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
Trump backs ICE raid tactics, says they ‘haven’t gone far enough’
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President Donald Trump said he believes U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids “haven’t gone far enough” when asked about the federal agency’s tactics that have sparked protests and lawsuits.
Trump sat down for a “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday with CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell, who asked the president about videos of an ICE agent shoving a woman to the floor at an immigration courthouse, federal agents deploying tear gas in Chicago’s Irving Park neighborhood and smashing car windows.
“Have some of these raids gone too far?” O’Donnell asked.
“No. I think they haven’t gone far enough because we’ve been held back by the – by the judges, by the liberal judges that were put in by Biden and by Obama,” Trump replied.
Protests and confrontations between immigration rights supporters and law enforcement are seen taking place in Paramount, California, and downtown Los Angeles, on June 7, 2025, following recent raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Department of Homeland Security agents. (Taurat Hossain/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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“You’re OK with those tactics?” O’Donnell pressed.
“Yeah, because you have to get the people out. You know, you have to look at the people. Many of them are murderers. Many of them are people that were thrown outta their countries because they were, you know, criminals. Many of them are people from jails and prisons. Many of them are people from frankly mental institutions,” he claimed. “I feel badly about that, but they’re released from insane asylums. You know why? Because they’re killers.”
The Trump administration has carried out immigration raids on major American cities to carry out Trump’s campaign promise of mass deportations.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents conduct an arrest in Chicago, Illinois, on January 26, 2025. (Immigration and Customs Enforcement/Handout via REUTERS)
The White House has repeatedly said federal agents are targeting criminal illegal migrants who are the “worst of the worst.”
Fox News previously reported on a leadership shakeup at ICE amid growing friction with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over deportation tactics and priorities.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, senior adviser Corey Lewandowski and Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino have pushed for a broader and more aggressive immigration enforcement approach, targeting anyone in the U.S. illegally to boost deportation numbers.
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Bovino and other DHS and ICE officials were named in a civil rights lawsuit filed in the Northern District of Illinois in early October and accused of using unlawful force to suppress peaceful protests and press activity around the Broadview ICE facility in Illinois.
It was filed by a coalition of journalists, media organizations and individual protesters.
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Trump told CBS News he believes his immigration mission will be complete once “many” of roughly 25 million people are deported.
“Well, it takes a long time, because, you know, probably I say 25 million people were let into our country. A lotta people say it was 10 million people. But whether it was ten or – I believe I’m much closer to the right number,” he said. “Of the 25, many of them should not be here. Many of them.”
Politics
Both sides say democracy is at stake with Prop. 50 — but for very different reasons
														
If the ads are any indication, Proposition 50 offers Californians a stark choice: “Stick it to Trump” or “throw away the constitution” in a Democratic power grab.
And like so many things in 2025, Trump appears to be the galvanizing issue.
Even by the incendiary campaigns California is used to, Proposition 50 has been notable for its sharp attacks to cut through the dense, esoteric issue of congressional redistricting. It comes down to a basic fact: this is a Democratic-led measure to reconfigure California’s congressional districts to help their party win control of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2026 and stifle President Trump’s attempts to keep Republicans in power through similar means in other states.
Thus far, the anti-Trump message preached by Proposition 50 advocates, led by Gov. Gavin Newsom and other top Democrats, appears to be the most effective.
Supporters of the proposal have vastly outraised their rivals and Proposition 50, one of the most expensive ballot measure campaigns in state history, leads in the polls.
“Whenever you can take an issue and personalize it, you have the advantage. In this case, proponents of 50 can make it all about stopping Donald Trump,” said former legislative leader and state GOP Chair Jim Brulte.
Adding to the drama is the role of two political and cultural icons who have emerged as leaders of each side: former President Obama in favor and former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger against, both arguing the very essence of democracy is at stake.
Schwarzenegger and the two main committees opposing Proposition 50 have focused on the ethical and moral imperative of preserving the independent redistricting commission. Californians in 2010 voted to create the panel to draw the state’s congressional district boundaries after every census in an effort to provide fair representation to all state residents.
That’s not a political ideal easily explained in a 30-section television ad, or an Instagram post.
Redistricting is a “complex issue,” Brulte said, but he noted that “the no side has the burden of trying to explain what the initiative really does and the yes side gets to use the crib notes [that] this is about stopping Trump — a much easier path.”
Partisans on both sides of the aisle agree.
“The yes side quickly leveraged anti-Trump messaging and has been closing with direct base appeals to lock in the lead,” said Jamie Fisfis, a political strategist who has worked on many GOP congressional campaigns in California. “The partisanship and high awareness behind the measure meant it was unlikely to sag under the weight of negative advertising like other initiatives often do. It’s been a turnout game.”
Obama, in ads that aired during the World Series and NFL games, warned that “Democracy is on the ballot Nov. 4” as he urged voters to support Proposition 50. Ads for the most well-funded committee opposing the proposition featured Schwarzenegger saying that opposing the ballot measure was critical to ensuring that citizens are not overrun by elected officials.
“The Constitution does not start with ‘We, the politicians.’ It starts with ‘We, the people,’” Schwarzenegger told USC students in mid-September — a speech excerpted in an anti-Proposition 50 ad. “Democracy — we’ve got to protect it, and we’ve got to go and fight for it.”
