Gardner resigned in 2023 amid investigations. The policies she implemented with Vera's assistance stayed in place long enough to devastate St. Louis's criminal justice system.

Suffolk County

District Attorney Rachel Rollins partnered with Vera. She instructed prosecutors to decline prosecution of 15 different crimes. She created a screening unit tasked with decreasing arraignments based on a predetermined goal to prosecute fewer people, not based on evidence.

Rollins resigned in 2023 after a federal investigation found she lied to congressional investigators and committed ethics violations. Her Vera-backed policies had already reshaped her office.

Manhattan

District Attorney Alvin Bragg partnered with Vera. He declined to prosecute certain misdemeanor felonies, worked to downgrade felony charges to misdemeanors, and refused to detain criminals before trial.

2025 numbers: Over 48,000 individuals arrested for misdemeanors in New York County. Only 3,000 detained. A 6.25 percent detention rate.

Bragg found time to prosecute Donald Trump for federal campaign finance violations and Daniel Penny for protecting riders on NY subway.

The Senate report says Vera used federal taxpayer dollars to gain "unprecedented access to progressive prosecutor offices" across the country. Those prosecutors implemented policies Vera advocated. People died.

The Trump administration terminated Vera's Justice Department grants. According to the Grassley report, 93 percent of DOJ's recently terminated grants went to NGOs, not state or local governments.

Grassley: "Organizations like the Vera Institute and Impact Justice that promote radical ideology have no business collecting another dime from the federal treasury. Americans are safer without their influence in the criminal justice system."

Vera is suing the federal government to restore the grants. The organization is using taxpayer dollars still flowing through existing contracts to sue for more taxpayer dollars.

The Federal Pipeline

Vera received over $811 million in federal funding between 2008 and 2024, according to USASpending.gov. That figure understates total federal support.

Tyler O'Neil testified before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight. O'Neil wrote "The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government." According to his congressional testimony, Vera received at least $73.6 million in Justice Department contracts during the Biden administration, mostly for legal services for immigrant children. DOJ also gave Vera more than $7 million in grants.

The Department of Health and Human Services paid more. In just over one year, according to O'Neil's testimony, HHS's Administration for Children and Families paid Vera $196.3 million for "refugee and entrant assistance."

One contract. More money than Vera received from DOJ in most multi-year periods. The $811 million total federal funding figure significantly understates Vera's actual government support, which likely exceeds $1 billion.

April 2025. The Justice Department terminated multiple Vera grants. Vera sued. The complaint revealed the extent of federal dependence. Vera claimed it needed the funding for programs that "save lives and make communities safer."

A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit. Vera is appealing.

New evidence emerged about private funding sources.

O'Keefe Media Group's investigation, published July 31, 2025, reported that Vera received $188 million from a single anonymous donor in 2023. O'Keefe said Vera's IRS Form 990 tax filing confirmed the figure. That represented 71 percent of Vera's $263 million in revenue that year.

The Unredacted has not independently verified the $188 million figure. Vera's 2023 Form 990 was not available on ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer at publication. O'Keefe Media Group cited the 990 directly. No correction or retraction has been issued.

If accurate, the anonymous gift raises questions about who is funding an organization that uses federal contracts to obstruct federal immigration enforcement. When 71 percent of revenue comes from one donor, it's a private foundation with a federal contract.

The verified private funding sources paint a clear picture. According to InfluenceWatch, a research database tracking nonprofit funding:

Open Society Foundations (George Soros): $11,024,679 from 2016 to 2021, including a $10 million grant in 2016

Ford Foundation: $15,601,707 from 1989 to 2021

Blue Meridian Partners: $15 million

Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund: $4,009,500

Arnold Ventures: $2,558,383

Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors: $1 million

Tides Foundation: $908,470

Carnegie Corporation of New York: $600,000

The Soros grant provided seed capital. Vera used the money to build infrastructure. The organization expanded from serving unaccompanied children in limited states to operating what O'Neil described as "an extensive network of service providers" covering "almost all immigration court jurisdictions in the country." By the time Biden was inaugurated, Vera was positioned to absorb a massive increase in federal funding.

The increase came on schedule.

The Policy Brief

January 2021. Days after Biden's inauguration, the American Immigration Council published a policy brief: "The Biden Administration and Congress Must Guarantee Legal Representation for People Facing Removal."

The document explicitly named Vera Institute as the model to follow. It called for expanding Vera's existing federal contracts.

"Following the model used by existing federal legal counsel pilot programs, the Biden administration should award federal contracts to one or more national non-profit organizations that will subcontract with local legal service providers."

