Politics
Unearthed emails show left-wing group quietly writing policies for progressive DAs: ‘No billing, no publicity’
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FIRST ON FOX: A little-known consulting firm is quietly steering the policies and messaging of dozens of progressive prosecutors nationwide, according to a searing report exclusively obtained and reviewed by Fox News Digital.
The Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund (LELDF), a pro-police nonprofit based out of Virginia, is publishing a report Tuesday alleging that a liberal group focused on criminal justice reform called the Wren Collective has helped guide and shape the offices of at least 40 progressive prosecutors across 22 states on their “policies, public communications, and legal decisions,” according to the report exclusively obtained by Fox Digital titled, “Outsourcing Justice.”
The report outlines the influence — both direct and indirect — that the Wren Collective has allegedly had in both the campaigns and subsequent policy priorities for certain district attorneys, including at least 40, whom the report alleges held cozy relationships with the group, such as joining weekly meetings to talk communication strategy, heeding advice on specific policy issues or even signing a non-disclosure agreement over a DA’s professional relationship with the group.
The Wren Collective is a for-profit organization founded in 2020 by Jessica Brand, a Texas-based attorney who serves as the group’s executive director. Its aim is to “replace ineffective and often disingenuous solutions to crime and safety with solutions that support victims,” according to the website, and is bolstered by a team of policy and legal experts who “design, promote, and defend policies and practices grounded in evidence and compassion.”
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Doña Ana County Magistrate Judge Joel Cano resigned in March, according to his resignation letter obtained by Fox News Digital. (iStock)
But the report in question alleges a certain level of influence exerted by the group that goes beyond its stated priorities.
Among other things, the report accuses the group of engaging in an “influence-peddling operation,” in part by increasing the access and engagement that certain donors or “well-connected” activists had with the district attorneys’ offices in question, arguing that it “demonstrates that these elected prosecutors’ actions are shaped not by their own ideas or by those of voters and local stakeholders,” but are instead pursued “at the behest” of a certain few.
The LELDF report found that since 2015, there have been roughly 100 progressive district attorneys elected to office across the country, with Wren Collective staffers allegedly “embedded” in at least 40 of the offices, based on documents researchers compiled via Freedom of Information Act requests and other public documents showing a cozy relationship between the group and liberal prosecutors.
The report identified “hatchlings” of the Wren Collective – which LELDF defined as left-wing DAs tied to the consultancy group – such as former San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin, former Los Angeles DA George Gascon, and Travis County, Texas, DA Jose Garza.
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“Based on public information requests (totaling over 50,000 pages of emails and text messages), campaign finance filings, and tax documents, this study demonstrates [how] a handful of left-wing social justice organizations, with significant ties to campaign donors, hold immense influence over these prosecutors through The Wren Collective’s consulting service,” the report alleges.
Oregon voters replaced Mike Schmidt with a former Republican as district attorney in 2024. (Getty Images)
The report pointed to one email exchange in particular that “explains it all,” and shows the alleged cozy ties between the group and the services it can provide to prosecutors.
An email sent in June 2020 by a Wren Collective attorney to Multnomah County (Portland) DA-elect Mike Schmidt and his policy advisor included two justice-related model policies on how to abolish bail and reduce jail populations that the group “wrote for Virginia commonwealth attorneys,” as well as a lengthy list of examples of how the group could help the incoming DA.
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“In addition to assistance with staffing issues, office organization, and communications support during policy roll-out and in times of crisis, we have written and could help with policies in the following areas:
1. Bail
2. Diversion/Declination
3. Intake
4. Probation
5. Plea guidelines
6. Fines and Fees
7. Prosecutions related to policing
8. Brady (related to officer misconduct) and “do not call” or exclusion lists
9. Conviction integrity or sentencing review units
10. Juvenile transfer
11. Felony and Misdemeanor case backlog”
The email continued, according to the report, highlighting that the Wren Collective assists DAs in such matters “without any billing or publicity” while adding “these policies will be yours, not ours.”
All in, the report includes documents from 23 open records requests, out of a total of 65 requests made, alongside publicly available documents and previous FOIA documents to “cross-reference names and communications to build out a list of 40 progressive prosecutors who themselves or their staff communicated regularly, and substantively directly with The Wren Collective or Jessica Brand on policy, communications, and legal strategy.”
Brand defended the Wren Collective’s work in an emailed comment to Fox News on Monday when asked about the report, while critiquing LELDF for publishing the report.
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“Wren has spent five years proudly working with prosecutors and law enforcement on policies that reduce crime and improve community safety. I have not seen the report, but Wren’s work is no secret and they could have just gone to our website, which makes clear what we do. Our team is also regularly quoted in major media outlets about our work. It is strange that, when there are major mental health challenges in law enforcement and a recruitment crisis, this organization wants to focus on Wren and what LEDLF surely knows is common practice – among conservative and progressive organizations alike who work with these offices – rather than how to help officers,” she said.
