Left-leaning watchdogs have taken every opportunity to challenge US President Donald Trump since his inauguration on January 20.
Interestingly enough, many of those who filed complaints against Trump had previously received funding from American billionaire George Soros.
On February 9, Politico's Kyle Cheney reported that "about a dozen left-leaning advocates" had raised the alarm over the fact that House judiciary committee aides had worked together with the Trump transition team on his executive order on immigration. This cooperation remained shrouded in secrecy because the congressional staffers allegedly signed a non-disclosure agreement.
"The non-disclosure agreement, which as far as we know is a practice unique to the Trump Transition Team, appears to prevent congressional staff from disclosing anything regarding their participation in the Presidential transition not only to the public, but to Members of Congress as well — including, apparently, the Members for whom they work," the letter said.
"The non-disclosure agreements of the Trump Transition Team should never have been extended to congressional staff to keep Members of Congress in the dark," it stated.
It turned out on January 30, that contrary to popular belief, the White House consulted Capitol Hill about the much-discussed executive order, dubbed by US mainstream media a "Muslim ban."
"The work of the committee aides began during the transition period after the election and before Donald Trump was sworn in. The staffers signed nondisclosure agreements, according to two sources familiar with the matter," Politico.com reported.
The watchdogs group behind the letter in question included Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), Common Cause, Democracy 21, Public Citizen, Transparency International — USA, OpenTheGovernment.org and others.
According to Discover the Networks, a website run by the David Horowitz Freedom Center, which focuses on left-wing political activity, some of the signees, such as CREW, Democracy 21, Public Citizen, and Common Cause, had received funding either from George Soros or his foundations.
Furthermore, OpenTheGovernment.org was listed as one of the Soros-run Open Society Foundation's grantees on the organization's website.
For its part, Transparency International names the Open Society Foundations (Open Society Institute Foundation) as one of its donors.
The CREW Exposed website, launched by the Center for Consumer Freedom in the mid-2000s, reveals that CREW has repeatedly made efforts "to disproportionately target Republicans and conservative-leaning groups with often-frivolous lawsuits, ethics complaints, and petitions for investigations by law enforcement agencies."
The website adds that CREW is funded by a long list of left-wing organizations and foundations and one of them is, unsurprisingly, George Soros and his Foundation to Promote Open Society and The Open Society Institute.
However, the letter to the Ethics Committee is just the tip of the iceberg: the watchdogs' complaint is part of a larger pattern.
On January 23, just two days after Donald Trump's inauguration, CREW sued the US President over allegedly violating the Foreign Emoluments Clause.
"Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is bringing a federal lawsuit to stop President Trump from violating the Constitution by illegally receiving payments from foreign governments. The lawsuit will be filed in the Southern District of New York when the court opens at 9 AM on Monday," the organization press release said on January 22.
However, President Trump dismissed CREW's allegations and said the lawsuit was "without merit."
Andrew Chung and Dan Levine of Reuters noted on January 24 that "legal experts have noted significant barriers to success in court, such as whether the plaintiffs have standing to sue."
The journalists cited yet another left-leaning organization, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) which is also known to be a George Soros grantee, according to the site Discover the Networks.
ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero revealed why ACLU and CREW sought to file lawsuits against the President, even though they could lose.
"Beyond winning favorable rulings, cases can serve to 'gum up the machinery of the government and rob the Trump administration of momentum'," he said, as quoted by Reuters.
The question arises whether the left-leaning groups are really standing for democratic values or whether they are simply throwing sand in Trump's gears — the more, the better.
Coupled with Soros-supported anti-Trump protests in the US, these cases apparently show a wider picture of Soros and his left-wing counterparts' less-than-covert struggle against the US President.