California’s Democratic-led Legislature voted in August to put the redistricting proposal that would likely boost their ranks in Congress on the November ballot. The measure, pushed by Newsom, was an effort to counter Trump’s efforts to increase the number of GOP members in the House from Texas and other GOP-led states.
The GOP holds a narrow edge in the House, and next year’s election will determine which party controls the body during Trump’s final two years in office — and whether he can further his agenda or is the focus of investigations and possible impeachment.
Noticeably absent for California’s Proposition 50 fight is the person who triggered it — Trump.
The proposition’s opponents’ decision not to highlight Trump is unsurprising given the president’s deep unpopularity among Californians. More than two-thirds of the state’s likely voters did not approve of his handling of the presidency in late October, according to a Public Policy Institute of California poll.
Trump did, however, urge California voter not to cast mail-in ballots or vote early, falsely arguing in a social media post that both voting methods were “dishonest.”
Some California GOP leaders feared that Trump’s pronouncement would suppress the Republican vote.
In recent days, the California Republican Party sent mailers to registered Republicans shaming them for not voting. “Your neighbors are watching,” the mailer says, featuring a picture of a woman peering through binoculars. “Don’t let your neighbors down. They’ll find out!”
Tuesday’s election will cost state taxpayers nearly $300 million. And it’s unclear if the result will make a difference in control of the House because of multiple redistricting efforts in other states.
But some Democrats are torn about the amount of money being spent on an effort that may not alter the partisan makeup of Congress.
Johanna Moska, who worked in the Obama administration, described Proposition 50 as “frustrating.”
“I just wish we were spending money to rectify the state’s problems, if we figured out a way the state could be affordable for people,” she said. “Gavin’s found what’s working for Gavin. And that’s resistance to Trump.”
Newsom’s efforts opposing Trump are viewed as a foundational argument if he runs for president in 2028, which he has acknowledged pondering.
Proposition 50 also became a platform for other politicians potentially eyeing a 2026 run for California governor, Sen. Alex Padilla and billionaires Rick Caruso and Tom Steyer.
The field is in flux, with no clear front-runner.
Padilla being thrown to the ground in Los Angeles as he tried to ask Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem about the Trump administration’s immigration policies is prominently featured in television ads promoting Proposition 50. Steyer, a longtime Democratic donor who briefly ran for president in 2020, raised eyebrows by being the only speaker in his second television ad. Caruso, who unsuccessfully ran against Karen Bass in the 2022 Los Angeles mayoral race and is reportedly considering another political campaign, recently sent voters glossy mailers supporting Proposition 50.
Steyer committed $12 million to support Proposition 50. His initial ad, which shows a Trump impersonator growing increasingly irate as news reports showing the ballot measure passing, first aired during “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Steyer’s second ad fully focused on him, raising speculation about a potential gubernatorial run next year.
Ads opposing the proposition aired less frequently before disappearing from television altogether in recent days.
“The yes side had the advantage of casting the question for voters as a referendum on Trump,” said Rob Stutzman, a GOP strategist who worked for Schwarzenegger but is not involved with any of the Proposition 50 campaigns. “Asking people to rally to the polls to save a government commission — it’s not a rallying call.”
Politics
Trump admin responds to ‘Dilbert’ creator’s plea to ‘help save my life’ by expediting cancer treatment
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Cartoonist Scott Adams said in a social media post Sunday that he plans to appeal to President Donald Trump for help scheduling a cancer drug treatment that he believes could prolong his life.
Adams, the creator of the “Dilbert” comic strip, announced earlier this year that he had metastasized prostate cancer.
He wrote in a post on X that his healthcare provider, Kaiser Permanente – Northern California, approved his application to receive a new FDA-approved drug Pluvicto.
“But they have dropped the ball in scheduling the brief IV to administer it and I can’t seem to fix that. I am declining fast,” Adams wrote.
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Scott Adams, cartoonist and author and creator of “Dilbert,” poses for a portrait in his home office with copies of his book “How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life.” (Lea Suzuki/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
“I will ask President Trump if he can get Kaiser of Northern California to respond and schedule it for Monday. That will give me a fighting chance to stick around on this planet a little bit longer. It is not a cure, but it does give good results to many people.”
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. responded to Adams’ viral post, asking how to reach him.
“The President wants to help,” RFK Jr. wrote.

Robert F. Kennedy delivered a fiery speech to WHO member states over the U.S.’s withdrawal (Jason Mendez/Getty Images)
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Dan Scavino, White House deputy chief of staff and head of personnel, also responded to Adams, saying, “No need till [sic] wait until Monday—@realDonaldTrump, @RobertKennedyJr, and @DrOz are all tracking now, Scott.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Kaiser and the White House for comment.
Adams said in a video posted to his YouTube channel in May that he is in pain every day and has been using a walker for months.
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“If you’re wondering if I’ll get better, the answer is no, it will only get worse,” he said on his “Real Coffee with Scott Adams” show. “There’s only one direction this goes.”
Roughly 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime, according to the American Cancer Society. Prostate cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death among American men, after lung cancer.
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