Loudoun County Commonwealth’s Attorney Buta Biberaj (Loudoun.gov)
On crisis communications, the Wren Collective allegedly helped shape former Loudon County, Virginia, Commonwealth Attorney Buta Biberaj’s handling of the high-profile sexual assault case on a female student in an Ashburn high school by a biological male student. The case became national news in 2021 when the girl’s father, Scott Smith, railed against the school’s failure to protect his daughter during a school board meeting and was subsequently seen in viral footage dragged out of the meeting by law enforcement officials.
A Circuit Court judge booted Biberaj from an appeal case stemming from Smith’s arrest due to “concerns” over “impartiality” in September 2022, with the Wren Collective swooping in to assist Biberaj with communication strategy shortly after, documents included in the report allege.
“I hope you’re doing okay,” a Wren Collective staffer wrote in an email on Sept. 19, 2022, and addressed directly to Biberaj, the LELDF report found. “We saw the news around the Scott Smith case and were wondering if you would like some communication support? Please let us know if there is anything we can do to help you at this time.”
Biberaj agreed, according to the report, and set up a time to talk with the group. The prosecutor, whose campaign was backed by a PAC funded by liberal donor George Soros, lost her 2023 re-election effort to Republican Bob Anderson.
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Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza poses in front of the Austin skyline in a portrait from the county website. Garza has faced criticism for accusations that he aggressively prosecutes police officers accused of wrongdoing while going easy on career criminals. (Travis County DA Website)
In another jurisdiction, the LELDF report found that Travis County, Texas, District Attorney Jose Garza’s office entered a non-disclosure agreement with the Wren Collective’s Jessica Brand in 2022, according to a copy of the document reviewed by Fox Digital and included in the report.
Garza is another Soros-backed DA who has repeatedly come under fire from conservatives and police officers for alleged soft on crime policies, including an alleged “war on cops” that hit a fever pitch last year when an Austin officer was sentenced to two years in prison after fatally shooting a man wielding a knife in 2019.
“This document is executed between the Wren Collective and the Travis County District Attorney’s Office. The Wren Collective, an organization fiscally sponsored by the Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs (SEE), contracts with the Travis County District Attorney’s Office to provide policy and communications support for the office for a one year period,” reads the document, which was signed by Brand and one of Garza’s deputies.
“Any information or materials involved in the professional engagement between these parties is confidential, and may not be disclosed by Wren to any third party without the office’s permission. Wren agrees to keep all materials provided by the office secure. Wren also acknowledges that, as a consultant of the office, it is governed by the same ethical and professional responsibility rules as is the office,” the NDA continued.
Later that year, Brand reportedly led Garza’s preparation for a CNN interview, according to email records reported in the report.
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The Wren Collective has also taken a role in the campaigns of certain progressive prosecutors and their allied political action committees, which are often tasked with fundraising and reaching out to donors to solicit, either directly or indirectly, large campaign contributions on behalf of certain campaigns.
The report alleges that the group also serves as a campaign consultant for the prosecutors and their allied PACs, including helping provide candidates with “public and media communications,” such as press releases, op-eds, and interviews.
Fox News Digital reached out to Garza’s office, as well as contacted Biberaj, Schmidt and Boudin in their post-DA roles.
The report concluded that many of the newly minted DAs enter their roles green and are in need of guidance when Wren staffers lend their expertise – but the advice is more than just broad suggestions.
“Those neophytes – who have never been prosecutors or run an organization before winning their races – turn to outside groups for guidance, including many of the same groups that funded their campaigns,” the report found.
Fox News Digital’s Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.
Politics
Pope Leo sends unmistakable message on immigrants during visit honoring America’s first saint
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Pope Leo XIV used a visit Saturday honoring St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first American saint and patron saint of immigrants, to deliver his latest appeal on behalf of them, asking Catholics to look to her example at a time when migration remains one of the defining issues of his emerging papacy.
The remarks came as Leo continues to make migration a central focus of his public ministry, a position that has sparked months of public friction with President Donald Trump over immigration and foreign policy.
“What could be more relevant today than a missionary charism dedicated to serving migrants?” Leo said during an evening prayer service in Sant’Angelo Lodigiano, the northern Italian town where Cabrini was born.
The American-born pope prayed at Cabrini’s tomb and urged young Catholics to learn from the saint’s life of serving immigrants, many of whom had left their homelands in search of better opportunities.
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Pope Leo XIV presides over a celebration at the parish of Santi Antonio Abate e Francesca Cabrini in Sant’Angelo Lodigiano, Italy, Saturday. The visit was part of his pastoral journey to nearby Pavia and marked the birthplace of Francesca Cabrini, the first U.S. saint and Patroness of Migrants. (Mario Tomassetti/Vatican Media)
But Leo also invoked his predecessor, Pope Francis, whose own papacy was defined in part by calls to welcome migrants.
