(Washington Examiner) Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and the 15 other Democratic lawmakers who were arrested Tuesday outside the Supreme Court coordinated the stunt with a progressive dark money group funded by billionaire George Soros.
Getting arrested was the whole point of the stunt, Ocasio-Cortez said in an Instagram post on Tuesday. She said organizers of the Center for Popular Democracy Action Fund asked her and her colleagues to “submit themselves for arrest in front of the Supreme Court.”
The New York lawmaker insisted in the post what she and her colleagues did was “very different than a ‘publicity stunt.'”
AOC FUNDRAISES OFF OF ARREST AT PRO-ABORTION RIGHTS PROTEST
Omar spokesman Jeremy Slevin tweeted about 30 minutes before the lawmakers hit the street that a film crew with the dark money group would be on the scene live streaming the event.
“Members of Congress, including [Omar] will be participating in a civil disobedience at the Supreme Court, potentially including arrests, shortly,” Slevin tweeted before the lawmakers began illegally obstructing the street outside the Supreme Court. “@CPDAction is live streaming it. Follow along!”
Members of Congress, including @IlhanMN will be participating in a civil disobedience at the Supreme Court, potentially including arrests, shortly. 1 PM ET/12 PM CT.
— Jeremy Slevin (@jeremyslevin) July 19, 2022
Andrew Friedman, the co-executive director of CPD Action, told the Washington Post in 2018 that the group and its sister organization, Center for Popular Democracy, receive over $1 million a year from Soros’s Open Society Foundations.
As a 501(c)(4) nonprofit group, CPD Action isn’t required to disclose the identity of its donors.
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CPD Action said its leaders were among the 18 nonmembers of Congress who were arrested alongside Ocasio-Cortez and the other Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday.
“Moments ago, leaders from CPD Action network organizations, members of Congress & more participated in a powerful civil disobedience demonstration & got arrested to protect our RIGHT to SAFE & LEGAL abortions,” the dark money group posted on Facebook Tuesday afternoon.
“This is a clear message to SCOTUS and lawmakers that #WeWontBackDown until ALL pregnancy-abled people are treated as full human beings with the autonomy to make decisions about OUR OWN bodies,” the group added.
