In a startling revelation, a consulting firm backed by left-leaning billionaires has been found to have deeply entrenched itself within the offices of 40 progressive prosecutors.
The firm, known as the Wren Collective, has been instrumental in the development of lenient crime policies that now impact approximately 48 million Americans across 22 states. This information comes from a recent report by the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund (LELDF).
According to The Washington Free Beacon, the Wren Collective offers its services to these prosecutors free of charge and without any expectation of publicity. Among its clients is former Portland district attorney Mike Schmidt, who assumed office in August 2020 amidst the nationwide riots triggered by the murder of George Floyd.
LELDF obtained emails showing that Schmidt had a discussion with Amy Weber, a senior attorney at the Wren Collective.
Weber stated that her organization was ready to provide Schmidt's incoming administration with draft policy proposals, which included the abolition of cash bail and the prosecution of police misconduct.
Weber told Schmidt, "We should have mentioned this as wellwe do this work without any billing or publicity. These policies will be yours, not ours. We are just here to help you figure out how to implement meaningful changes to the criminal justice system in Portland."
She also shared two model policies on probation and bail that were written for Virginia commonwealth attorneys, stating, "While these arent specific to any particular office, they are tailored to Virginia law. We thought these would give you the best idea of what we have to offer."
The Wren Collective's funding comes from several left-wing billionaires, including Texas billionaire John Arnold, who has poured over $46 million into progressive criminal justice reform efforts since 2019. The firm also received $295,000 from the Real Justice PAC, a group run by controversial Black Lives Matter activist Shaun King, and $250,000 from Open Philanthropy, an organization led by Cari Tuna, wife of Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz.
The Wren Collective has collaborated with some of the most left-leaning prosecutors in the country. These include former San Francisco district attorney Chesa Boudin, Burlington, Vt., states attorney Sarah George, and Monique Worrell, the state attorney for the Ninth Judicial Circuit of Florida.
Boudin held weekly "comms huddle up calls with the group"; George worked with the Wren Collective to decriminalize prostitution; and George shared confidential case files on a murder case with the Wren Collective before she decided to decline charges in the matter.
Schmidt, on the other hand, accepted the Wren Collective's offer and invited its founder, Jessica Brand, to attend meetings with his transition team. Emails obtained by LELDF and shared with The Washington Free Beacon show that Weber provided Schmidt with a draft policy to ease prosecution of protest-related criminal cases.
Schmidt took office on Aug 1, 2020, and 11 days later, he publicly announced a new protest prosecution policy that was "nearly indistinguishable" from the version he privately received weeks earlier from the Wren Collective, according to KSAT Portland. Following the implementation of this policy, Schmidt's office dismissed hundreds of criminal charges against violent protesters involved in the George Floyd riots in Portland.
Schmidt, who left office in January, is just one of 40 progressive prosecutors who have worked with the Wren Collective since its inception in early 2020, as per the LELDF report. The report is based on records received from 23 Freedom of Information Act requests submitted nationwide.
However, the LELDF states that most offices "engaged in bureaucratic obstruction" or demanded "exorbitant fees for production" to avoid releasing the files to the public.
Founded as a for-profit Texas organization in early 2020, the Wren Collective relies on external funders to finance its daily operations with progressive prosecutors. Of the 40 progressive prosecutors confirmed by LELDF to have worked with the Wren Collective, only twoformer Los Angeles County district attorney George Gascon and Hennepin County attorney Mary Moriarty of Minneapolispaid the firm with taxpayer funds for its services.
Sean Kennedy, LELDF policy director, who led the research into the Wren Collective, expressed his concern, stating, "This is a much deeper problem than people understand. Progressive prosecutors are not part of some organic movement. They are simply the face of a carefully designed and highly coordinated campaign to undermine the American criminal justice system from within."
"Our research shows that donors fund the production, activists write the script, the Wren Collective directs the scene, and their client prosecutors dutifully act out their parts."
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