“Let us ask ourselves: if Mother Francesca were alive today, what would her missionary spirit tell her?” Leo said. “And what would a pope like Francis — who, as the son of Italian immigrants, made service to migrants one of the key priorities of his pontificate — ask of her?”
The comments are the latest in a series of migration-focused appearances that have helped define Leo’s first year as pope.
POPE LEO APPOINTS PRO-IMMIGRATION BISHOP TO DIOCESE HOME TO TRUMP’S MAR-A-LAGO
Pope Leo XIV greets faithful as he leaves the parish of Santi Antonio Abate e Francesca Cabrini in Sant’Angelo Lodigiano, Italy, Saturday. (Mario Tomassetti/Vatican Media)
Last week, Leo traveled to Spain’s Canary Islands, a major destination for migrants departing West Africa, where he met migrants and called for greater efforts to welcome and integrate people fleeing hardship and conflict.
During that trip, Leo urged world leaders to create “legal and safe pathways” for migration and warned against reducing migrants to statistics.
Leo’s migration advocacy has frequently drawn criticism from Trump, who has accused the pontiff of venturing into politics and sharply disagreed with some of his comments on immigration and foreign affairs.
The public disagreements have become one of the most closely watched relationships between the Vatican and Washington during Leo’s papacy.
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Pope Leo XIV presides over a celebration at the parish of Santi Antonio Abate e Francesca Cabrini in Sant’Angelo Lodigiano, Italy, Saturday, during his pastoral journey to nearby Pavia. (Mario Tomassetti/Vatican Media)
Earlier this year, Reuters reported that Secretary of State Marco Rubio was expected to meet with Vatican officials and Italian leaders during a period of heightened tensions between the Holy See and the Trump administration.
Leo has rejected suggestions that his remarks are political attacks, arguing instead that his appeals stem from Catholic teaching on human dignity, peace and care for vulnerable people.
Saturday’s visit centered on Cabrini, who became a naturalized U.S. citizen and spent decades serving Italian immigrants through schools, hospitals and orphanages before her death in Chicago in 1917.
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Pope Leo XIV holds a private audience with Vice President J.D. Vance at the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City, May 19, 2025. (Simone Risoluti/Vatican Media)
The Vatican has also announced that Leo will travel to the Italian island of Lampedusa on July 4, a date likely to draw attention in the United States given the pope’s American roots.
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Lampedusa has become one of Europe’s most recognizable migration flashpoints because of the thousands of migrants who attempt dangerous crossings from North Africa each year. The island also carries symbolic importance within the Catholic Church because it was the destination of Pope Francis’ first trip outside Rome after becoming pope in 2013.
Fox News Digital’s Eric Mack and Robert McGreevy, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
For UFC boss Dana White, heavyweight Josh Hokit’s post-fight behavior at UFC Freedom 250 on Sunday crossed a line.
On Monday, the mixed martial arts promotion’s president and chief executive told Time reporter Sean Gregory via text he is “completely against saying nasty and false things about people’s families” in reference to Hokit’s tasteless comment about Michelle Obama. During the White House spectacle in front of President Trump and others, Hokit was interviewed after his technical-knockout victory over Derrick Lewis and propped up a false conspiracy about the former first lady, declaring “Michelle Obama is a man.”
Hokit, who has a history of making tasteless comments after his fights, including the same Obama jab, drew mixed reaction from the UFC Freedom 250 crowd — and also from social media users, with some repeating the false claim in the comments on Hokit’s Instagram page and others chiding it. White, who has panned Hokit’s remarks in the past, did so again.
“Everyone knows my position on free speech but I hate that kind of nonsense,” White’s text added.
Hokit insulted Obama months after Trump faced backlash in February for a racist social media video that depicted President Obama and the former first lady as apes. Amid mounting public criticism, the White House took down the video and blamed an unnamed aide.
Michelle Obama, clearly on Hokit’s mind on Sunday, was busy with other matters over the weekend: preparing with her husband to open their Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. The museum and library hosts its grand opening Thursday and will be open to the public Friday.
Times staff writer Ana Ceballos contributed to this report.
Politics
Trump says Iran missiles ‘aren’t the problem’ after White House made them central to war rationale
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For months, senior Trump administration officials argued that Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal helped shield Tehran’s nuclear ambitions and was a key reason the U.S. launched Operation Epic Fury attacks on the country.
Now, President Donald Trump is suggesting Iran having missiles may not be a problem at all.
“If other countries have them, it’s a little bit unfair for them not to have some. If Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and they all have some, I would say that in relative proportion, I think it’s okay,” Trump said at the G7 international forum Wednesday. “Am I going to let Saudi Arabia have missiles, but (Iran) can’t have them? It doesn’t work that way.”
