How progressive prosecutors outsource justice to secretive consulting firm

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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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.

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 that 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.

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” back in September of 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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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 back 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,” the document reads, 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.