Those "existing federal legal counsel pilot programs" were Vera's Unaccompanied Children's Program and National Qualified Representative Program. Both are funded by the federal government.

The brief noted that Vera's UCP was "currently funded by HHS in the amount of about $115 million annually." It is recommended that "this model could be expanded with additional funding to contract with additional legal service providers and expand coverage to more states."

March 2021. Two months later. HHS awarded Vera a $168 million contract. A 46 percent increase over the $115 million annual funding the American Immigration Council had cited.

The policy brief also recommended that "the Biden administration should explore what funds are available within DHS, DOJ, and other agencies that could be used by transferring or otherwise moving funds within a single agency or between agencies."

That happened.

March 2022. HHS awarded Vera another contract for $171.7 million.

September 2022. The Justice Department awarded Acacia Center for Justice, a Vera spinoff created in 2022, approximately $41 million in contracts.

The American Immigration Council's policy brief was a blueprint. It was executed.

The brief was co-authored by Greg Chen, senior director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, and Jorge Loweree, director of policy at the American Immigration Council. According to Vera's 2022 Form 990 tax return, Loweree earned $203,290 in 2022 as AIC's managing director of strategy and programs.

The brief did not mention that the American Immigration Council and Vera share funders.

According to InfluenceWatch, the American Immigration Council received $900,000 from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and $550,000 from the Ford Foundation in 2023. AIC also receives funding from the Open Society Foundations, though the specific amount is not disclosed.

These are the same foundations funding Vera. Ford gave Vera $15.6 million between 1989 and 2021. Carnegie gave Vera $600,000. Open Society gave Vera $11 million.

The American Immigration Council has connections to progressive mega-donors beyond Soros.

2021. AIC merged with the Partnership for a New American Economy, an organization founded by Michael Bloomberg to promote expansionist immigration policies. Jeremy Robbins led Bloomberg's Partnership. He became AIC's executive director after the merger. According to InfluenceWatch, Robbins earned $336,132 in 2023.

January 2021. An organization funded by Soros, Ford, Carnegie, and Bloomberg published a document recommending that the Biden administration expand federal contracts to an organization funded by Soros, Ford, and Carnegie.

Two months later, the contracts materialized.

The connection between Vera and the Soros network runs deeper than shared funding. Herbert Sturz co-founded Vera Institute in 1961. He currently serves as a senior adviser at the Open Society Foundations.

Anonymous Money

Who gave Vera $188 million in 2023?

MacKenzie Scott, Jeff Bezos's ex-wife, is the most likely candidate. Scott operates Yield Giving, a philanthropic initiative that has distributed over $7 billion to progressive causes. December 2025. Vera was listed among organizations that received grants from Yield Giving. The specific amount was not disclosed.

The Gates Foundation is another possibility. O'Keefe Media Group's investigation reported that Gates issued a grant to Vera in 2023. The amount was not disclosed.

The $188 million figure is so large it likely came from one of the mega-foundations or from a donor-advised fund that allows billionaires to make anonymous gifts while claiming tax deductions.

The Unredacted filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the IRS seeking Vera's 2023 Form 990 Schedule B, which lists donors who contribute more than $5,000. The IRS typically does not disclose this information, citing donor privacy protections. There are exceptions for organizations that receive substantial federal funding and whose operations implicate public safety.

Congressional investigators have subpoena power. Grassley's report makes clear the Judiciary Committee is actively investigating Vera's federal grants. A subpoena for Vera's donor records would likely survive legal challenge. The evidence shows Vera used federal funds to obstruct federal law enforcement.

If the $188 million came from the same billionaires who fund Open Society, Ford, or Gates, it would prove Vera's entire operation was orchestrated by a small group of progressive mega-donors. From private seed funding to federal contracts to legal services that obstruct immigration enforcement.

It would prove the American immigration system is failing by design, executed by organizations funded with billions of taxpayer dollars and directed by billionaires who face no electoral accountability.

The Vera Institute of Justice has direct ties to Zohran Mamdani's incoming NYC administration through the appointment of two of its leaders to his mayoral transition team in late November 2025. Specifically:

• Benjamin Heller, director of Vera's Justice Data and Technology initiative, was appointed to the Committee on Technology and Innovation.

Daniela Gilbert, director of Vera's Redefining Public Safety initiative, was named to Mamdani's Committee on Public Safety and Criminal Justice.

These roles are part of 17 advisory committees Mamdani established with over 400 members to guide policy priorities like housing, education, transportation, and public safety ahead of his January 2026 inauguration as mayor. Vera has also publicly highlighted Mamdani's campaign platform on community-centered safety solutions, aligning with their reform agenda

to be continued....