“Missiles aren’t the problem. They hurt a little location, but they don’t blow up the planet.”
“The Gulf nations will address the nonnuclear issues, as we’ll be talking about the ballistic missiles,” the president added. “And we’ll talk, also, about the terrorist proxies that they have that — we don’t want that to happen.”
A map displays the range of ballistic missiles fired from Iran, highlighting areas within reach. (Fox News)
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Trump made the remarks while discussing whether Iran should be permitted to retain missile capabilities in a news conference at the G7 in Évian-les-Bains, France, just as details of the memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran were being released.
The comments strike a much different tone than arguments repeatedly made by senior administration officials in recent months, who described Iran’s ballistic missile force as both a major threat to regional security and a protective shield for Iran’s nuclear program.
“Iran can never have a nuclear weapon, and we will not allow Iran to hide behind the immunity of a massive short-term ballistic missile inventory, or the ability to make them or launch them,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in a press conference March 3. “What they are trying to do, and have been trying to do for a very long time, is build a conventional weapons capability as a shield to hide behind.”
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Other senior officials repeatedly described degrading Iran’s missile capabilities as a central objective of Operation Epic Fury.
In remarks at the White House on March 2, days after the start of the operation, Trump said, “Our objectives are clear. First, we’re destroying Iran’s missile capabilities … and their capacity to produce brand new ones.”
War Secretary Pete Hegseth later said March 4 the mission was “laser-focused” on obliterating Iran’s missiles and the facilities that produce them, while White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the same day one of the administration’s primary goals was to “destroy the regime’s deadly ballistic missiles and completely raze their missile industry to the ground.”
Heavy weapons, including ballistic missiles, air defense systems and unmanned aerial vehicles, are displayed during the 44th anniversary of the eight-year war with Iraq, known as Holy Defense Week, at Baharestan Square in Tehran, Iran, on Sept. 25, 2024. (Photo by Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Rubio repeatedly returned to the theme throughout the operation, arguing that degrading Iran’s missile force was necessary to prevent Iran from using conventional military power as cover for a future nuclear weapons program.
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“This is about very specific objectives,” Rubio told reporters on March 30. “The President laid them out on the first night of the operation… Here they are — you should write them down. Number one, the destruction of their air force. Number two, the destruction of their navy. Number three, the severe diminishing of their missile launching capability. And number four, the destruction of their factories so they can’t make more missiles and more drones to threaten us in the future. All of this so that they can never hide behind it to acquire a nuclear weapon. That was our objective from the beginning; that remains our objective now.”
Leavitt made similar comments the same day, saying the objectives of Operation Epic Fury included “destroying their ballistic missiles” and dismantling the infrastructure used to produce them while ensuring Iran never obtains a nuclear weapon.
Trump’s remarks at the G7 also raised questions about the administration’s approach to Iran’s nuclear program, another issue that administration officials had previously described in far less flexible terms.
Trump’s comments also come as the administration pursues a memorandum of understanding with Iran that leaves unresolved one of the central disputes in the nuclear negotiations: the future of Tehran’s enrichment program.
Under the framework agreement unveiled this week, the United States and Iran agreed to spend 60 days negotiating the fate of Iran’s nearly 900-pound stockpile of near-weapons-grade 60% enriched uranium and any future enrichment activities. Administration officials said the minimum outcome under discussion would involve down-blending the material under International Atomic Energy Agency supervision, while acknowledging that key details of a final agreement remain unsettled.
Officials described Iran’s willingness to dilute its stockpile as a significant concession, but also acknowledged that the memorandum does not resolve whether Iran will ultimately be permitted to retain any enrichment capability.
TRUMP REAFFIRMS HARD LINE ON IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL: ‘WILL NOT ALLOW ANY ENRICHMENT OF URANIUM’
President Donald Trump arrives for a gala dinner at the Versailles Palace in Versailles, France. (Nathan Laine/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Trump appeared to strike a more accommodating tone when discussing Iran’s access to nuclear power at the G7.
“It is a little hard, though, when you say that somebody wants it, other people have it, other, adjoining states have it. And you’re not letting them have it for purposes of electricity and things like that,” Trump said. “It’s always a little tough. You have to use a little common sense.”
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The administration had previously drawn a much harder line on Iran’s nuclear program. Special envoy Steve Witkoff said the United States could not allow Iran to retain “even 1 percent” enrichment capability, while White House officials repeatedly described the end of Iranian enrichment as a red line.
The White House referred back to Trump’s recent remarks on missiles when asked for additional comment. “
“We are going to let the President’s comments stand,” a State Department spokesperson said when asked for comment.
The Pentagon could not immediately be reached for comment.
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